Overview

An accounts receivable is a ledger of the financial transactions carried out between your company and its customers, such as invoices and payments. It keeps a running balance of debits and credits and displays the amount a company is owed in exchange for goods supplied and services rendered. Multiple currencies are supported.

Billable processes, such as subscriptions and jobs, result in account receivable debits. These may be funded by the parent accounts of beneficiary groups. The credit limit determines how much money a customer can owe a company.

Setting Up Accounts Receivable and Core Processes

Before you start using Accounts Receivable set up the system to reflect your own business needs.

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Global Settings

Define settings that will control the behavior of accounts in the system. Enable the usage of multiple currencies to allow each account to have different Currency. Define whether allocation principle which defines how financial transactions are posted, will be done FIFO (first-in, first-out) where credit is allocated against the oldest (non-allocated) debit, or Against Item & FIFO where credit is allocated against a designated debit and the remaining amount is allocated using FIFO.

The allowed classifications for accounts which are used to label accounts in a meaningful way are also defined here.  System processes such as pricing, billing and subscription activation can group results according to their classification and apply different actions to each group. 

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System Accounts

Suspense and Write-off accounts are owned by the business.  System accounts work as sub-ledgers and register transactions that should be processed through a specific business flow, such as those posted against an invalid account. 

A Suspense Account is used as a repository that temporarily holds financial transactions whose associated customer account is not found. This can happen when the use of bank payment import files result in an account which:

• Cannot be determined during the transaction (invalid account)
• Is 'Terminated'
• Exhibits a mismatch with its owner.

Validations in the software's UI or WEB API do not permit the processing of transactions with an incorrect or missing accounts receivable.

A Write-off Account is used for financial transactions that have been classified as non-collectible.  Once an invoice is written off, an identical invoice is created and allocated against the system Write-off account for analysis purposes.

An Internal account is your company's account. This is usually used for inventory purposes, to keep the products that are registered on your company. Refer to Inventory Management for more information

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Presentment Preferences

Presentment Preferences are used to define the account owner's preferred method for receiving and exporting bills and integrating bills with third-party systems. The preference type can be based on classifications, such as Post, Email, SMS, F2F or other depending on business needs.

• Account presentment preferences can also be taken into consideration when communicating with the customer through the Notification process. For example, a customer is notified only if the communication template's media matches that of the presentment preference set on the account.

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Payment Settings

Payment Preferences are used to define the customer's preferred methods of payment for each account. They hold the information, such as bank account and credit card numbers, which is necessary for third-party systems to perform payments. Additional finance settings may be used along payment preferences which vary based on the payment preference type; you can set up these settings before creating your payment preferences.

• Banks and Bank Account Types: set in an accounts receivable when the type of payment is 'Direct Debit' and 'Payment Gateways'. If available, you can use them on Payment Preferences.

• Payment Medium Brands: used to establish the brands of cards that are accepted for payments to and from customers and (goods and services) providers, such as American Express, Visa or Electron.  Accepted Brands are added in the payment preference (not in the definition).
• Payment Medium Types: used to establish the accepted types of payment. For example, where payment medium brands are Visa and American Express, the type can be set to Debit and/or Credit. Accepted Types are added in the payment preference (and not in the definition).

Payment Preference Type defines how the customer would like to make a payment to the account. Each customer can have multiple payment preferences and according to each preference different information are kept on the account. For example, if the payment preference is associated to a credit card then the details of the card will have to be provided in the account. Or if the customer would like to pay with a direct debit then the details of the bank account are kept on the account.

For some types the system has a preset of the information which must be kept on the account, while for other types it is up to you to set this up, using the Supported Fields. Information defined in the supported fields is available on the accounts receivable when enabling the payment preference.

Setting up and Using Credit Terms

Credit Terms of an account include the credit period which indicate the time granted to a customer by a company to meet their financial obligations, indicated in the invoice due date and the credit limit which defines the maximum allowed account balance,

The terms of an account are set when it is created, based on the selected credit rating and the settings in the Default Credit Terms.

The credit period of each account is set equal to the Default Credit period however it can be extended or shortened per account to manage exceptional customer cases. This is possible by providing a proximity range in the default credit terms, within which an account's credit period can be amended.

• Subscription events related to activating a subscription or service are blocked

It is possible however to update provide specific events which will not take into consideration the general credit limit rule based on predefined conditions. This is possible through Billing Definition (Configuration > Billing Application > Billing > Billing Definition) by setting rules in 'Override Credit Limit Rules'. In these rules you can define the events that the general rule should not be applied, as well as the conditions when the rules should be overridden such as the classification, the credit rating of the account or the KYC profile of the customer.

Setting up and using Usage Allowance Limits

Usage allowance limits are set to implement a threshold on how much a subscriber can spend on a specific (usage) service in a predetermined period or in a single transaction.  Limits are applied when adding usage services to a subscription.

CRM.COM Usage Services are services that can be quantified - such as 500 SMS, 100 minutes of phone calls, 100 ltr of petrol, 10 movies. You can restrict how much is spent on usage services (in a predetermined period or single transaction) by setting Usage Allowance Limits on the customer account.  The eligibility of usage transactions is validated before the transaction is completed.

Transactions of a predetermined value and duration of validity can be authorized on customer request for spending on a specific service.  

Through the Global Usage Allowance Limit you can set up Usage Authorization validity period within which an authorized expenditure must take place. For example, when paying with a credit card in a petrol station, the card is authorized to carry out a transaction of specific value within a limited period. If the transaction does not take place while the authorization is in effect, re-authorization is necessary.
When conducting an authorized transaction, the customer receives an authorization number, which must be used to add/buy the usage service. The receipt of the authorization number is only available through the WEB API and not the user interface. This is done by setting a value in Usage Authorization Valid for.
You can set up multiple rules and each rule will be applicable to specific account classification.

• Allowed Exceeded Usage Limit: The defined usage limit can be exceeded as long as the account credit limit is not exceeded.  The following formula is used to calculate the allowed exceeded usage amount:
  
  • Allowed Exceeded Usage Amount = Percentage of Allowed Exceeded Usage Limit * (account credit limit - account balance)
    
    • If a percentage value is not supplied, the limit cannot be exceeded.
• Block Usage Consumption When Billed and Non-billed Amounts Exceed the Allowed Credit Limit:  the account balance is calculated by also taking into consideration the UDR which is about to be submitted
• Accumulated Usage Allowance Rated Amount Limits: Define the maximum cash amount which can be spent on each transaction, or per day or month, across all services.
• Accumulated Usage Allowance Usage Limits: Define the maximum amount of usage (e.g. minutes, liters, movies) that can be consumed on each transaction, or per day or month, across all services.
• Limits per Usage Service Defined Either per Service, Service Type or Service Family: Define the maximum cash and/or usage amount for a specific service that a customer is allowed to consume on each transaction, or per day or month.  The values in this section cannot exceed the accumulated amount.
• Block Not Included Services: If selected, the customer is only allowed to consume services that are defined in the 'Usage Allowance Limits per Usage Service' section. Otherwise, they are allowed to consume any usage service restricted by the overall limits.

If it is allowed to update the allowance limits per account, then you can do so in the respective section. Once the original values in the definition have been changed, they can be modified simply by using EDIT from the Actions menu. If at any point you wish to revert to the original values in the definition, click on Reset Usage Allowance Limits from the Action panel. If the accounts receivable is a member of a group account, click on 'Inherit Parent Account's Usage Allowance Limits' to inherit the settings of the parent account.

Setting up and Using Accounting Periods

 An accounting period is defined as the time frame in which financial transactions are posted.  It can cover a month or a year and can have a value of 'Open' or 'Closed.'  Only one accounting period can be open at a time

Accounting period settings can only be specified once, and define whether the accounting period will be monthly or yearly as well as the day considered as the first day of the accounting year.

The first accounting period is automatically created by the system when the settings are specified.

The following periods are created once the current period is closed. Once closed a period cannot be reopened and transactions can no longer be posted against it.

The accounting period is closed by using the Close Accounting Period action, after financial transactions have been posted and errors corrected.

• The closing process is executed by the scheduler and can take place right away or is scheduled for later.  It cannot be scheduled to be executed repeatedly.
• 'Terminated' accounts with posted transactions (submitted before the termination) which are not yet related to any accounting period are also considered during the period closing process.
• An Error Log is used to register all accounts or financial transactions that could not be processed.

Draft financial transactions that should be included in the current period must be posted before it is closed (one can't post against a closed period). Draft transactions created within a specific period can be viewed, selected from the respective tab in open periods and posted using the Post Financial Transactions action

Incorrect data, such as wrong periods in financial transactions, can be identified and corrected by using a Period Closing Corrections from the Actions menu.

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Using Accounts Receivable

Specify the criteria that match the account you are interested in or use NEW from the Actions Menu to create a new Accounts Receivable. Provide the mandatory information in the Accounts Receivable fields table before you SAVE the account

Use EDIT from the Actions Menu to enter edit mode. Accounts can be 'Terminated' so that they are no longer operational, and no subscriptions, jobs, wallets or service requests can be created for terminated accounts.

You can Terminate Accounts Receivable as long as all of its financial transactions are posted

The Account Balance is calculated as the latest accounting period's opening balance plus all of the financial transactions posted against the account during this latest accounting period while the Outstanding Amount is the aggregated amount of posted debits which are not settled and are past their due date.

A wallet balance is available as long as a wallet is associated to the account.

Usually Accounts Receivable have a Billing Address which is the address used to communicate accounts receivable billing information, selected from a list of addresses specified in the customer's Contact Information. If an address is not yet available, you can create one by selecting the address type and providing the respective information. If there are multiple addresses, the one selected before saving the account is considered as the billing address. Contact information addresses are updated when a billing address is modified. Whether a billing address is mandatory is defined in the respective rules of the active accounts receivable definition. 

Through the Authentication Settings you can define Access Tokens which are used to identify and authenticate customers, users or applications with CRM.COM access. Access tokens can be created automatically by the system or manually through the User Interface or Web API. The configuration of the Access Token Settings determines whether defining a token is mandatory. Refer to Access Tokens for more information.

Suspending and reactivating an accounts receivable

Accounts can be suspended in case of a dispute or while running a credit check. When an account is in a suspended state, financial transactions can still be created, but new subscriptions, jobs or service requests cannot be related to the account. The account can be reactivated once the issue is settled or the check is successful.

Suspend the account using the Suspend Account from the Action Menu

 Reactivate the account by using the Reactivate Account from the Action Menu 

Writing off an accounts receivable

 In case you identify that an account owner's debt will never be collected, it is possible to write off the account, so the remaining debt is overwritten. Write off the account by using the respective action available through the Actions menu.

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Managing accounts receivable assets

Once a customer purchases a (traceable or not traceable) physical good it becomes an account asset. Assets can change hands through: 

• Buying a physical good through a job
• Transferring an asset from one account to another
• Importing a physical good into CRM.COM and relating it to an accounts receivable.

Click on View Assets from the Action menu to manage your assets. Through the assets screen click on one of the following actions from the Action Menu

• View history: View the physical goods sold to the account owner and returned or replaced.
  
• Return physical goods: Goods sold through the jobs module are added to the account as assets. Agents can return a product by using the respective action available in the account Data Entry page. The product is returned to the warehouse through a 'Stock In' transaction. View the Inventory Management manual for more information on warehouse transactions. Multiple items can be moved simultaneously.
  
• Transfer of ownership: Transfers an item from one accounts receivable to another. The original owner of the good is responsible for the cost of the purchase.
  Once the ownership is transferred, a physical good will appear in the asset history of the initial owner, and as a current asset of the new account.
  If the transferred good had a warranty policy, then the policy will be transferred unchanged with the good.
  
• Import asset: Usable items located with the customer and registered with the provisioning provider (not with CRM.COM) can be imported, associated with the accounts receivable, and added to subscriptions. The items remain with the accounts receivable when they are returned or replaced. They are easily identified on the installed items page by their 'Owned by Customer' status.

Setting account currency

Currency used in transactions is defined when creating a new account and cannot be changed subsequently.  A default currency is set in the general system settings. To change currency, enable the multi-currency setting in the active account definition. When a currency other than the default is selected, the account's bills, rewards and wallet transactions are converted using the system's conversion rates.

If the user does not define an (exclusive) currency when creating a new account, and multi-country and multi-currency are enabled in General Settings, then the currency defined for the country/community of the 'owned by group' is used. Refer to Platform for more information on setting up and using multiple currencies.

Setting up Account Pricing Agreement

It is possible to agree special pricing with your customers. For example, you can make a deal with a hotel chain of multiple hotels offering them special prices for goods and services purchased. In such case, you can set a specific price plan on the account (only applicable to the specific account) and every time the account is billed the prices will be taken from the specific price plan.

Using group accounts

Group accounts are useful in cases where a company wishes to pay for its employees' goods and services purchased, either partly or fully. A good example would be a company with a fleet of buses, where the company will be responsible for paying for refueling of buses. Group accounts are made up of a parent account and one or more member accounts.

Set an account as a 'parent' by adding 'member' accounts.  Funding applies to services that are provided through normal subscriptions, termed services, usage services, and expenses. A parent account is responsible for fully or partially settling the balance of member accounts (depending on the funding scope).  Fully funded members can subscribe and consume the services at the expense of the parent account. Partially funded members must settle bills for non-funded services. The agreed pricing for the parent corporate accounts also applies to the members

Rules, restrictions, and actions (such as suspension, reactivation or termination) that apply to a parent account also apply to its members.

Add a member to an account through the Members section in the Data Entry screen. You can ADD an existing account as a member or REMOVE member accounts.  Select the funding scope for the new members and either add the specific services that will be funded or once the account is saved click on ADD FUNDED SERVICES TO ALL to search and add services which will be funded to all member accounts.

If Usage Allowance Settings are enabled and specific services defined, it is possible to add those services through the action ADD USAGE ALLOWANCE SERVICES

To create a group account the following conditions must be met:

• The parent account must:
  • Be active
  • Not be a parent or member of another account group
  • Not be a system account.
• The member account must:
  • Be active
  • Not be a parent or member of another account group
  • Not be a system account
  • Be in the same currency as the parent account
  • Belongs to an owner other than the parent
  • Not have its own pricing if it is a corporate account.

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Registering a card

A payment gateway card is used for online payments and handles the transfer of funds from the bank account of the customer to that of the seller.  For security purposes, only a part of the information (which is required to register the card with the payment gateway) is kept in CRM.COM.

 CRM.COM is integrated with the following payment gateways: Stripe, Braintree, Payeezy. For more information refer to Payment Gateways.

1. Enter EDIT mode and go to the payment preferences section
2. Select a payment preferences that is based on a payment classification associated with the gateway to which you would like to register the card.
   
3. Fill out the card information and 'VERIFY' using the respective button
4. Check whether to 'Use For Recurring Payments', and whether the registered billing address should be used.
   1. To add more cards click on the 'View Customer cards' link and fill out the card information.
   2. Select the card that should be used as default.

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Business Flows