Follow-up on invoices¶

Follow-up messages can be sent to customers when payments are overdue. eYssen ERP helps identify late payments and lets you schedule and send the appropriate reminders using follow-up levels according to the number of overdue days. Reminders can be sent through several channels: email, SMS, postal letter, an online Pay Now link, and scheduled activities.

Configuration¶

Follow-up levels¶

To configure the escalation ladder, go to Accounting ‣ Configuration ‣ Follow-up Levels. Each record is a level that applies once an invoice reaches a given number of days past its due date. When several levels qualify, the highest one that the oldest overdue invoice has already reached is the one that applies.

Default follow-up levels¶

A ready-to-use ladder of seven levels is created automatically when the application is installed, so reminders can be reviewed and sent without any configuration:

Level	Due Days	Purpose (default channel: email)
Payment Due Today	0	Friendly notice that the amount falls due today. Nothing is overdue yet.
Payment Overdue	1	The due date has passed and payment has not been received.
Payment Reminder	8	Reminder that the invoice is still unpaid.
Repeated Reminder	15	Repeated reminder, as the invoice remains unpaid.
Urgent Notice	30	More insistent notice, urging immediate payment.
Warning	45	Warning before the final step.
Final / Legal Notice	60	Last step before legal recovery, marked Final / Legal Level.

Important

Every default level ships with Automatic switched off. Installing the application therefore never sends anything on its own: each reminder is only sent after someone reviews and sends it. Automatic sending starts only once an administrator enables Automatic on the individual levels that should be sent unattended (see Automatic follow-ups).

Tip

The default ladder is safe to edit or delete — an application upgrade will not restore it. On a multi-company database, add one ladder per company.

To modify a level, click the record. From the form view, set the Level Name and the number of Due Days before the reminder is sent, then choose the channels and options:

Send Email: send the reminder by email. Select a per-level Email Template; when left empty, the application’s default reminder template is used.
Send SMS: send an SMS text message, using the level’s SMS Template.
Send Letter (Post): send the reminder as a postal letter through Snailmail.
Attach Overdue Invoices: attach the customer’s overdue invoices to the email and/or letter as separate PDF files.
Show Late-payment Interest: display the informational interest and collection-fee block on this level’s reminder (see Late-payment interest (informational)).
Automatic: let the daily scheduled action send this level without manual review (see Automatic follow-ups). When disabled, the level is only ever sent after a human reviews it.
Final / Legal Level: flag the last, legal-notice level. This is informational and can be used on the reminder wording.

Note

Sending SMS messages or postal letters requires In-App Purchase (IAP) credit. Email and the online Pay Now link do not.

In the Activity section, enable Schedule Activity to automatically create an activity when the level is triggered, then set the activity type, responsible user, summary, and note.

Late-payment interest (informational)¶

To display a late-payment interest amount and, for business customers, a fixed collection fee on reminders, go to Accounting ‣ Configuration ‣ Settings and, in the Customer Invoices section, enable Late-payment Interest on Reminders:

Late-payment Interest on Reminders: turn the block on and set the annual interest rate (in %).
Collection fee (B2B): optionally add a fixed collection fee, applied only to company (business) customers.

The block is only shown on levels whose Show Late-payment Interest option is enabled.

Important

These amounts are display-only. They are computed and shown on the reminder for information, but the application never creates a journal entry — no interest or fee is posted to accounting.

Follow-up process¶

Note

Reconcile all bank transactions before starting the follow-up process to avoid sending reminders for invoices that have already been paid.

Follow-ups for one customer¶

For a detailed overview of a customer’s follow-up status, go to Accounting ‣ Customers ‣ Customers, open the customer’s form, and click the Payment Follow-up tab. The tab shows:

Follow-up Status: No Action Needed, In Need of Action, or With Overdue Invoices.
Next Follow-up Date: the throttle date before which the customer will not be dunned again; set automatically after a reminder is sent and manually adjustable.
Follow-up Responsible: the user who handles the follow-up.
Total Overdue and Total Due: the customer’s overdue and total open receivable amounts.

Click Send Reminder to open the review window, adjust the Level if needed, and click Send. The reminder covers the customer’s full overdue statement.

Note

The contact information on the customer form is used to send the reminder. A customer with no usable contact for the chosen channel is skipped and the skip is recorded.
The chatter keeps a full record of every follow-up action.

Follow-ups for several customers¶

To act on several customers at once, go to Accounting ‣ Customers ‣ Customers, switch to the list view, and select the customers requiring follow-up (filter by With Overdue Invoices to narrow the list). Then click (Actions) and select Send Payment Reminder. A review window lists one line per customer with the resolved Level; adjust if needed and click Send. Each customer receives their full overdue statement. Customers whose overdue balance nets zero or negative are skipped automatically.

Follow-ups from the overdue invoices list¶

You can also start reminders from the invoices list. Go to Accounting ‣ Customers ‣ Invoices, filter on Overdue, and select the invoices to dun. Then click (Actions) and select Send Payment Reminder. The selected invoices are grouped by customer in the review window.

Important

Unlike the customer-level entry points, a reminder started from the invoices list is scoped: it covers only the selected invoices (content, attachments, logged record, and interest), not the customer’s full statement.

Automatic follow-ups¶

A daily scheduled action (Payment Follow-up: process overdue partners) processes overdue customers automatically. By design it is generate-then-review: it only sends levels that are explicitly flagged Automatic. Levels left non-automatic are never sent by the cron and always require a manual review, so no reminder leaves the system unattended unless you opt a level in.

Follow-up letter¶

The reminder document is a plain A4 PDF letter listing the customer’s overdue invoices, the totals, the optional interest and collection-fee block, and — in the email — an online Pay Now link to the customer portal. The same content is shared between the PDF letter and the reminder email, so both always show the customer the same figures.

Follow-up log¶

Every reminder that is sent — and every skipped customer — is written to an append-only audit trail. To review it, go to Accounting ‣ Payment Follow-up ‣ Follow-up Log. Each entry records the date, customer, level, channel (email, SMS, letter, portal, activity, or skipped), the invoices covered, and a note. Log entries cannot be edited or deleted.