Dunning System

The Dunning System feature manages the generating and distributing of periodic reminders for unpaid invoices.

This helps streamline the credit management process and reduce the risk of incurring bad debts. Once configured, the process can be automated to routinely send out payment notifications.

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Exploring

The programs related to this feature are accessed from the Program List of the SYSPRO menu:

  • Program List > Accounts Receivable

A dunning group is a category into which you can group customers. Dunning letters are issued to all customers in the selected dunning group.

A dunning letter is a notification letter or a payment reminder that is sent to customers when payment is due or overdue.

The dunning status is linked to a dunning group and the invoices within that group. It contains the specifications and format of the dunning letter that will be generated.

Setup programs

AR Initial Invoice Capture

Dunning Group Maintenance

AR Dunning Statuses

AR Dunning Group for Invoices

AR Dunning Letter Format

Processing programs

AR Dunning System

Report programs

AR List of Dunning Groups

General topics

SYSPRO Terminology

PDF and Video Resources

Feature Guides

Starting

You can secure this feature by implementing a range of controls against the affected programs. Although not all these controls are applicable to each feature, they include the following:

  • You restrict operator access to activities within a program using the Operator Maintenance program.
  • You can restrict operator access to the fields within a program (configured using the Operator Maintenance program).
  • You can restrict operator access to functions within a program using passwords (configured using the Password Definition program). When defined, the password must be entered before you can access the function.
  • You can restrict access to the eSignature transactions within a program at operator, group, role or company level (configured using the Electronic Signature Configuration Setup program). Electronic Signatures provide security access, transaction logging and event triggering that gives you greater control over your system changes.
  • You can restrict operator access to programs by assigning them to groups and applying access control against the group (configured using the Operator Groups program).
  • You can restrict operator access to programs by assigning them to roles and applying access control against the role (configured using the Role Management program).

  • Historical invoices (i.e. invoices created before implementation of the Dunning system) are not automatically included in the Dunning run, even if the customer has been categorized into a Dunning group.

    Historical invoices must be added to the Dunning run manually using the AR Dunning Group for Invoices program.

  • If the fax number or email address is not specified at the Dunning fax or Dunning email fields in the Customers program, a warning message is displayed in the AR Dunning System program and the dunning letter is not sent to the customer.

  • No letters are generated if you selected to generate a single dunning letter per customer (i.e. you selected Customers at the Option field of the AR Dunning System program) and the customer's invoices are categorized in different dunning groups.

Solving

  1. Open the Dunning Group Maintenance program.

  2. When adding a new dunning group, enter an alphanumeric code at the Dunning group field.

    When maintaining an existing dunning group, search for and select the code at the Dunning group field.

  3. Capture or maintain the description for the dunning group.
  4. Save your changes.
  1. Open the AR Dunning Statuses program.
  2. At the Dunning group field, search for and select the dunning group.

  3. When adding a new status, enter a numeric code for the dunning status at the Dunning status field.

    When maintaining an existing status, search for and select the status at the Dunning status field.

  4. Capture or maintain the status details.
  5. Save your changes.
  1. Open the Customers program.
  2. Locate the required customer.
  3. Enter and or select the following detail in the Dunning section at the General Details pane:
    • Dunning group into which you want to categorize the customer.
    • Dunning fax to which the dunning letter will be faxed.
    • Dunning e-mail to which the dunning letter will be emailed.
  4. Save your changes.
  1. Open the AR Dunning Group for Invoices program.
  2. In the Criteria section, select the customer(s) who have invoices you want to link to a dunning group.

  3. Click Start Processing.

    The customers are listed in the Report pane.

  4. Expand the customer to display all unpaid invoices.

    The invoices are now included in the dunning group into which the customer has been categorized.

  1. Open the AR Dunning Group for Invoices program.
  2. Select the customer in the Criteria pane.

  3. Select Start Processing.

    If invoices were updated, the customer will be displayed in the Report pane.

    The current and previous dunning groups are displayed.

  4. Select the customer to display a list of invoices.
  1. Open the AR Dunning System program Program List > Accounts Receivable > Transaction Processing.
  2. Use the Selection Criteria pane to indicate which dunning letters you want to generate.

  3. Select Start Review.

    The invoices matching your selection criteria are displayed in the Invoice Review pane. All invoices with the dunning status are checked (included) by default.

  4. Choose to include or exclude invoices.

    To remove an invoice from the dunning run, highlight it and select Exclude Invoice.

    To manually add an invoice that is not in the list, select Include Invoice to search and include an invoice in the dunning run.

  5. Choose the invoices and select Print/Send to generate and print or send dunning letters.

    The number of letters printed or sent are displayed in the Report output pane.

    The invoice status is updated once the letters are printed or sent.

Although you can edit the description of a dunning group, you cannot edit the dunning group code.

Yes, you can delete a dunning group (even if statuses and/or stationery are linked to the group) by using the Delete function of the Dunning Group Maintenance program.

Yes, as dunning letters are only sent to the dunning fax and email.

If the fax number or email address is not specified at the Dunning fax or Dunning email fields in the Customers program, a warning message is displayed in the AR Dunning System program and the dunning letter is not sent to the customer.

You can only include invoices that have a positive balance. Invoices with a zero balance can't be included in the dunning run.

All future invoices will be linked to the new dunning group and all historic invoices will be linked to the previous dunning group (or no dunning group if this is the first time the customer is being placed in a dunning group).

Use the AR Dunning Group for Invoices program to update the dunning group of all historic invoices, or use the AR Invoices for Customer program to update the dunning group on a single invoice.

This may occur in the following instances:

  • No dunning group was saved against the invoice. Use the AR Dunning Group for Invoices program to update the dunning group of all historic invoices, or use the AR Invoices for Customer program to update the dunning group on a single invoice.
  • No dunning fax or dunning email was specified against the customer. Use the the Customers program to specify this information.
  • No dunning status was saved against the invoice.

  • The selected customer's invoices are categorized in different dunning groups and you have selected to generate a single dunning letter per customer containing all outstanding invoices (i.e. you selected Customers at the Option field of the AR Dunning System program).

    The dunning system can't generate a single dunning letter if invoices are in different groups. Deselect to exclude invoices that are in a different dunning group and/or generate one letter at a time per dunning group.

  1. Open the AR List of Dunning Groups report program (Program List > Accounts Receivable > Reports).

  2. Indicate the report criteria you require in the Report Options and Output Options tabs.

  3. Select Process.

    If you use server-side printing, the report is sent to the report queue before the report is displayed.

    If you use client-side printing, the report is displayed immediately.

  1. Open the AR Dunning Statuses report program (Program List > Accounts Receivable > Setup).

  2. Indicate the report criteria you require in the Report Options and Output Options tabs.

  3. Select Process.

    If you use server-side printing, the report is sent to the report queue before the report is displayed.

    If you use client-side printing, the report is displayed immediately.

Using

The programs related to this feature are accessed from the Program List of the SYSPRO menu:

  • Program List > Accounts Receivable

Setting up the Dunning System involves creating Dunning groups, statuses and letter formats (Dunning Group Maintenance, AR Dunning Statuses, AR Dunning Letter Format and AR Dunning Letter Format for SRS programs):

  1. Link customers to Dunning groups.
    This ensures dunning letters are created for all new invoices saved against the customer.
  2. Link individual invoices to Dunning groups.
    This ensures that a dunning letter is created for that specific invoice.
  3. Link historical unpaid invoices to a Dunning group.
    This ensures that dunning letters are generated and distributed for all invoices processed prior to categorizing the customer in a dunning group.
  4. Run the Dunning process to generate letters.
    This creates the dunning letters and either faxes or emails them to the customer, or prints them.

The following indicates areas in the product that may be affected by implementing this feature:

This program lets you create and maintain dunning groups into which you can group customers.

This program lets you capture and maintain statuses that are assigned to dunning groups and to the invoices of customers who are categorized within those groups.

This program lets you update historic invoices by saving the dunning group, into which the customer has been categorized, against the invoice.

This program lets you define the page layout and format for dunning letters.

This program lets you define the page layout required for printing dunning letters using SYSPRO Reporting Services.

This program lets you generate and send dunning letters.

The dunning process can be automated so that dunning letters are generated and sent out without user intervention.

This program lets you generate a list of dunning groups, including their associated descriptions, that were captured using the Dunning Group Maintenance program.