# Payments and follow-ups

Payments record liquidity movements received from or sent to a customer or vendor.
Follow-ups organise actions for customers whose invoices are overdue. Use **Payments** to
record and confirm a payment, and use the Follow-Ups destinations to define collection actions,
review overdue customers, send letters or emails, and analyse follow-up activity.

| If you need to… | Go to |
|---|---|
| Record or review a payment | [Record a payment and work overdue follow-ups](#record-a-payment-and-work-overdue-follow-ups) |
| Define overdue-payment actions | [Record a payment and work overdue follow-ups](#record-a-payment-and-work-overdue-follow-ups) |
| Review customers with overdue amounts | [Record a payment and work overdue follow-ups](#record-a-payment-and-work-overdue-follow-ups) |
| Send follow-up letters or emails | [Handle payment and follow-up variations](#handle-payment-and-follow-up-variations) |
| Continue with customer and invoice records | [Customers, products, and invoices](doc:customers-products-and-invoices) |
| Continue with journal and bank activity | [Accounting journals and bank activity](doc:accounting-journals-and-bank-activity) |
| Review wider accounting reports | [Reports and audit work](doc:reports-and-audit-work) |

## Before you start

**Prerequisites**

| Have this ready | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| The customer or vendor connected to the payment | The payment form displays **Customer** for customer payments and **Vendor** for vendor payments. |
| The journal and payment method | **Journal** and **Payment Method** are part of the payment details. |
| The follow-up plan and its actions | The plan supplies the actions used for overdue invoices. |
| Access to the required accounting group | Some payment and follow-up controls are restricted to accounting groups. |
| A draft payment when confirming a payment | **Confirm** appears while the payment is in draft. |
| An overdue amount when working a customer follow-up | **Print Overdue Payments** and **Send Overdue Email** appear when the amount due is greater than zero. |

## Find and open a payment or follow-up destination

Payments and follow-ups are the accounting destinations for recording receipts and payments,
organising overdue-payment work, and reviewing follow-up activity.

1. Open **Accounting**.
2. Choose the destination that matches your task.

   | If you need to… | Choose |
   |---|---|
   | Record customer payments | **Customers** > **Payments** |
   | Review follow-up activity | **Follow-Ups** > **Follow-ups Analysis** |
   | Define follow-up levels | **Follow-up Levels** |
   | Work customers with overdue amounts | **Follow-Ups** > **Do Manual Follow-Ups** |
   | Send follow-up letters and emails | **Follow-Ups** > **Send Letters and Emails** |

**Result:** The selected Accounting destination is the surface for the task you chose.

## Understand the payment and follow-up screens

A follow-up level is a set of actions triggered after an invoice passes its due date; when a
customer has several overdue invoices, the actions for the most overdue invoice are used.

### Payment details

| Field label | Area |
|---|---|
| **Date** | Payment list |
| **Name** | Payment list |
| **Journal** | Payment list and payment form |
| **Payment Method** | Payment list and payment form |
| **Customer** | Payment list and customer payment form |
| **Amount in Currency** | Payment list |
| **Payment Currency** | Payment list |
| **Amount** | Payment list and payment form |
| **Status** | Payment list |
| **Vendor** | Vendor payment form |
| **Date** | Payment form |
| **Memo** | Payment form |
| Bank details | **Customer Bank Account**, **Vendor Bank Account**, **Company Bank Account**, and **Destination Journal** when their conditions apply. |
| Form actions | **Confirm**, **Reset To Draft**, **Cancel**, **Request Cancel**, **Mark as Sent**, **Unmark as Sent**, and **Refund**. |

The payment list is read-only. Its header provides **Confirm**. The payment form uses the
payment state to decide which actions appear: **Confirm** is for draft payments, while the
other actions depend on the payment state, cancellation settings, and payment method.

### Follow-up levels and actions

Use the level's delay and actions to match the response to how severely a customer's invoice is
overdue.

| Area | Fields and controls |
|---|---|
| Level | The level name, **Company**, and **Follow-up Steps**. |
| Step timing | The number of **Days overdue** before the step runs. |
| Manual action | **Manual Action**, **Assign a Responsible**, and **Manual action note**. |
| Email action | **Send an Email** and **Email Template**. |
| Letter or email action | **Send a Letter or Email** and the letter or email introduction. |

The **Manual Action** group appears when **Manual Action** is selected. The **Send an Email**
group appears when **Send an Email** is selected. The **Send a Letter or Email** group appears
when either email or letter sending is selected.

### Manual follow-ups

The manual follow-up list is read-only for creation and deletion. It shows the customer,
next-action information, responsibility, due dates, follow-up level, and amounts due.

| Area | Fields and controls |
|---|---|
| Customer row | **Customer**, **Earliest due date**, **Latest follow-up level**, **Amount overdue**, and **Amount due**. |
| Next action | **Responsible**, the next-action date, and **Next action**. |
| Notes and history | **Payment note** and the transaction history. |
| Actions | **Print Overdue Payments**, **Send Overdue Email**, and **⇾ Mark as Done**. |

### Follow-up analysis and sending

**Follow-ups Analysis** uses **Follow-up Level**, **Latest Follow-up Month**, and **Balance**
for its analysis. **Send Letters and Emails** has a send date and a follow-up level where those
fields are available, plus **Send emails and generate letters** and **Cancel**.

## Record a payment and work overdue follow-ups

### Confirm a draft payment

**Prerequisites**

- You have a draft payment open.
- The customer or vendor, amount, date, journal, payment method, and memo are correct.

**Steps**

1. Review **Customer** or **Vendor**.
2. Review **Amount**.
3. Review **Date**.
4. Review **Memo**.
5. Review **Journal**.
6. Review **Payment Method**.
7. Select **Confirm**.

**Result:** The payment leaves the draft path and the payment form shows the actions available
for its resulting state.

### Maintain a follow-up level

**Prerequisites**

- You have opened **Follow-up Levels**.
- You know the number of overdue days and the action the level must assign.

**Steps**

1. Open a follow-up level.
2. Review the level name.
3. Review **Company** when working in a multi-company setup.
4. Set the follow-up step's **Days overdue** value.
5. Select the action that matches the follow-up situation.

   | Situation | Select |
   |---|---|
   | A person must act | **Manual Action** |
   | The step must send an email | **Send an Email** |
   | The step must prepare a letter or email introduction | **Send a Letter or Email** |

6. Complete the fields that appear for the selected action.

**Result:** The selected follow-up actions and their conditional fields appear in the follow-up
level form.

### Record the next action for an overdue customer

**Prerequisites**

- You have opened **Do Manual Follow-Ups**.
- The customer has an amount due greater than zero.

**Steps**

1. Open the customer row.
2. Review **Earliest due date**, **Latest follow-up level**, **Amount overdue**, and **Amount due**.
3. Select a **Responsible** person.
4. Enter the next-action date.
5. Enter the action in **Next action**.
6. Enter context in **Payment note**.
7. Select **⇾ Mark as Done** after the action is complete.

**Result:** The action is complete.

## Handle payment and follow-up variations

Use the branch that matches the record and the action you need to perform.

| Your situation | What to use |
|---|---|
| The payment is from a customer | Use **Customer** and the customer bank-account conditions. |
| The payment is for a vendor | Use **Vendor** and the vendor bank-account conditions. |
| The payment moves money between journals | Select the internal-transfer option and complete **Destination Journal**. |
| A bank account is required | Complete the applicable bank-account field before confirming. |
| You need to assign a person | Select **Manual Action**, then complete **Assign a Responsible** and **Manual action note**. |
| You need to send an email | Select **Send an Email**, then choose **Email Template**. |
| You need to prepare a letter or email | Select **Send a Letter or Email**, then complete the introduction. |
| The customer's email address is missing | The system displays `Email not sent because of email address of partner not filled in`. |

1. Open **Send Letters and Emails** when the follow-up level actions are ready.
2. Review the follow-up level and date fields shown in the dialog.
3. Select **Send emails and generate letters**.

**Result:** Follow-up emails are sent, letters are generated, and manual actions are set per
customer according to the defined follow-up levels.

## Resolve payment and follow-up errors

| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| `Your description is invalid, use the right legend or %% if you want to use the percent character.` | The follow-up description contains an invalid legend or percent character. | Correct the description's legends or use `%%` for a percent character. |
| `The partner does not have any accounting entries to print in the overdue report for the current company.` | The customer has no accounting entries eligible for the overdue report in the current company. | Review the customer's accounting entries and current-company context. |
| `There is no followup plan defined for the current company.` | No follow-up plan exists for the current company. | Define a follow-up level and its actions before printing the overdue report. |
| `The followup plan defined for the current company does not have any followup action.` | The current company's follow-up plan has no follow-up action. | Add a follow-up action to the plan. |
| `Email not sent because of email address of partner not filled in` | The customer's email address is missing. | Complete the customer's email address, then use **Send Overdue Email** again. |
| `Printed overdue payments report` | The overdue payments report was printed. | Continue with the follow-up work for the customer. |

## Out of scope

These messages belong to the **Send Letters and Emails** flow:

| Message | Owning page |
|---|---|
| `Follow-up letter of` | **Send Letters and Emails** |
| `will be sent` | **Send Letters and Emails** |
| `email(s) sent` | **Send Letters and Emails** |
| `letter(s) in report` | **Send Letters and Emails** |

## Know what happens next

After you select **Confirm**, the payment leaves draft state. The form then exposes the actions
that apply to the resulting payment state, including **Reset To Draft**, **Cancel**, **Request
Cancel**, **Mark as Sent**, **Unmark as Sent**, and **Refund** when their conditions apply.

After you select **Send emails and generate letters**, the follow-up process sends
emails, generates letters, and sets manual actions according to the follow-up levels.

Use [Customers, products, and invoices](doc:customers-products-and-invoices) for the customer
and invoice records that supply overdue-payment work. Use [Accounting journals and bank
activity](doc:accounting-journals-and-bank-activity) for the journal and bank continuation.
Use [Reports and audit work](doc:reports-and-audit-work) for broader accounting reporting.