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Credit Control Overview

Caroline Buckland Updated by Caroline Buckland

Overview

This article introduces the concept of credit control (debt management)l.  The credit control facility is a powerful tool allowing credit controllers to manage debt and record notes and actions at account and transaction level.

To access Credit Controls select the following menus:

Accounts Receivable>AR Processes>Credit Controls>Credit Control List

The main areas associated with credit control are as follows:

Credit Limit Maintenance

The user can maintain credit information associated with a customer account.

Query Management

Allows the user to record one or multiple queries against a transaction(s) at transaction and/or item level.  Workflow to action other users can be triggered using the Business Event Manager.

Transaction Amend/Dispute

The user can enquire, amend, dispute and release transactions.

Diary

The user can list and maintain diary entries as appropriate and send workflow to other users using Business Event Manager.

Dunning

Dunning is used to classify and control the production of credit control letters for overdue amounts.

 

Credit Limit Maintenance

 Credit Control List

The credit control list allows the user to retrieve a list of customers and their associated credit limits using different selection criteria.  There are three types:

  • Primary Search - Search by a variety of criteria including Ledger/Account, Credit Status, Stop Credit indicator, Legal Hands indicator, Credit Manager, Credit Review Type, Debt range, Overdue amount range and Credit Limit range
  • Name Search - Search by customer Short Name 
  • Extended Selection - permits further selection by the Analysis Codes and the Stop Credit Code.

If no parameters are entered, the user can build a list that will display every customer account currently on the Accounts Receivable company.  The ‘More’ action may be needed to build a full list.

The credit control list is a very powerful tool offering the user direct access to many of the AR facilities without having to go through the usual route of selecting the relevant menu options.

As an example, from the Credit Control List, the user can directly access Account Details, and from there they then have access to the enquiry facilities that opens up further enquiry facilities.  This means users do not have to keep exiting back to the menu screen and selecting another option which is time consuming and inefficient.

By selecting the ‘Amend’ action against an account, the ‘Credit Limit – Edit’ screen will be displayed.  All fields on this screen can be amended.

 

Credit Status

Within the Credit Limit Maintenance screen, the user can manually maintain the current Credit Status of the customer. 

To achieve this, the user may enter a value in the range of 0-9 in the Credit Status field.  The way in which these numbers are used is totally user-defined.  Credit Statuses are not codes and therefore cannot be pre-defined. 0(zero) denotes that statuses are not in use.

Credit Statuses can be used to put a customer into ‘Stop Credit’ and/or ‘In Legal Hands’.  If these facilities are to be used, then two numbers from the value range 1-9 must be set in the Company Controls. For more information on what has been set at company control level, raise a support case for more information.

Example

It has been decided to use numbers 3 and 4 for ‘Stop Credit’ and ‘In Legal Hands’ respectively, so these are entered into Company Controls.

To place a customer account into ‘Stop Credit’, the user must change the customer’s status to 3 in the Credit Status field.  The Stop Credit Indicator must be flagged and a Stop Credit Date greater than or equal to today’s date must be entered.  In addition a Stop Credit Code must be entered to indicate the reason for the customer’s credit being stopped. This field is promptable.

To place a customer account into ‘Legal Hands’, the account must first have been placed in ‘Stop Credit’. The user must change the customer’s status to 4 in the Credit Status field.  The Legal Hands Indicator must be flagged and a Legal Hands Date greater than or equal to today’s date must be entered.

Putting a customer into ‘Stop Credit’ or ‘In Legal Hands’ has an effect on other areas within Accounts Receivable.  These are:

  • Data Entry
  • Transfers
  • Cash Allocation
  • Account Enquiries

When the user enters the customer’s Ledger/Account details and validates/updates the screen a warning message is displayed which can be overridden.      

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