A delivery pattern also defines the cover period pattern for payment or bill delivery. A cover period pattern specifies how payments or bills are issued, e.g., in advance, in arrears, once-off, etc. For example, the delivery pattern, 'weekly by check on Mondays', with a cover period pattern of 'in advance', indicates that each payment will be made on a Monday and will cover the week that starts on the Monday and continues to the next Sunday.
An offset typically defines the number of days in advance that a payment or bill needs to be processed in order to reach a case nominee on time. For example, check payments might be processed three days in advance so that the nominee receives the check on time. During financial component processing, the offset is used to calculate the due date of the financial component.
There are two types of offsets: the delivery method offset and the cover pattern offset. The delivery method offset allows for the time it takes to process and print certain delivery methods. For example, it may take the organization 2 days to process and print check payments. The cover period offset allows for the time it takes to deliver payments or bills by a specific delivery pattern. The cover pattern offset can be set for a delivery pattern when the selected cover pattern includes an offset. For example, Issue in advance - N days prior to issue; where N is the cover period offset that needs to be specified. For example, a two-day offset may be required for the weekly by check delivery pattern. This allows for the time it takes for a check to be sent through the mail.
If both offsets are used, they will be added together during financial component processing to calculate the due date. For example, if the delivery method, check, has an offset of 2 days and the delivery pattern, weekly by check, also has an offset of 2 days, then payments will be due 4 days in advance.