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THE ESSENTIALS

Contacts and Organisations can have one or more financial Accounts, each account associated with one of your business’s enabled currencies.

An account has running and ageing balances, along with a credit limit and payment terms. An Account’s balance is updated whenever financial transactions are issued (Invoices, Credit Notes, Payments or even when manual Journal Entries are posted against it).

Before diving into the financial details, let's go over some basic terms used in CRM.COM.

Account

Both Person and Company type contacts can have accounts. 

A contact can have multiple accounts in different currencies; each Account has a running balance, an overdue amount and a credit limit. If the Contact has multiple accounts, then one of the accounts will be the primary Account, which is the main Account used by the Contact and can be changed at any given time. 

Aside from contacts, businesses and merchants/service providers can also own accounts. Refer to the Business Network manual for further information. 

Financial Transactions

Financial transactions are monetary events, such as Invoices and Payments. Each transaction is posted against an account to debit or credit contacts. They capture detailed accounting information, including itemised amounts, taxes, discounts, and payment methods. The exact data recorded for each transaction is determined by its classification.

Credit Limit

This is the maximum amount an account owner can owe the Business. The Credit Limit is utlised to trigger automated payments when an account’s balance exceeds the allowed limit.

Payment Terms

Payment terms specify when an invoice is due to be paid. Payment terms are defined using NetD terms.

Payment Methods

Payment methods are a contact’s preferred method of payment such as a bank card, digital wallets or bank accounts. They are used to fund accounts (e.g. automated Payments when the account’s credit limit is exceeded). Refer to the Payment Methods manual for more information. 

Accounting Period

An Accounting Period is a time frame (e.g., a calendar month) during which financial transactions are posted. At the end of each period, all transactions are summed up to calculate the closing and opening balance per accounting period and per account.

Ageing Analysis

Ageing analysis categorises outstanding invoices based on the number of days since their issue date, grouping them into 30-day ageing buckets. Ageing analysis can be viewed:

• On the Contact's Statement

• Via the Debtor's report

• On the Finance dashboard

Getting Started

This manual explains the different financial transactions that affect a Contact’s Account and how to manage the Account from the back end.

The Contact screen shows an overview of a Contact’s Financials and allows back-end users to perform financial actions. To access it, go to: CRM > My Contacts > select a Contact > Financials.

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Once the Financials tab is selected, you will see a summary of the Contact's financial information. The area on the left refers to the Account information, whilst CRM.COM Wallet information is displayed on the right.

Managing Financials

Account States

The actions that can be performed on an account depend on the account’s state.

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Account state

• Active - The Account is fully operational, allowing all financial transactions. New Accounts are set to Active by default.

• Suspended - This state can only be applied manually to an Active account. No transactions can be posted, except Payments. Suspended Accounts can't be used for new actions like funding a new subscription. Once settled, Suspended Accounts can be manually set to Active again.

• Terminated - Can only be set manually and permitted only if no Account-based entities are still Effective (e.g., a Subscription service). No financial transactions can be posted against Terminated accounts. Accounts that assume this state cannot be modified and their state cannot be reverted.

Refer to Account Actions for a list of actions that can be performed against the Account and how these affect the Account state.

Financial Actions

CRM.COM allows you to carry out financial actions using the back-end system. Remember that financial actions carried out on behalf of the Contact will affect their Account and/or Wallet balances.

Access Financial Actions by clicking on options (…) under your logged-in user name in the top right-hand corner of the screen.

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Create Account

To engage in any financial transaction, a Contact must have an account. Contacts (and Organisations) can have multiple accounts, but each account must have a different currency. Additionally, each currency must be one that has been enabled by the business.

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When creating a new Account, choose one of the Contact's addresses as the Billing Address. This address will be used to send financial information and apply the correct taxes based on the Contact’s location.

You can change an account's billing address by navigating to the Account in question, hovering, and then clicking the Billing Address edit option.

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Charge the Contact

Manually create an Invoice to charge the Contact using products defined in the Product Catalogue.

Credit the Contact

Issue a Credit Note for specific Products or Invoices (whole amount).

Journal Entry

Manually create a Journal Entry to debit or credit a Contact’s Account or CRM.COM Wallet.

Record Payment

Create a payment for a Contact either against an Invoice generated by CRM.COM or an external invoice (External Financial References), in which case the external reference number should be provided.

Record Payout

A Payout returns money back to the Contact from their Account or CRM.COM Wallet. A Payout (unlike a Refund) is unrelated to any other financial transaction, such as a Payment.

Refund the Contact

A full or partial Refund is processed for a Payment. The Refund transaction returns money to the Contact using the chosen Refund Method, such as a credit card.

Top-up Money

Top-up the Contact's Account or CRM.COM Wallet using one of their payment methods.

Transfer Money

Transfer funds from one of a Contact’s Accounts or Wallets to another of their own, or to an Account or Wallet belonging to a different Contact. If the transfer involves different currencies, the amount is automatically converted using the configured exchange rates for the target account’s currency.

Statement

View all transactions performed against the Contact's Account and CRM.COM Wallet for a selected period of time. The statement can be exported in PDF or CSV format, emailed to the signed-in user, or emailed directly to the Contact.

Save as Draft

When manually issuing financial transactions, you have the option to either create and post them immediately or save them as Drafts and post them later on. Draft financial transactions can be either rejected or posted, and they do not affect the account’s balance.

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Saving a financial transaction as Draft

To Post a Draft financial action, it must first be retrieved from the Activity Feed > select options (…) > Post.

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Posting a financial transaction previously saved as Draft

Account Actions

To access the Account actions, click on the options button (…) in the Financials tab area for the relevant Account.

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Account actions will directly affect the Contact's Account, so caution should be exercised when applying changes.

Set as Primary

This option is available only for Accounts that are not designated as the Primary Account. The Primary Account serves as the default when issuing financial transactions.

Modify Classification

Account classifications are used to group accounts for pricing and analytics purposes. Account Classifications can be configured via Settings.

Suspend

Accounts can be temporarily Suspended during disputes or credit checks. Financial transactions cannot be issued against a Suspended Account (except Payments) and no new Subscriptions or Service Requests can be linked to the Account. The Account can be reactivated once the issue is resolved.

Activate

Reactivate a Suspended Account. This option is only visible if the Account is Suspended.

Terminate

Terminated Accounts are no longer operational, and this state cannot be reversed. An Account cannot be terminated if:

• It's used to fund a non-churned Subscription, or

• Is related to a chargeable Service Request which is still open or

• Has a financial transaction still in Draft state.

There are three ways to terminate an Account, each affecting the remaining balance differently:

• Instantly—Any remaining balance will be lost. If it’s the Primary account and the Contact has another non-terminated Account, the other account becomes the primary one.

• Transfer to same Contact Account - Terminate the Account and transfer the balance to another Account of the same Contact.

• Transfer to other Contact Account - Terminate the Account and transfer the balance to another Contact’s Account.

Change Credit Limit

If a credit limit is not set, then the default credit limit defined in Settings > Financials > Financials > Credit Terms applies. However, it's possible to manually set a different credit limit for each account.

Change Payment Terms

Set specific Payment Terms for an Account. If not set, the default Payment Terms defined in Settings > Financials > Financials > Credit Terms apply.

The Activity Feed

The Activity Feed keeps a log of all financial transactions against the Account in ascending chronological order.

Use the filter to narrow down the results, and then select a financial transaction from the Activity Feed to see its full details.

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Activity Feed

Payment Methods

Contact payment methods are the funding methods authorised by the Contact to pay for their purchases. The Contact can choose from the acceptable payment methods set up by the Business.

A Contact can optionally specify a primary payment method (identified with a P) through the front-end, this is the default payment method for online (automatic) payments.

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Financial Events

The Financial Events screen displays a consolidated list of finance-related events generated by CRM.COM, against all Contact's Accounts and the CRM.COM Wallet.

To view such events, navigate to Finance> Financial Events from the main menu on the left-hand side of the screen. Use the filter to narrow down your search, and click on an event to see more information.

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Finance Settings

Navigating to Settings > Financials > Generic allows you to configure finance-related settings (subject to user permissions).

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These are account-specific settings, for Wallet-related settings, please see the Wallet manual.

Numbering Schemes

Set up how the system should automatically generate Account, Invoice and Credit Note numbers.

Account Name Display

Select how the Contacts Account names will be displayed throughout the software and when communicating with contacts. Choose from the Account number alone, or a combination of the Account number and Contact name.

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Example of Account number and Contact name combination

Account Classifications

Account classifications allow grouping and managing Accounts by applying specific Business rules, such as defining:

• Credit Terms - Override the default Account Credit and Payment Terms by creating a rule for a specific Account classification (Settings > Finance > Credit Terms).

• Subscription Service Restrictions - Impose restrictions on the maximum number of Subscription services a Contact can own based on the Contact's Account classification (Settings > Subscriptions & Billing > Subscriptions Management > Service Restrictions).

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Allocation Settings

Select the default allocation principle to allocate credit transactions against debit transactions. The following are supported:

• FIFO - Credit is allocated against the oldest (non-allocated and based on their posted date) debit.

• FIFO and against item - Credit is allocated against a designated debit , and the remaining amount is allocated using FIFO.

Accounting Period Closing

CRM.COM supports only monthly accounting periods. You have the option to set how many months prior to the current month should have their accounting periods automatically closed. By default is set to 1, meaning only the current month remains open, while the previous month's accounting period is automatically closed.

Example

A Business selects to keep 3 accounting periods open. The current accounting period is March 2023, therefore on 5th March 2023 accounting period December 2022 was closed. Next month (5th April 2023), accounting period January 2023 will be closed and so on.

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Financial Transaction Types

Financial transaction types have a classification that determines a transaction’s financial and accounting characteristics. You can create multiple types within the same classification and apply them across different business rules to distinguish between specific transaction scenarios - for example, separating invoices generated from orders versus those created through subscription billing.

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Once financial transaction types are configured, you can also set one as the default by selecting the Default checkbox, thus making it easier to choose a type when the transaction is being created.

Credit Terms

Credit Terms define the agreement between the Business and the Account owner regarding:

• A Credit Limit - The maximum amount the Account holder can owe the Business.

• Payment Terms - The time-frame granted to the Account owner to settle financial obligations.

The default credit terms apply to all Accounts, but additional credit terms can be configured per account classification.

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To create more payment term durations, click on the ‘pencil’ icon next to the Payment Terms selection box.

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Taxes

Taxes are applied when invoicing an account. Both Invoices and Credit Notes include summarised and detailed (breakdown) information of the tax(es) applied per transaction and per transaction line. Find out how to configure Taxes here.

Tax Exempt defines a status whereby a tax rate of 0% is applied when invoicing an Account owner who is not eligible to pay taxes. A Contact can be marked as Tax Exempt from the Contact screen.

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Event-Based Charges

Set up one-off charges for an event, resulting in an additional fee, such as cancellation and delivery fees, being included when invoicing a subscription or an order. The configuration settings vary depending on whether the charge is configured for Orders or Subscriptions.

• Rule - Start by selecting the rule name (these are products which have a product type classification of Expenses Service and also carry the charge to be paid by the contact).

• When should a charge be applied? - Select the entity and the action that the contact will be charged for, e.g. for subscription activations, the contact will be charged for the installation on the next billing cycle (i.e. upcoming bill).

• How to calculate the charge's amount? - Select how the charge will be calculated and applied. Delivery charges can be applied in the following ways:

  • product catalogue pricing – The expense product’s price is charged once as a flat rate.

  • based on distance – The distance between the order’s delivery address and the fulfilling organisation’s address is calculated. The usage service’s pricing is then applied to determine the charge (e.g. €1 per km).

  • based on order cost – The order’s final cost is used. The expense service’s stairstep ranges determine the applicable price for the cost range the order falls within, (no multiplication is applied).

• Where should a charge be applied? - If the charge applies only to specific fulfillment locations, list them here. Otherwise, the charge applies to all Merchants and Venues capable of fulfilling the order.

• Conditions - The charges can be conditional, e.g. will be applied if the order or subscription meets the specified conditions.

  • Based on the order supply method.

  • The order’s minimum cost.

  • The order queue.

  • Based on product/product type/product family.

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Example of an event-based charge for an installation fee

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Example of applying a delivery fee when an order total is below a specific amount

Event-Based Recurring Charges

Recurring charges are triggered by specific events and result in recurring invoicing of a Contact for a related expense. This charge is terminated when another event occurs. For example, when a device is rented to a Contact, a rental charge is applied and remains active until the device is returned, at which point the charge is terminated.

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• Rule - Select the rule name (these are products which have a product type classification of Expenses Service and also carry the charge to be billed)

• Initiating action - Select the event which will cause the recurring charge to be added to the subscription bill.

• Terminating action - Select the event which will terminate the recurring charge.

• Conditions - Set the conditions whereby the charges will be applied.

Reference Material

You may also find it useful to refer to the following manuals for further reading in relation to Accounts.

Contacts

https://crmdevelopment.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CRM/pages/424247365

CRM.COM Wallet

https://crmdevelopment.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CRM/pages/1938882561

Rewards

Reward Offers https://crmdevelopment.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CRM/pages/432472155

Rewards Events https://crmdevelopment.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CRM/pages/432472155/Reward+Offers#%5BinlineExtension%5DRewards-Events

Accounts

https://crmdevelopment.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CRM/pages/1412235485

Subscriptions

https://crmdevelopment.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CRM/pages/1460961433

Business Network

https://crmdevelopment.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CRM/pages/610697345

Integrations

https://crmdevelopment.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/CRM/pages/1397522770

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