Set up reminder terms and levels
You can use reminders to inform customers about overdue amounts and to request payment. To manage accounts receivables, you can set up reminder terms and assign them to customers. Reminder terms let you control how the reminder process works. Each reminder term has a set of reminder levels that you define. Reminder levels include rules about when the reminder will be issued, what fees to charge, and whether to calculate interest. Reminder levels also include a grace period setting that ensures you don't send a reminder for a bill that a customer already paid.
Tip
After you set up reminder terms and levels, you can include them in automated processes for creating, issuing, and sending reminders. To learn more about the automated process, go to Automate reminders in collections.
Reminder terms
If customers have overdue payments, you must decide when and how to send a reminder. In addition, you might want to debit their accounts for interest or fees. You can set up any number of reminder terms.
Note
If you want to calculate interest on overdue payments, you can do so when you create reminders. If, however, you just want to calculate interest and inform your customers about this without sending a reminder, use a finance charge memo. For more information, see Reminders or Finance Charges.
Set up attachment and email body text for communications
On the Reminder Terms Setup page, you can set up attachment texts and standard email messages to use either for all reminder levels, or create specific messages for each level. For example, the message you send for the first reminder level might have a different tone or content than the second or third. To create attachment and email message texts for all levels, choose Customer Communication at the top of the page. To create messages for specific lines, on the Reminder Level FastTab, choose a line and then choose the Customer Communication action on the FastTab.
By default, attachment and email text use your language setting. If you issue reminders to customers in other countries, however, you might want to communicate in different languages. You can create texts for each language that Business Central supports by using the Add text for language action. If you do, ensure that the languages are the same for attachment text and email text. If they don't match, and the reminder term has more than one level, the automation might not be able to customize the message for one or more levels. To verify that the languages match, use the Overview communications action and compare the communications for the texts.
When you send an email, the reminder is a report you attach to the email. You define the report that generates the reminder on the Report Selection Reminder/Finance Charge page, where you also select the report that holds the email body text in the Email Body Layout Name field. When you send emails to your customers, the texts on the Email Text FastTab are inserted in the report selected in the Email Body Layout Name field. The standard report has a text field for this text. If you want, you can edit this report, for example, to add or remove content. Edit the layout of these reports on the Report Layouts page. To learn more about report layouts, go to Get Started Creating Report Layouts.
Note
Communicating by email directly from Business Central requires that you're set up to do that. To learn more about connecting email accounts with Business Central, go to Set up email.
Set up reminder terms
- Choose the
icon, enter Reminder Terms, and then choose the related link. - Fill in the fields as necessary. Hover over a field to read a short description.
- To use more than one combination of reminder terms, set up a code for each one.
Reminder levels
For each reminder term, you can define an unlimited number of reminder levels, though most companies use only two or three levels. The first time a reminder is created for a customer, the setting from level 1 is used. When the reminder is issued, the level number is registered on the reminder entries that are created and linked to the individual customer ledger entries. If it's necessary to remind the customer again, all reminder entries linked to open customer ledger entries are checked to locate the highest level number. The conditions from the next level number will then be used for the new reminder.
If you create more reminders than you define levels for, the conditions for the highest level are used. You can create as many reminders as are allowed by the Max. No of Reminders field in the reminder terms.
To set up reminder levels
Choose the
icon, enter Reminder Terms, and then choose the related link.On the Reminder Terms page, select the line with the terms you want to set up levels for, and then choose the Levels action.
Fill in the fields as necessary. Hover over a field to read a short description.
Tip
The setting of the Calculate Interest field determines if interest will appear on the reminder when the reminder is issued. However, the Post Interest field in the Reminder Terms page determines if the calculated interest must be posted to G/L and customer accounts.
To indicate that interest should be calculated, choose the Calculate Interest field.
Optionally, for each reminder level, specify extra fees in both local and foreign currencies. You can define many extra fees in foreign currencies for each code on the Reminder Levels page.
The extra fees can be calculated in three different ways that are defined by the value of the Add. Fee Calculation Type field.
Fixed
Fees are calculated based on the values of the Additional Fee fields on the line for the reminder level itself.
Single Dynamic
Fees are calculated based on the values of the fields on the relevant line in the Additional Fee Setup page for that reminder level.
Accumulated Dynamic
Fees are calculated based on the values of the fields on the combined lines in the Additional Fee Setup page for that reminder level.
Choose the Currencies action.
On the Currencies for Reminder Levels page, define for each reminder level code and corresponding reminder level number a currency code and an extra fee.
Note
When you create reminders in a foreign currency, the foreign currency conditions that you set up here will be used to create reminders. If there are no foreign currency reminder conditions set up, the $ reminder conditions that are set up on the Reminder Levels page will be used and then converted to the relevant currency.
For each reminder level, you can specify text that will be printed before (Beginning Text) or after (Ending Text) on the entries on the reminder.
Choose the Beginning Text or Ending Text actions respectively, and fill in the Reminder Text page.
To automatically insert related values in the reminder text, you can enter the following placeholders in the Text field.
Placeholder Value %1 Content of the Document Date field on the reminder header %2 Content of the Due Date field on the reminder header %3 Content of the Interest Rate field on the related finance charge terms %4 Content of the Remaining Amount field on the reminder header %5 Content of the Interest Amount field on the reminder header %6 Content of the Additional Fee field on the reminder header %7 The total amount of the reminder %8 Content of the Reminder Level field on the reminder header %9 Content of the Currency Code field on the reminder header %10 Content of the Posting Date field on the reminder header %11 The company name %12 Content of the Add. Fee per Line field on the reminder header For example, if you write You owe %9 %7 due on %2., the reminder contains the following text: You owe USD 1.200,50 due on 02-02-2024..
Note
Business Central calculates the due date according to the date formula that you enter. For more information, see Use Date Formulas.
To specify the language for an email message, choose the Add text for language action. The Language Code field updates to show your selection. On the Email Text FastTab, enter the content of the message in the selected language.
After you set up the reminder terms, you can assign them to customers on Customer Card pages. For more information, see Register New Customers.
See also
Collect Outstanding Balances
Send Reminders of Outstanding Balances
Set Up Finance Charge Terms
Setting Up Finance