About dunning process by document

When you group overdue documents by customer account and document dunning level, the generation of the letters is based on the following rules:

• The letter of the first level is generated for a document for which the number of days past due exceeds the number of days specified for this level in the Days past due field on the Dunning settings tab. The document is marked with the first dunning level.
• The letter of the second level is generated when the document (whose level is 1) is still unpaid and the number of days the document is past due exceeds the number of days specified for this level in the Days past due. The system increases the dunning level of the document. (If you have only two levels defined, see the description for the letter for the last level.)
• The letters of the next levels in the series are generated similarly to the letters of the second level.
• The letter of the last level for the document is generated if the document is still unpaid and the number of days the document is past due exceeds the number of days specified for this level. When this letter is prepared, the system selects the Final reminder check box for this letter in the Print/release dunning letters (AR522000) window. In this case, the customer account can be selected on the Manage credit holds (AR523000) window, so you can put this account on credit hold.
  The rest of the overdue documents of this customer account are still included in the dunning process.
  If for some reason the process of dunning letters preparation was delayed for a period of time, the system will shift the dates of dunning letters generation for the period of the delay.

If you want to notify customers receiving dunning letters about all open documents, unpaid (the due date is still in the future), due (the due date has passed), and overdue (the number of days past due has exceeded the number of days past due specified for the level), you select the Include other unpaid documents check box on the Dunning settings tab of the Customer ledger preferences (AR101000) window. (Unpaid and due documents are marked with a level of zero.)
With this check box selected, the system includes open documents as follows: If you prepare a dunning letter for a document associated with the first level, the system includes overdue, unpaid, and due documents.
When you prepare the next dunning letter for this document, the system includes overdue and unpaid documents, but no due ones.

During the processing of a dunning letter, the system changes its status as follows:

• Draft:
  This status indicates that the dunning letter has been prepared and can be released.
  You can edit the list of customer documents included in the letter.
  If the Automatically release dunning letters check box is selected on the Dunning settings tab of the Customer ledger preferences (AR101000) window, the system skips the Draft status.
• Released:
  This status indicates that the dunning letter has been released and can be printed, sent by email, or voided.
  If a non-zero dunning fee was specified for the level of this letter (on the Dunning settings tab of the Customer ledger preferences (AR101000) window), the invoice for the dunning fee was also created during the release of the dunning letter.
  If the Automatically release dunning fee documents check box (on the Dunning settings tab of the Customer ledger preferences (AR101000) window) is selected, the system automatically releases the invoice when the corresponding dunning letter is released.
• Voided:
  This status indicates that the dunning letter has been voided, the system decreased the dunning level for each document that was included to this letter and these documents are available for preparing a new letter with the Draft status.

You use the Prepare dunning letters (AR521000) window to prepare dunning letters.
The table lists the overdue documents grouped by customer and by document dunning level.
For instance, if a customer account has two overdue documents with different levels, the system will display two rows in the table.
If a customer account has two documents with the same level, the system will group the documents into one row.

The way by which you select and process documents affects the contents of the letter prepared.
If you want to prepare separate dunning letters for documents of the same customer account but each with a different dunning level, you should select a one document and click Process (in the window toolbar) and then select the next one and process it.
If you want the system to group into one letter documents of the same customer but with different dunning levels, you should select all such documents and click Process.

After you have selected the documents that you want to process (by selecting the check boxes in their rows), you click Process to prepare these dunning letters. You can instead prepare dunning letters for all records in the table by clicking Process all.
If the letters have been generated successfully, the system displays a green check mark in the window toolbar.
If the Automatically release dunning letters check box is cleared in the Customer ledger preferences (AR101000) window, the letters are prepared with the Draft status and you need to release them; if the check box is selected, the letters are prepared with the Released status and are ready for printing or emailing.

If the Automatically Release Dunning Letters check box is cleared in the Customer ledger preferences (AR101000) window, each generated letter has the Draft status, and you can adjust the list of documents included for each letter or delete the draft of the letter itself.
The Print/release dunning letters (AR522000) window displays the list of prepared dunning letters.
You can highlight the row in the table with the letter you want to edit and click View dunning letter in the table toolbar.
The system navigates you to the Dunning letters (AR306000) window, where you can view and adjust the list of documents.

If you have deleted either the documents from the list or the letter itself (with all the documents it included), the system will process these documents the next time you prepare dunning letters.

On this window, you can exclude a particular document from the dunning process by selecting the document in the table and clicking Revoke in the table toolbar. The system removes the document from the list and marks it as excluded from the dunning process by selecting the Revoked check box in the Dunning letter info section on the Financial details tab of the Sales invoices (AR301000) window for each document involved. (You can select or clear this check box in the Sales invoices window as well.)

The deletion or exclusion of documents from the list may influence the level of the dunning letter that is displayed on the Dunning letter level in the top part of the window. The system uses the value of this field to define the dunning fee amount for which an invoice should be generated. If there are documents with different dunning levels included in the letter, the system sets the highest document level (that is, the level with the largest value) as the dunning level of the letter.
If you delete documents with the highest level, the system decreases the level of the letter.

By using the Dunning letters (AR306000) window, you can also release the letter and then print or email it (or void it, if needed).

In the Print/release dunning letters (AR522000) window, you can release groups of dunning letters by selecting the Release dunning letter action and processing the selected documents or all listed documents.

When a dunning letter is released manually or automatically, the system updates the information in the Dunning letter info section on the Financial details tab of the Sales invoices window. For each document involved, the system updates the date of the last released dunning letter that included the document, and increases the document dunning level by one.

You use the Print/release dunning letters (AR522000) window to print released dunning letters or initiate the emailing of them.
In this window, you can print dunning letters to be sent through postal mail, or generate emails that you can preview before sending them in the Pending emails (SM507000) window.

Letters from all branches can be sent separately or can be consolidated (on generation) into a single letter to the customer.
This is controlled by the Consolidate dunning letters for all branches check box on the General settings tab of the Customer ledger preferences (AR101000) window. In the Dunning letter from branch field on this tab, you should also select the branch that will be specified as the sender.