Work past-due accounts in Collections

Collections lists every customer who owes you money past its due date, with the follow-up history you need to chase it. A customer appears when it has an open or partially paid invoice or pro forma invoice, in your company currency, that still has a balance after its due date.

Work the Collections queue

Open Billing → Accounts Receivable → Collections, or select View all in Collections under Needs attention on the Billing Overview. Customers who owe the most past due are listed first.

Each row shows:

• CUSTOMER and how many open documents are past due. Select the name to open the customer’s Billing tab.
• PAST DUE, the amount overdue, and OLDEST, the age in days of the most overdue document.
• LAST CONTACT, the date and kind of the latest logged activity.
• PROMISE, an open promise to pay with its amount and date. A missed promise shows Broken.
• NEXT ACTION and OWNER, taken from the latest logged activity.

Narrow the list with Promise Due (a promise due today, or broken) or No Contact (nothing logged within your follow-up window). Use Filters to choose an owner, or Search customer… to find one by name. The toolbar’s Past Due total covers every customer the current filters keep.

Automatic payment reminders aren’t in use, so REMINDER reads Off and Reminder Due shows no customers.

To work a customer:

1. Select the customer’s row. A panel opens with the amount past due, the oldest document, any promise, and the past-due documents.
2. Select a document to open it, or review Recent activity, which shows the five latest entries.
3. Select Log activity to record the contact, Send statement to email a statement, or Receive payment to record money the customer sent. See Receive payments and apply credit.

The customer leaves the queue once nothing it owes is past due.

Log activity and follow-ups

Log every call, email, text, note, or promise to pay so the next person can see where the customer stands. Select Log activity in the Collections toolbar, in a customer’s panel, on an invoice or pro forma invoice’s Collection activity card, or in the Activity register of the customer’s Billing tab.

1. Choose the customer, if it isn’t already set.
2. Under Activity, choose Call, Email, Text, Note, or Promise to pay.
3. Set the Date (today or earlier) and the Owner.
4. For a promise, enter the Promised amount and the Promised by date.
5. Write a Summary of up to 1,000 characters.
6. Optionally link Related documents from the customer’s open invoices and pro forma invoices, and set a Next action date.
7. Select Log activity.

A promise is kept once the customer’s payments since it was made add up to the promised amount. If they don’t by the promised date, it shows Broken in Collections and on the document’s Collection activity card. Logging a newer activity for the customer replaces an open promise.

The activity also appears on the customer’s Activity tab. Choose Follow-ups there (beside All and Changes) to list only logged activity, and use Edit activity or Delete activity to correct an entry.

Send a statement, and send statements in bulk

A statement shows a customer what it owes and where to pay. To send one:

1. Select Send statement in the customer’s Collections panel, or in the Activity register of the customer’s Billing tab.
2. Choose the Format: Open items lists everything still owed, with aging; Activity lists the invoices, payments, and credits in a Period you choose, with opening and closing balances.
3. Turn on Include pro forma invoices if the statement should list them.
4. Check the Recipients, which start with the customer’s default recipients, and edit the Message.
5. Select Preview to check the statement, then Download PDF or Send. You can also select Send without previewing.

To send many at once, select Send statements in the Collections toolbar. It sends a statement to every customer in the current view, with your quick filter, owner, and search applied, each to its default recipients. Choose the format and whether to include pro forma invoices; an Activity statement covers the previous month. When it finishes, it reports how many were sent and lists any customer that failed, with the reason, such as having no recipient.

Statements print the remit-to details from your Billing settings. Drafts, void, converted, and canceled documents never appear on a statement.

Set collection and statement defaults

Administrators set these in Settings → Business → Billing:

• Collections → Follow-up due after: how many days without contact before a past-due customer counts as No Contact. The default is 7, and you can choose 1 to 90.
• Customer statements → Statement format: Open items (the default) or Activity in period. This is the starting format when you send a statement.
• Customer statements → Monthly statements: emails every customer with an open balance a statement each month. It is off by default. Monthly Activity statements cover the previous calendar month.
• Customer statements → Day of month: the day monthly statements go out, from 1 to 28 so every month has it. Only that day sends; turning the setting on after this month’s day means the first statements go out next month.
• Customer statements → Include pro forma invoices: whether statements list unpaid pro forma invoices, including the starting choice when you send one. It is off by default.

Check the recipients on your customers before turning on monthly statements: a customer with no recipient is skipped.

Add remit-to and payment instructions

Settings → Business → Billing → Remit-to and payment instructions holds the payment details printed for customers:

• Pay to: the name checks are made out to and transfers are sent to.
• Bank, Routing number (ABA) (exactly nine digits), and Account number for ACH and wire payments.
• SWIFT / IBAN for customers paying from outside the US.
• Mail checks to: the address for check payments.
• Instructions: one line printed under the payment details.

Only the fields you fill in are printed. Invoice and pro forma invoice PDFs show them as Payment instructions, and statements show them under Remit to.

After you save the account number, the settings page shows only its last four digits, but documents and statements print it in full. Confirm every value before sending documents: customers pay to whatever is printed.