Late payment fee issues

Hi guys. I noticed customer statement shows incorrect late payment date. I set “charge monthly” 1% in the invoice dated 19-12-17 but late payment fees date is showing 27-12-17 which doesn’t seem right to me. Aside this, I also noticed late payment fees title is missing in the customer statement which thankfully shows up in the customer ledger.


Although you did not show it, your original sales invoice must have had a due date of 26-12-17 (one week after issuance). Manager assesses the first late fee the day after the due date, in this case 27-12-17. The reason the late payment fee does not show on the statement is that the statement shows the source of the debit or credit, plus any summary-level description on that source document. In this case, the source is Invoice 4247. The late payment fee is a transaction associated with that source.

If the late payment is not noted on the statement, how does the customer know that is a late payment fee and not just another invoice with a duplicate number.

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My bad, I forgot to spot due date within 7 days from the date of invoice 19-12-17. Thus, calculated late fee date is correct

I completely agree with you. Customer will be confused to see same invoice number for two amounts with no explanation

I think the way to avoid customer confusion is to not rely on the statement for billing. Since the late fees modify the sales invoice, you should provide the customer the modified sales invoice, which shows late fees. The obligation for payment is established by the sales invoice, not the customer statement. So if you want to send a statement, also send the modified sales invoice.

Late fees don’t modify the Sales Invoice per se as each late fee is an independently dated transaction - see (A) below. The Sales Invoice is just the basis for that transaction and becomes payable in addition to the Sales Invoice.

Needing to resend Sales Invoices seems to be a somewhat clumsy approach:

  1. if a customer hasn’t paid for 3 months, that means the customer has now received 4 Sales Invoices for the same purchase - the original plus 3 with late fee.
  2. if a customer has processed their Sep 13 invoice as Sep 13, what do they do with the late fees on that resent Sep 13 that arose on Oct 13. You can’t add it the Sep 13, as the fee didn’t exist on Sep 13. The same problem continues for every subsequent month.
  3. If the late fees occurred after a year end, say Sep 30, the customer’s Sep 13 can’t be edited.

A) - Manager already creates each late fee as a standalone transaction as noted via the transaction statement.

Therefore, this statement becomes the only method available to inform the Customer on a transaction basis as the Sales Invoice’s monthly “changing” bulked up late fee amount doesn’t do that, it just gives the “impression” that the value of Sep 13 is changing

The statement enables the Customer to take up the late fees as separately dated transactions as they are separate transactions to the Sep 13 Sales Invoice, but connected as the basis for the calculation. The customer’s liability amount for Sep 13 never changes but their liability overall increase as each late fee is incurred.

Therefore for Manager to be more transparent just needs to add a late fee notation to the statement.

I understand what you are saying, but the document is modified by addition of the late fee (or increase of a pre-existing late fee) in the totals section. That’s what I was referring to.

I totally agree, but what alternative is there? If you don’t send a modified invoice, how will they know they owe the fee? And what do you do if they haven’t paid in 3 months? Yes, you could send the statement. And right now, that’s the only way to show the repeated changes separately. But some would contend that a statement creates no obligation for the customer to pay, that you have to send the invoice. Meanwhile, you’ve got an invoice in your system that changes from month to month all by itself, increasing the customer’s Accounts receivable balance.

This would definitely be an improvement. I’ve always thought the statements were sparse on detail.

Personally, I don’t like the automatic late fee calculation. I’m very fortunate that my customers usually pay on time. But in those rare occasions when they don’t, I add a line item for the late fee and send a modified invoice, prominently marked as such.

As Manager is creating an accounting transaction then it could have under Reports > Customers a Late Fee item, enter the dates and a listing similar to statements is created where the user could print off the Late Fee advise, “invoice”.

However, generally the practise is to just add a noted entry on to the statement, as Manager does, as the intention is more of a threat then an obligation. Many late fee charges are subsequent forgone, requiring a credit note rather then just a cancellation by editing the sales invoice’s late fee settings…

Don’t know whether I have misunderstood the application of late fees, but I have issued an invoice that was due in 7 days, with a monthly late fee activated.

INVOICE

The invoice shows the late fee was added +7 days not +1 month.

INVOICE%202

Am I missing something? Should it not show Late payment fees #180662 - 3 Aug 18
The application of the late fee seems to be attached to the due date e.g. specified period 7 days, 14 days etc.

The program is performing exactly as designed. You entered a due date 7 days after invoice date. That would make payment due by July 10th. On July 11th, since payment is late, late fees are added. They will be added again in one month. Charge monthly indicates the interval between successive late fees, not the date of the first late fee, which is set by the due date. This is clearly explained in the Guide: Manager Cloud.

SSS
the net days option should be there in purchase invoice too.
it will make things a little easier as sometime partial payments are made to the supplier and calculating the days in calender is bit difficult. so may this net days facility will help in purchase invoice like it helps in sales invoice.

First, the late payment fees feature does not apply to purchase invoices.

Second, the net days option exists for sales invoices because a business may have a policy that sales invoices are normally due net X days. This can be set under Form Defaults and will apply to all invoices. But when a sales invoice is created, the net X is converted to a calendar date. It is never shown as net X days.

There is no such corresponding situation for purchase invoices, where the due date depends on the supplier, not your own policy. For both transaction types, the due date becomes a definite date.