To print off the letters to chase debtors, enter the Credit Letters option in the Credit Chase menu in Sales Ledger.
The following screen will be displayed:
This screen is fairly self-explanatory, and enables the user to narrow down the search of which accounts are to be selected and chased on this particular run.
Fields:
Account: One account or a range of SL accounts
Short name: For users who identify accounts by short code rather than by account code - i.e. used instead of the above field.
Analysis code: The user can select which analysis codes to use. (Analysis code = Sales code for stock / parts).
Area code: With large sites, often one member of Credit Control will be charged with the responsibility of say area “9300” and another will be “9301” - this will mean that the debtors to be chased can be restricted to an individual’s area of responsibility.
NL Account code: This is the NL control account that the SL debtors accounts are controlled to - this often will be the same as the area code i.e. area 9300 will use a control account of 0000 9300
Credit terms: The user can define which type of accounts is to be chased, eg. one with monthly credit, one with no credit etc. This only applies when the user is running statements as part of credit chase.
Currency: The user can run one set of chase letters with NZ currency, and may also have some with say JPY as the currency code.
Category code: This code will narrow down the debtors to be chased depending on the account type (eg. Normal cash sales, Van cash sales, etc). Several entries can be selected at once.
Statements: See separate section.
Note: The fields above are mainly mutually exclusive in that if the Short name is entered from and to, then narrowing down on credit terms as well will not actually make the search more specific. In some cases it will but these fields are there more as an aid to organising which debtors to chase at a point in time. In most cases, common sense prevails.
After selecting these fields where appropriate, the user can alter the date to cut-off documents, and also the relevant branch of the company.
Once the selection has been set up, the user can then make further selections on the output returned.
Before doing so, there are several buttons at the top left hand side of the screen (see screenshot above):
The ‘reverse arrow’ resets the selection.
The ‘tick’ will process the selection - i.e. ready to print off.
The ‘question mark’ will bring up the Help files.
The ‘open door’ will exit from the Credit Chase menu.
For this example, we will select account B0901 only, and take the option to process, using the green ‘tick’ at the top of the screen.
The following screen will be displayed:
The above screen displays the Account(s) selected, the account Name, the Overdue amount that has been calculated as overdue (and the number of Items that make up that amount), the Last Type of letter sent (1, 2 or 3), whether the account has Disputed items (Disp = N for No in this case) and finally the New Type of letter (in this case a 3 – Final Reminder) which may be selected by means of an ellipsis.
The above example would be a “typical” example, in that the account is not in dispute, so if the user wanted to print the letter off, simply selecting the Printer icon would print it. (A warning message to confirm the user does want to print them will be displayed prior to the print run commencing).
Once the “progress bar” along the bottom has shown the job to complete, the user would then exit by selecting the ‘red cross’ icon.
If the user wished to cancel the letters completely select the ‘red cross’ icon.
A Help file icon is also available.
This is how the print output will appear:
Running the Letters and their Effects
Every time the letters are run off, aside from the prints coming out and the Credit Chase selection screen being updated with when the letters were run off and the last letter type printed, the MK Contact will also be generated, which will result in a) the casefile in SL Display Accounts being updated and b) the MK Record being updated (either a Company or Customer dependant on what the SL account was set up to link to in terms of MK link).
The contact will be created and updated and will show the reason (i.e. credit chase letter and which type), when it was done, and the follow up date (i.e. the run date plus the number of days dictated by the SL edit overdue debt terms set up) hence frequent re-running of the letters will result in the contacts being updated, often “unnecessarily”.
The following screen in Marketing Record Maintenance will show what has been updated in terms of Contacts as a direct result of a user running off a Credit Chase letter.
Select relevant MK Record number, then click on Contacts icon and double click on a contact created by Credit Chase - there will be notes detailing that the contact was a result of “Credit Chase letter 3 sent on ….”.
It illustrates when the letter was sent out, who sent it, what “severity” the letter related to, when the re-contact will be and what type of contact it was.
Advanced Use of Credit Chase Letters - Less Typical Situations
The facility operates in the same way as for basic scenarios, the only difference is that in this scenario the user is going to select multiple accounts and de-select some of the transactions, and mark an account as being in dispute.
The selection screen using accounts from D0003 to F0002 will appear as normal below:
In this instance however, the user wants to put account D0003 “in dispute” as the debtor has not received the correct goods on an invoice.
The next stage is to double click on D0003 - the following screen will be displayed:
If happy with the selection, the user can simply take the option to close, but in this case the user will double click on the Prob field, and then select the Details-2 tab, and then take option to Edit, then select the relevant Problem Reporting code, and Save. In this example it is “5-incorrect goods”.
When the user exits from the screen and re-selects, the invoice is now “in dispute” and will be displayed in the screen, in red, as follows:
No letters will be sent for account D0003 until the problem report flag is removed.
The next scenario is to de-select some invoices from account D0002. When the selection screen is re-entered, D0003 is highlighted in red to reflect its disputed status, but the other accounts remain the same.
When the user double clicks on the account D0002 it will list all the relevant transactions that make up the $10,895 balance to be chased:
The user has decided that, for whatever reason, the credit for $10,895 is not to be chased, so will de-select it. Right click over the relevant transaction, and take the option to select/deselect.
Once this has been actioned and the Close option has been taken, the selection screen is updated (see screenshot below).
The letters can then be processed and printed in the normal way.
Attaching Statements to Credit Chase Letters
In order to give a more detailed description of how the balance is made up (remember that the letter itself only displays the balance to be chased, eg. $10,000 could consist of 10 invoices of $1000 each), a SL statement can be attached to the credit chase print out.
This is achieved by preparing the initial selection (select the accounts and area codes, etc.) then select the Options button in the top left hand side of the selection screen (this can also be used to select accounts with a zero balance and credit balance overall), and then select Statements.
This will allow the drop down boxes of Statement Sequence, Transaction Sequence and Ageing Date to be selected and amended as necessary (refer to first screenshot). Also, a brief message can be added to the bottom of the statements depending on whether the account is overdue or not.