Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
146 lines (96 loc) · 11.2 KB

receivables-collect-outstanding-balances.md

File metadata and controls

146 lines (96 loc) · 11.2 KB
Raw
title description author ms.author ms.reviewer ms.topic ms.search.keywords ms.search.form ms.date ms.service ms.custom
Collect outstanding balances
Learn how to remind your customers of outstanding payments. Send a customer statement, issue a reminder, or send a finance charge memo.
brentholtorf
bholtorf
bholtorf
how-to
payment due, debt, overdue, fee, charge, reminder
6, 25, 440, 443, 448, 452
08/26/2024
dynamics-365-business-central
bap-template

Collect outstanding balances

This article describes features that can help you collect outstanding balances from your customers.

When customer payments are registered and reconciled, the collections process often involves one or more of the following steps to collect outstanding balances. Depending on the way you handle collections in your business, [!INCLUDE prod_short] can help you:

  • Send statements to inform customers about their balances, overdue balances, and the relevant transactions. For example, either open entries or all entries posted in last year/quarter/month or other period. If customers have overdue payments, you can begin by sending the Customer Statement report as a reminder. To learn more, go to Statements.
  • Send reminders (also known as dunning letters or payment requests) to customers to inform them of overdue balances. The reminder can include both overdue and open entries, so the customer is also aware of upcoming due dates. You can also use reminders to calculate finance charges, such as interest or fees and include them on the reminder. You can automate the processes for creating, issuing, and posting reminders. To learn more, go to Reminders.
  • Send finance charge memos to claim interest fees for overdue amounts. Use finance charge memos if you want to debit customers for interest or fees without reminding them of overdue amounts. To learn more, go to Finance Charges.
  • Communicate with customers over the phone or by e-mail regarding overdue balances and manage potential misunderstandings and disputes, or simply to remind customers to balance their accounts in a more direct manner. To learn more, go to Use Copilot for Finance in Outlook to streamline manual collections work.

Use Copilot for Finance in Outlook to streamline manual collections work

Note

Copilot for Finance is currently in preview and available in the United States. It's planned to become generally available in the second half of 2024, at which point pricing information is expected to be published.

When you're communicating with customers via e-mail about outstanding balances, chances are you need to look up customer and invoice related information in [!INCLUDE prod_short]. Copilot for Finance makes this task easier by ensuring that relevant customer data is on hand in Outlook. For example, for an email you received, Copilot for Finance can find the customer through the linked contact and display aged balance information and list outstanding invoices that you can easily attach to a reply. Copilot for Finance in Outlook also lets you:

  • Access and update the Dispute Status and Promise to Pay date on invoices
  • Update contact information
  • Draft e-mail replies with Copilot
  • Attach a statement and invoices directly from Outlook.

To learn more, go to Copilot for Finance and Deployment Guide for Copilot for Finance (preview).

Statements

From the customer card, you can create a statement for customer's transactions with you. Then, you can generate a PDF file and send it to the customer. Alternatively, use the Customer Statement report to send your customers an overview of their business with you.

Tip

If needed, you can send the statement to Excel to make changes.

To send the Customer Statement report

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature 10. icon, enter Customer Statement, and then choose the related link.
  2. Fill in the fields as necessary. [!INCLUDEtooltip-inline-tip]
  3. Under Output Options, select how to send the report to the customer.

Note

If you're using multiple currencies, the Customer Statement report is always printed in the customer's currency. The last date in a statement period is also used as the statement date and the aging date, if aging is included.

Reminders

[!INCLUDE receivables-reminders]

Finance charges

When a customer doesn't pay by the due date, you can have finance charges calculated automatically and add them to the overdue amounts on the customer's account. You can inform customers of the added charges by sending finance charge memos.

Note

You use finance charge memos to calculate interest and finance charges and to inform your customers about interest and finance charges without reminding them of overdue payments. Alternatively, you can calculate interest on overdue payments when you create reminders.

Before you can create finance charge memos, you must set up terms. For more information, see Set Up Finance Charge Terms.

You can manually create a finance charge memo for an individual customer, and fill in the lines automatically. Alternatively, you can use the Create Finance Charge Memos action to create finance charge memos for all or selected customers with overdue balances.

After you create the finance charge memos, you can modify them. The text that appears at the beginning and end of the finance charge memo is determined by the finance charge terms, and can be seen in the Description column on the lines. If a calculated amount is added automatically in the beginning or ending text, the text won't be adjusted if you delete lines. Then you must use the Update Finance Charge Text action.

After you have created finance charge memos and made any needed modifications, you can either print test reports or issue the finance charge memos, typically as email.

To create a finance charge memo manually

A finance charge memo is similar to an invoice. You can fill in a header manually and have the lines filled in for you, or you can create finance charge memos for all customers automatically.

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature 2. icon, enter Finance Charge Memos, and then choose the related link.

  2. Choose the New action, and then fill in the fields as necessary.

  3. Choose Suggest Fin. Charge Memo Lines action.

  4. On the Suggest Finance Charge Memo Lines page, set a filter on the Cust. Ledger Entry FastTab if you want to create finance charge memos only for specific entries.

    [!NOTE] Although they're listed, selecting Payment and Credit Memo as Document Type filters won't have an effect because the Suggest Finance Charge Memo Lines action only handles positive amounts.

  5. Choose the OK button to start the batch job.

To update finance charge memo texts

In some cases, you might want to modify the beginning and ending text for the finance charge terms. If you do this at a time when you have created, but not yet issued, finance charge memos, you can update the memos with the modified text.

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature 3. icon, enter Finance Charge Memo, and then choose the related link.
  2. Open the finance charge memo that you want to change text for, and then choose the Update Finance Charge Text action.
  3. On the Update Finance Charge Text page, you can set a filter if you want to update several memos.
  4. Choose the OK button to update the beginning and ending texts.

To issue finance charge memos

After you create finance charge memos and make any needed modifications, you can either print test reports or issue the finance charge memos.

When you issue a reminder, the entries post according to your specifications on the Finance Charge Terms page. This specification determines whether interest and/or additional fees post to the customer's account and the general ledger. Settings on the Customer Posting Groups page determine the accounts that interest or fees post to.

For each customer ledger entry on the finance charge memo, an entry is created on the Reminder/Fin. Charge Entries page.

If the Post Interest or the Post Additional Fee checkboxes are selected on the Finance Charge Terms page, the following entries are also created:

  • One entry on the Cust. Ledger Entries page
  • One receivables entry in the relevant G/L account
  • One interest and/or one additional fee entry in the relevant G/L account

Also, issuing the finance charge memo might result in VAT entries.

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature 4. icon, enter Finance Charge Memos, and then choose the related link.
  2. Select the relevant memo, and then choose the Issue action.
  3. On the Issue Finance Charge Memos page, fill in the fields as necessary.
  4. Choose the OK button.

The finance charge memo is either printed for sent to a specified email as a PDF attachment.

To cancel an issued finance charge memo

If finance charge memos were issued in error, you can cancel them before they're sent out. You can do this either one by one or as a batch.

  1. On the Issued Finance Charge Memos page, select one or more lines for issued finance charge memos that you want to cancel, and then choose the Cancel action.
  2. On the Cancel Issued Fin. Charge Memos page, fill in the fields as necessary, and then choose the OK button.

To view reminder and finance charge entries

When you issue a reminder, a reminder entry is created on the Reminder/Fin. Charge Entries page for each reminder line that contains a customer ledger entry. You can then get an overview of the created reminder entries for a specific customer.

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature 5. icon, enter Customers, and then choose the related link.
  2. Open the relevant customer card, and then choose the Ledger Entries action.
  3. On the Customer Ledger Entries page, select the line with the ledger entry you want to see the reminder entries for, and then choose the Reminder/Fin. Charge Entries action.

Multiple interest rates

[!INCLUDE multiple-interest-rates-def] To learn more, go to Set Up Multiple Interest Rates.

See also

Set Up Reminder Terms and Levels
Set Up Finance Charge Terms
Managing Receivables
Sales
[Work with [!INCLUDEprod_short]](ui-work-product.md)

[!INCLUDEfooter-include]