Dunning Levels

Dunning is the series of reminders a customer gets as an invoice stays unpaid. Use Dunning Levels to decide when each reminder starts and how firm it sounds. A level starts when an invoice has been overdue for that level’s number of days, and Arcus always uses the highest level an invoice has reached.

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Before You Start

• You need the settings.view permission to open the page.
• You need settings.edit to save. Save dunning levels is shown to every role that can open the page, but the server refuses the save for a role without settings.edit.
• Overdue reminders must be turned on before any level sends. Turn on Enable overdue reminders under Terms Overdue Reminder on Settings > Payments & Checks > Payments. The page itself says the same thing, but names the wrong page, so use Payments.
• The customer needs an email address on the account, and must not be opted out of reminders.

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Open Dunning Levels

1. In the deck, open Settings.
2. Under Payments & Checks, choose Dunning Levels.

The breadcrumb reads Settings > Payments & Checks > Dunning Levels. You can also search for Dunning Levels in the command palette.

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The Default Ladder

Until you set your own, Arcus uses three levels: The page shows these levels with Use custom dunning levels off. They are the schedule in force for every company that has never saved its own.

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Set Your Own Levels

1. Turn on Use custom dunning levels.
2. For each level, set Days overdue, a Label, a Tone, and a Template key.
3. Click Add level to add another level, or the trash icon to remove one.
4. Click Save dunning levels.

Arcus shows “Dunning levels saved”. The rules for a ladder:

• You can have from 1 to 9 levels. Add level is disabled at 9, and the trash icon is disabled when only one level is left (“At least one level is required”).
• Days overdue must rise with each level. The same day twice, or a lower day after a higher one, is refused.
• A new level starts 7 days after the last one, with a Firm tone and a name like “Reminder 4”. Change them as you need.
• Reset to default puts the three default levels back and turns custom levels off. Save to apply it. Saving with Use custom dunning levels off clears your custom ladder, and the default applies.

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How Reminders Go Out

Every day Arcus looks at each customer’s overdue invoices. For each invoice it finds the highest level whose Days overdue the invoice has reached, and emails the customer the Payment Reminder, with the invoice number, the balance, the due date, and a link to pay the invoice. An invoice below your first level is skipped. An invoice is considered only when all of these are true:

• It is a posted or overdue invoice with an open balance, and its due date has passed.
• The customer has an email address and has not been opted out. Opt a customer out with Overdue Reminder Opt-Out on the customer’s account page.
• It is not a draft, cancelled, archived, or expired order, and it was not brought in from your previous system. Those never receive reminders.

To avoid repeats, a customer is emailed at most once in the wait time you set as Per-bucket dedup window (days) on the Payments page, 7 days by default. Because the wait is counted across all levels, a customer who moves up to a firmer level inside the window waits for the window to pass before the next email.

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Messages You May See

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What Changes Elsewhere

• Customer email: each reminder is a customer email and appears in the Email Log. Its wording comes from the Payment Reminder template on Email Templates.
• Accounting: nothing posts. Reminders do not charge late fees and do not change an invoice.
• Audit trail: each save is recorded in the Audit Log with the old and new ladder.
• Other open sessions: when another administrator saves a change here, your page refreshes to show it.

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