Collections and reminders

The worklist

Billing, Collections lists every bill past its due day with money still owed: how late it is, what is outstanding, any interest accrued at the firm's rate, the last reminder sent and the next follow up. Filter it by how late, by disputes, or to the follow ups due today. Each row opens its bill.

Notes on a bill

On the bill, Collections shows how late it is and every note about collecting it. Add note records a call, an email, a meeting, a dispute or a promise to pay, which names the amount and the day it was promised for. A note can set a day to follow up. Notes are kept as they were written; a correction is a further note.

The debtor ageing

Ageing shows what each client, or each matter, owes in one currency as it stands today: not yet due, 1 to 30, 31 to 60, 61 to 90 and over 90 days past due, with the totals.

Reminder letters

1. Reminders, Prepare reminders drafts a letter for each overdue bill that is not in a payment plan, at the highest rung of the firm's ladder the bill has reached. A rung is never sent twice for the same bill. Each letter is addressed to the client's email on file.
2. Review the letters. Each shows who it goes to. From a letter's menu:
   • Preview opens the letter as it will be sent, on the letterhead.
   • Change recipients sets who it is sent to and who is copied. Type addresses with commas between them, or tick them from the addresses the firm holds for the client and the people at it, such as its directors. Leave To empty to print and post the letter instead.
   • Leave out keeps a letter back, with the reason; Put back returns it.
3. Somebody other than whoever prepared the run, holding the right to release reminders, chooses Release. Each letter is drawn on the letterhead and filed on its matter; those with somebody to send to are emailed.

Letters to print and post

After the release, Print letters to post opens one PDF of every letter waiting to be printed. Once they are in the post, choose Mark all posted and give the day they went, or mark a single letter posted from its menu. The day cannot be later than today. The run counts the letters to print and those posted.

Ladders

Settings, Billing settings, Dunning ladders holds the firm's ladders. Each chases one class of client (individuals, companies, government and public bodies, or any), and one is the firm's default. A client is chased on the ladder chosen for it on its page, else its class's ladder, else the default.

Open a ladder to see its reminders, in the order they go. Add reminder sets:

• the days past due it goes, and whether it goes by email, printed letter or text message (a text also needs its message of at most 320 characters);
• who it comes from: the responsible partner, the billing partner, or a named person;
• its subject and letter, which may use {client}, {client_first_name}, {bill_number}, {bill_date}, {due_date}, {amount_outstanding}, {days_overdue}, {matter_number}, {matter_name}, {partner}, {partner_email}, {firm}, {firm_phone}, {pay_link} and {interest_amount};
• what it does inside the firm once it goes: give the partner a task to chase, remind the partner to call, stop work for the client, or refer the bill to the managing partner or for recovery.

A reminder no letter has used can be deleted; one in use is retired.

A client's standing

On a client's page, Collections shows its ladder and why, and lets those who manage collections:

• Hold reminders, with the reason and, if it ends, the day. No reminder goes while held; a run lists the bill as left out with the reason.
• Stop work, with the reason and an optional end day. Time and costs on the client's matters then say so. Where Settings, Billing settings sets stopped work to refuse, they are refused unless someone who manages collections records them with a reason, which is kept on the matter.

A hold or a stop lifts by hand with a reason, on its end day, or, for a stop a reminder set, once every bill that set it is paid.

Disputes

On a bill, Disputes, Record dispute records what the client disputes and who owns it. While a dispute is open the bill is left out of reminder runs. Resolve records how it ended, and the bill is chased again.

Bills a run leaves out

A run lists every overdue bill it does not chase, each with the reason: in a payment plan, held, disputed, under the smallest amount worth chasing, or a text reminder for a client with no mobile number.

Interest on late payment

Where a bill's billing arrangement charges interest on late payment, the reminder proposes the interest due since the last interest note. From the letter's menu a reviewer chooses Accept the interest or Strike the interest. An accepted interest note is raised as its own bill when the letter goes, numbered with the firm's bills and taxed as Settings, Billing settings sets.

Referrals, promises and how reminders work

• Referrals lists bills a reminder referred to the managing partner or for recovery. Accept one (naming the debt recovery matter, where one was opened), decline it with the reason, or close it once done.
• Promises lists every promise to pay recorded on a bill. Once its day passes it is settled: kept where the promised amount came in by then, broken where it did not, and whoever recorded a broken one is told.
• Effectiveness shows, for a period of up to a year, how many of each reminder were sent, how many bills were paid in full within 30 days of it, what came in and how soon, with how the period's promises stand.