When a customer is late paying, a polite and accurate message usually gets things moving. Billing helps by writing that message for you from the figures it already shows. You read it, then send it yourself. This article explains where to find overdue customers and how to prepare a payment reminder.
Please note that Billing does not send messages by itself. It prepares the wording, and you send it on WhatsApp or copy it into whatever you normally use to reach the customer, such as email.
Before you start
- Your Billing profile must be allowed to send reminders. If it is not, the reminder buttons are switched off and say so.
- The customer needs open bills. Reminders are for customers only, not for suppliers.
Find the customer who owes you
- In the left menu, select Money to Collect.
- Look at the list of open bills. A chart called How old it is shows how late the unpaid balances are, grouped as Not yet due, 1–30 days, 31–60 days, 61–90 days and Over 90 days. Another, Who owes it, shows which customers owe the most.
Draft the reminder
There are three ways to start. Use whichever is quickest for you.
- From a bill: open the actions on the bill's row and choose Draft a reminder.
- From a selection: tick one or more bills that belong to the same customer, then select Draft a reminder above the list. If you tick bills from different customers, the button stays off and tells you to choose bills from one customer only.
- From the header: select Collection actions and choose Draft a reminder for followed by a customer's name. Billing offers the customer with the largest overdue amount, or the customer you have already filtered the list to. If nobody is overdue, this choice is switched off because there is nobody to remind.
A window titled Reminder for and the customer's name opens. It shows a Message that starts "Dear" and the customer's name. It states the overdue amount, how many bills it covers, the oldest bill number and its due date, and the total outstanding. It ends by asking the customer to arrange payment or tell you when to expect it.
Check and send it
- Read the message carefully. The figures come from Smart Books, as the page read them a moment ago.
- Select Send on WhatsApp to open WhatsApp with the message ready to send, or select Copy the message and paste it into an email or any other app. The button changes to Copied once it works.
- Select Close when you are done.
The text in the box is for reading and cannot be typed over. If you want to change the wording, copy it first and edit it in the app where you send it.
After the customer pays
Use Record money received, found in the same row actions and in the Collection actions menu, to record the payment. You can also open the customer's statement from Open the party statement to see everything they have bought and paid.