Manually set, define, and check customer credit limit patterns
Applies to: Dynamics 365 Finance, Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management
This article describes how to manually set and check a customer credit limit during transactions, such as when you process deliveries or invoices.
Context and problem
When your organization does business with other businesses or has frequent repeat buyers, you might extend a certain amount of credit to the customer with payment terms as part of your customer agreement. You can define credit limits for your customers and check the credit limit when you process transactions such as free text invoices, sales order invoices, or sales order packing slips, for example. Credit limits help reduce the amount of unpaid balance a customer can have with your organization at a given time.
When to use this pattern
Use this pattern when:
Your business process requires a basic warning or error message on all documents for a sales order or free text invoice.
You only have one credit limit per customer and no groups of customers have a credit limit defined.
This pattern might not be suitable:
You have multiple legal entities with the same customer in more than one legal entity that needs to share a credit limit.
You have multiple customer accounts in a single legal entity that are the same logical organization or need the same credit limit.
You use a call center to manage sales orders and are using the Credit limit page to manage customers that are exceeding their credit limit available in the Retail and commerce module.
You require more robust rules for checking credit limits. For example, checking credit limits on release to warehouse, checking on pro-forma documents, allowing days of grace for credit limit checks on certain documents.
Solution: Use basic customer credit limit checking
You can manually set credit limits on each customer account. Then, you also specify a default credit limit checking type that must be used when users post transactions. Users with the proper security can override the default credit limit checking type or manually perform a credit limit check. Also, parameters might force the system to automatically check a customer's credit limit when certain events occur.
Procedure: Set customer credit limits and define default credit limit checking options
Use the following steps to manually set a customer credit limit and define the default credit limit checking options.
Select the Allow manual editing of credit limit option on the Credit tab of the Credit and collections parameters page.
Select the default value for the Credit limit type field on the Credit tab of the Credit and collections parameters page. For more information, see Credit management parameters setup.
Set the credit limit on a customer manually. For more information, see Add credit management information for customers.
Procedure: Check customer credit limits on sales orders
Use the following steps to check a customer's credit limit on a sales order.
Select the Check credit limit on sales order option on the Credit tab of the Credit and collections parameters page.
Select the default value for the Credit limit type field on the Credit tab of the Credit and collections parameters page. For more information, see Credit management parameters setup.
Choose Warning or Error in the Message when exceeding credit limit field on the Credit tab of the Credit and collections parameters page.
Create a sales order.
Optionally, confirm the sales order. On the Confirm sales order page, optionally override the Credit limit type field on the Parameters FastTab.
Optionally, generate a picking list for the sales order. On the Posting picking list page, optionally override the Credit limit type field on the Parameters FastTab.
Optionally, post a packing slip for the sales order. On the Packing slip posting page, optionally override the Check credit limit field on the Parameters FastTab.
Post the sales order invoice. On the Posting invoice page, optionally override the Credit limit type field on the Parameters FastTab.
Procedure: Check customer credit limits on free text invoices
Use the following steps to check a customer's credit limit on a free text invoice.
Select the Check credit limit on free text invoice option on the Credit tab of the Credit and collections parameters page.
Select the default value for the Credit limit type field on the Credit tab of the Credit and collections parameters page. For more information, see Credit management parameters setup.
Choose Warning or Error in the Message when exceeding credit limit field on the Credit tab of the Credit and collections parameters page.
Create a free text invoice.
Post the sales order invoice. On the Post free text invoice page, optionally override the Credit limit type field on the Parameters FastTab.
Issues and considerations
Consider the following points when deciding how to implement this pattern:
Any user with the rights to generate or post a document can update the Credit limit type field on the dialog when they generate or post the document. Consider if a custom security privilege is required for your business case to prevent users from updating this option.
If you chose Warning in the Message when exceeding credit limit field on the Credit tab of the Credit and collections parameters page, a user will receive a warning message in the info log when they perform the action. However, no actions are prevented from happening when you select Warning.
To prevent a document from posting, set the Message when exceeding credit limit field to Error. For example, the field is set to Warning, and a customer exceeds their credit limit. In this case, when you generate a packing slip for a customer, the user receives a warning that the credit limit is exceeded. However, the packing slip is still generated. If you do not have a manual process and training in place for your users, the product might still be shipped to your customer, increasing your risk for an unpaid balance.
Related information
Use the following resources to learn more about the processes for setting customer credit limits in Dynamics 365.