Introduction

Introduction

Credit Policies can be set-up which determine how the company deals with it's customers. The terms and default credit limit, prompt payment discount and overdue interest can be specified.

1. A credit policy is set up for the company as a whole. Credit policies can then be applied to a range of customers. Customers can either be assigned to a credit policy, or they will have their own 'Manual Settings.

2. Whether applied as part of a credit policy, or using manual settings, a Credit Action is the action that will occur whenever a transaction is processed for a customer. The actions are:

a. Ok: The transaction will be allowed to process as normal.

b. Remind: A pop-up message will be displayed to the operator whenever a transaction (of the relevant type) is processed, but the transaction will then be allowed to be processed as normal.

c. Password: A supervisor password (someone who is authorised to change credit control settings) is required to continue processing the transaction.

d. Hold: The transaction will not be allowed to be processed.

3. One advantage of using credit policies is that the respond to Events. An Event is something that occurs that should affect the customer's credit status. The events are:

a. Credit Limit Exceeded

b. Credit Limit Exceeded by a percentage

c. Debt has aged once

d.Debt has aged twice

e.Debt has aged thrice

4. When an event occurs the customer's credit Action will be updated automatically to the Action specified for that event on the customer's credit policy. This will either occur when a new transaction is processed (typically where the credit limit is exceeded or exceeded by a percentage), or as part of the daily aged balances check that runs automatically when the first user logs into the company each day (typically where a debt has now aged once, twice or thrice).

5. If none of these event applies to a given customer's situation, then the daily aged balances check will reset their credit Action to 'Ok.

6. If the customer is set to 'Manual Settings, then the customer's credit Actions will not be automatically updated by an Event occurring. It is up to a user to change the customer's credit Actions manually as needed.

7. Thus, the Actions that you see when viewing individual customer accounts are the actions that will occur when you process a transaction of the relevant type for that customer.

Thus, If a customer is set to 'Remind then a reminder will ALWAYS pop up (for the selected transaction type) when the customer has exceeded their limit. Similarly, if the customer is set to Password or Hold, then these actions will apply even if the customer has not reached their credit limit. Obviously these situations would generally only occur if the customer is set to "Manual Settings", however they could also occur if the customer pays their debt, because the system will not automatically change their credit Action as the payment transaction is processed, but if they are using a Credit Policy their Action will be updated to 'Ok automatically during the next daily aged balances check.