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Payment Reminders (Dunning)

Dunning sends customers reminders about overdue invoices, climbing a ladder of levels you define: a friendly reminder, a second reminder, a final notice. You preview who would be reminded about what before anything is sent, and every reminder is kept with its outcome.

Where to find it

Admin Panel → Receivables:

  • Receivables — the Dunning tab: preview and send reminders, see reminders sent, and edit the reminder levels

Architect Panel → ERP - Sales:

  • Dunning Levels — the levels as a datastore
  • Dunning Notices — every reminder produced; the badge counts reminders that failed to send

The reminder ladder

Three example levels ship: Friendly reminder at 7 days overdue, Second reminder at 21 days and Final notice at 45 days. They are set to record only, so nothing is sent until you choose how each level goes out. The shipped ladder is shared by every company; a company can have its own.

Edit a level under Reminder levels on the Dunning tab:

  • Level number (1 to 9) and Name.
  • Days overdue: how late an invoice must be to reach this level.
  • Minimum overdue: a customer whose overdue total is below this is not reminded at this level.
  • Fee and Fee income account: a charge raised on the customer's account with the reminder. A fee needs the account.
  • Send by: E-mail, Letter, E-mail and letter, or Record only (print it yourself).
  • From mail account: required for e-mail; the system never guesses one. Letter account: a letter provider set up in Messaging (see Letters & Physical Mail); without one, letters are prepared for printing.
  • Subject and Message: placeholders include {customer_name}, {customer_code}, {company_name}, {total_overdue}, {currency}, {level}, {as_of}, {fee} and {items_table}, which lists the overdue invoices.
  • Level is in use: untick to stop using a level without deleting it.

Saving a level for a company that is still using the shared ladder first copies the whole shared ladder to that company, so changing one step does not drop the others. Changing the shared ladder itself is for ERP administrators.

Running reminders

  1. Open the Dunning tab, choose the company and the Overdue as at date, and press Preview the run.
  2. The preview lists each customer due a reminder: the level, how it will be sent, their billing e-mail, the overdue total, any fee, and each invoice with its days overdue. Customers left out are listed under Not reminded with the reason.
  3. Untick any customer you do not want to remind today.
  4. Press Send the reminders and confirm. E-mails and letters go out and fees are posted; this cannot be undone.

The result says how many were sent, prepared for printing and failed. Reminders sent lists every notice with its level, channel, recipient, total, fee and status, with a printable letter for each.

The rules the run follows

  • One level at a time: an invoice moves up at most one level per run, and not before the gap between levels has passed since its last reminder.
  • Excluded customers: a customer with Never send payment reminders ticked is skipped. Use it for a dispute or a payment plan.
  • One fee per level: a level's fee is not charged again while an earlier fee at that level or above is still live for items still open.
  • Fees do not escalate: a reminder fee appears on the next reminder as money owed, but never climbs the ladder itself.

Withdrawing a reminder

A reminder that failed, or one that was only prepared and charged no fee, can be withdrawn from Reminders sent. You are asked why, and the reason is kept.

Running it on a timer

The scheduled task Receivables: dunning run (send) runs the same reminder run daily for every company at its own levels. It ships switched off and in preview mode; switch it on only once the levels are right (see Tasks).

What goes wrong

  • "An e-mailed reminder needs the mail account it is sent from": choose a From mail account on the level.
  • "A fee needs the income account it is credited to": fill in Fee income account, using a code from the company's chart.
  • Reminders show Failed: open the notice for the error, usually a missing billing e-mail or a mail account problem, then withdraw and re-run.
  • "Sending reminders is for Accounts Receivable": sending needs ERP: Receivables (or Finance) and post access to the company.

Worked example

The UK company wants e-mail reminders with a fee on the final notice. The credit controller edits level 1, sets Send by to E-mail and the accounts mailbox as From mail account; the shared ladder is copied to the UK company. They do the same for level 2, and for level 3 add a fee of 40.00 to the other income account. Previewing as at today shows 14 customers due a reminder and one skipped because it has Never send payment reminders ticked. They untick a customer who called yesterday and send the other 13.

Recommendations

  • Preview before every run, and read the Not reminded list.
  • Write the levels in your own voice; the shipped wording is a starting point.
  • Use Never send payment reminders for disputes rather than deleting reminders.
  • Switch the task on last, after a few successful manual runs.