Using the dunning module / create dunnings

[Ossi Viljakainen]

How is one supposed to use the dunning module? I have it installed and configured, and the dunning letter constructed.

But it remains mystery how this is actually supposed to work.

I have the following questions:

1) When selecting:

Financial > Dunnings > Create Dunnings

Create dunning for date <current date>

I expect this to search the invoices which have status "Posted" and which are overdue, and based on that create dunnings for the current date. However, it does not work like this. It does not create any new dunnings, but gives me a list of past dunnings that are in Draft-state. Why?

2) In the menu Financial > Dunnings, there are two options: "Create Dunnings" and "Dunnings". When selecting the first one, it asks "Create dunnings for date". After entering the date, it ends up in the exactly same screen as when selecting "Dunnings" from the menu. So is this "Create Dunnings" -wizard broken, or am I just not able to understand how it is supposed to work? The (nearly non-excistant documentation) doesn't help here at all.

3) When I select "New" from Dunnings, I have to select a record manually. the list there is not practical, as it displays all records, and not only the open ones. Even the paid ones are shown as "Posted", and not as "Paid". The only way to differentiate whether an invoice is paid or not is to see whether there is a reference number on the field "Reconciliation". If I try to use Filter to filter out the records what should I enter there? I tried different wildcards, but I don't know how to filter out those records with data in that field, and get only the blank ones listed.

We are using Tryton 3.0.

Thanks,

-Ossi

[Cédric Krier]

On 2015-12-04 01:26, Ossi Viljakainen wrote:
>
> How is one supposed to use the dunning module? I have it installed and
> configured, and the dunning letter constructed.
> But it remains mystery how this is actually supposed to work.
>
> I have the following questions:
>
> 1) When selecting:
> Financial > Dunnings > Create Dunnings
> Create dunning for date <current date>
>
> I expect this to search the invoices which have status "Posted" and which
> are overdue, and based on that create dunnings for the current date.
> However, it does not work like this. It does not create any new dunnings,
> but gives me a list of past dunnings that are in Draft-state. Why?
>
> 2) In the menu Financial > Dunnings, there are two options: "Create
> Dunnings" and "Dunnings". When selecting the first one, it asks "Create
> dunnings for date". After entering the date, it ends up in the exactly same
> screen as when selecting "Dunnings" from the menu. So is this "Create
> Dunnings" -wizard broken, or am I just not able to understand how it is
> supposed to work? The (nearly non-excistant documentation) doesn't help
> here at all.

I answer both points as there are the same.
The module should create only one dunning record per overdue line.
So if you run multiple times the wizard, it will not create new dunning
records.
Once you have your draft dunning records, you have to process them with
the process wizard which will run the action of the level of the
dunning.
After that the dunning records will be in the state 'done' (for this
level) and the "create dunnings" wizard will change the state once it
reach the next level and so on.

> 3) When I select "New" from Dunnings, I have to select a record manually.
> the list there is not practical, as it displays all records, and not only
> the open ones. Even the paid ones are shown as "Posted", and not as "Paid".
> The only way to differentiate whether an invoice is paid or not is to see
> whether there is a reference number on the field "Reconciliation". If I try
> to use Filter to filter out the records what should I enter there? I tried
> different wildcards, but I don't know how to filter out those records with
> data in that field, and get only the blank ones listed.

Normally, you should not create manually any dunning records.

--
Cédric Krier - B2CK SPRL
Email/Jabber: cedric...@b2ck.com
Tel: +32 472 54 46 59
Website: http://www.b2ck.com/

[Ossi Viljakainen]

On Friday, December 4, 2015 at 10:55:03 AM UTC+1, Cédric Krier wrote:

On 2015-12-04 01:26, Ossi Viljakainen wrote:
> How is one supposed to use the dunning module?

 

I answer both points as there are the same.

The module should create only one dunning record per overdue line.
So if you run multiple times the wizard, it will not create new dunning
records.
Once you have your draft dunning records, you have to process them with
the process wizard which will run the action of the level of the
dunning.
After that the dunning records will be in the state 'done' (for this
level) and the "create dunnings" wizard will change the state once it
reach the next level and so on.

Yes, indeed, I tested it and it works like this. Thanks :)

 

> 3) When I select "New" from Dunnings, I have to select a record manually.
> the list there is not practical, as it displays all records, and not only

Normally, you should not create manually any dunning records.

Ok, I see. Thanks, Cédric.

Then I'm experiencing some weirdness:

1) There are several overdue lines, but the module does not create dunnings for them. Is my configuration wrong, or am I doing something weird?

2) Sometimes the customer contacts and wants to agree on a payment plan (extended payment time, or payment in installments etc). In this case there should not be any further dunning letters. How to accomplish this?

3) Some customers have paid their invoice, but still Dunnings module create new dunnings for them. I double-checked, and yes, the invoice has been marked as "Paid". Is this an issue, or am I being stupid?

4) What does the "Blocked" checkbox do? Block the dunnings module to create further dunnings or block the customer from further sale?

-Ossi

[Cédric Krier]

On 2015-12-05 01:44, Ossi Viljakainen wrote:
> Then I'm experiencing some weirdness:
> 1) There are several overdue lines, but the module does not create dunnings
> for them. Is my configuration wrong, or am I doing something weird?

The party should have a dunning procedure and there should be a level in
that procedure that match the current line (ex: number of overdue days).
So it is not because a line overdue that a dunning will necessary be created.

> 2) Sometimes the customer contacts and wants to agree on a payment plan
> (extended payment time, or payment in installments etc). In this case there
> should not be any further dunning letters. How to accomplish this?

You can block a dunning for escalating to the next level.
But I think this could be improved to allow to set a date for how long
the dunning should be blocked.

> 3) Some customers have paid their invoice, but still Dunnings module create
> new dunnings for them. I double-checked, and yes, the invoice has been
> marked as "Paid". Is this an issue, or am I being stupid?

This is very strange because it should not create a dunning for
reconciled lines. And once the line of a dunning is reconciled, the
dunning is marked as inactive.

> 4) What does the "Blocked" checkbox do? Block the dunnings module to create
> further dunnings or block the customer from further sale?

See above.
To block a customer for further sale, it is the module
sale_credit_limit.

[Ossi Viljakainen]

On Saturday, December 5, 2015 at 11:00:09 AM UTC+1, Cédric Krier wrote:

On 2015-12-05 01:44, Ossi Viljakainen wrote:
> Then I'm experiencing some weirdness:
> 1) There are several overdue lines, but the module does not create dunnings
> for them. Is my configuration wrong, or am I doing something weird?

The party should have a dunning procedure and there should be a level in
that procedure that match the current line (ex: number of overdue days).
So it is not because a line overdue that a dunning will necessary be created.

There was no dunning procedure. Added.

 

> 2) Sometimes the customer contacts and wants to agree on a payment plan
> (extended payment time, or payment in installments etc). In this case there
> should not be any further dunning letters. How to accomplish this?

You can block a dunning for escalating to the next level.
But I think this could be improved to allow to set a date for how long
the dunning should be blocked.

Ok, this is great :)

 

> 3) Some customers have paid their invoice, but still Dunnings module create
> new dunnings for them. I double-checked, and yes, the invoice has been
> marked as "Paid". Is this an issue, or am I being stupid?

This is very strange because it should not create a dunning for
reconciled lines. And once the line of a dunning is reconciled, the
dunning is marked as inactive.

In the Party > Accounting the Dunning procedure was blank.

In Financial > Account Configuration > the Default Dunning Procedure was also blank. I added the default procedure there, and now it created the dunnings as expected.

 

> 4) What does the "Blocked" checkbox do? Block the dunnings module to create
> further dunnings or block the customer from further sale?

See above.
To block a customer for further sale, it is the module
sale_credit_limit. 

 

Thanks, will have to install that.

1) Is it possible to have dunning letters in different languages (based on party/language) and different formats (based on party/country)? Where do I define which letter to use?

2) Currently all dunning levels use the same letter, which is impractical. For different levels, different wordings would be needed. Where do I configure which letter to use for each level?

3) I'd like to get the module to automatically email the level 1 & 2 payment reminders to the customers (plain email / attached pdf). How to set this up? 

4) SMS payment reminder would be also nice and fast. Has anyone experimented with SMS gateways & Tryton?

-Ossi

[Cédric Krier]

On 2015-12-05 04:11, Ossi Viljakainen wrote:
> 1) Is it possible to have dunning letters in different languages (based on
> party/language) and different formats (based on party/country)? Where do I
> define which letter to use?

There is only one template define and it is using the party language.
You can customize it in the report section of the administration.

> 2) Currently all dunning levels use the same letter, which is impractical.
> For different levels, different wordings would be needed. Where do I
> configure which letter to use for each level?

You just have to put some choose/when/otherwise clauses on the same
template.

> 3) I'd like to get the module to automatically email the level 1 & 2
> payment reminders to the customers (plain email / attached pdf). How to set
> this up?

There is not yet any email dunning module in base because we don't have
yet a correct transactional email sending. This will require the
two-phase commit (from the wiki blueprint).

> 4) SMS payment reminder would be also nice and fast. Has anyone
> experimented with SMS gateways & Tryton?

No but I guess the same transactional issue as for email will be raised.

[Ossi Viljakainen]

On Saturday, December 5, 2015 at 1:45:06 PM UTC+1, Cédric Krier wrote:

On 2015-12-05 04:11, Ossi Viljakainen wrote:
> 1) Is it possible to have dunning letters in different languages (based on
> party/language) and different formats (based on party/country)? Where do I
> define which letter to use?

There is only one template define and it is using the party language.
You can customize it in the report section of the administration.

Thanks. I'll do and write there the customizations and translations.

But how do I refer to these? I have worked with the templates, but never added new fields. And when I need to add new fields to the letter, what is the convention, or where do I get those field names from?

Currently I have fields like:

<formatLang(dunning.maturity_date,dunning.party.lang)>

<dunning.party.name> <dunning.party.lastname>
<dunning.amount>

I would like to add field for interest of late payment (interest of arrear). And currently our company name, address etc are hard-coded in the template, I would like to change them to be fields and data derived from tryton.

Could you point me to some documentation in this regard?

 

> 2) Currently all dunning levels use the same letter, which is impractical.
> For different levels, different wordings would be needed. Where do I
> configure which letter to use for each level?

You just have to put some choose/when/otherwise clauses on the same
template.

Thanks, will test that. 

Sorry for my beginner questions :o

[Ossi Viljakainen]

Oh and one more thing:

When I include the fees and interests in the dunning letter, should it not either alter the original invoice, or create a new one, with those fees and interests included? Or is it that when the customer pays the invoice, and the paid amount is more than the invoice amount, it is at that point that 1) the invoice is marked as paid and 2) the excess is posted on some other account? I don't even know how this is supposed to be handled accounting wise.

[Cédric Krier]

I think the interests is quite special and generally countries have
specific rules on how they should work.
So usually, there are only administrative fees that are applied for
doing the dunning. We don't have yet a module that does it automatically
but in this case for me it is just a new invoice with the fees.

[Cédric Krier]

On 2015-12-17 07:03, Ossi Viljakainen wrote:
>
>
> On Saturday, December 5, 2015 at 1:45:06 PM UTC+1, Cédric Krier wrote:
> >
> > On 2015-12-05 04:11, Ossi Viljakainen wrote:
> > > 1) Is it possible to have dunning letters in different languages (based
> > on
> > > party/language) and different formats (based on party/country)? Where do
> > I
> > > define which letter to use?
> >
> > There is only one template define and it is using the party language.
> > You can customize it in the report section of the administration.
> >
>
> Thanks. I'll do and write there the customizations and translations.
>
> But how do I refer to these? I have worked with the templates, but never
> added new fields. And when I need to add new fields to the letter, what is
> the convention, or where do I get those field names from?
>
> Currently I have fields like:
> <formatLang(dunning.maturity_date,dunning.party.lang)>
>
> <dunning.party.name> <dunning.party.lastname>
> <dunning.amount>
>
> I would like to add field for interest of late payment (interest of
> arrear). And currently our company name, address etc are hard-coded in the
> template, I would like to change them to be fields and data derived from
> tryton.
> Could you point me to some documentation in this regard?

Here is the documentation:
http://doc.tryton.org/3.8/trytond/doc/topics/reports/index.html#topics-reports

But you are talking about adding new fields, I guess you mean extending
some Model to add them. If this is the case, you must create a custom
module that does that (but this topic is not covered yet [1])

[1]
http://doc.tryton.org/3.8/trytond/doc/topics/models/index.html#topics-models