See who owes you in the credit book

The credit book answers "who owes us, since when, and what did we do about it?" in one list of customers' account balances. Use it to decide whom to call first.

Before you start

• The credit book must be switched on (see switch on the credit book).
• You need the Credit: who owes, record payments right (see roles and rights).

Steps

1. Open Collections → Credit book.
2. Read the tiles at the top: Owed to you (the total and how many customers), Overdue, and one tile per age band: 0–30, 31–60, 61–90 and over 90 days.
3. Select an age tile to list only the customers in that band.
4. To find one customer, type a name or part of a phone number in Name or phone.
5. To narrow the list, pick a filter: Overdue, Promised to pay or No reminders. Then select Show.
6. Read each row: Owed, Overdue, Oldest unpaid (the day of the oldest amount still open), Days late, Last payment, Last reminder and Promised for.
7. Select a customer's name to open their account, with the open items, the history and the actions.
8. To keep a copy, select Print, Excel or CSV. The file follows the filters you chose and your language.
9. Select Clear to see everyone again.

Good to know

• Where the balances come from. Each customer's account: amounts charged to it (Books invoices when they are issued, opening balances you brought in, charges from other apps) less the payments recorded, whether in the credit book, on a Collections case or in Books.
• Ageing is by the age of what is owed. Payments pay the oldest amounts first, so a customer who pays part of their balance moves to a younger band.
• Due dates come from your terms, not from Books. An amount is due on the day it was charged plus the customer's terms (or your organisation's terms). The Collections workspace ages each invoice by its own due date instead, so the overdue amounts can differ; see the credit book and Collections.
• Days follow your organisation's time zone, so "days late" changes at your midnight, not the server's.
• A shorter list. Collections → Who owes us is a plain list of everyone with a balance and their last activity, with Record a payment on each row and Print everyone owed.
• Other views. Books' report Who owes us gives totals per age band only. For names and invoices with each invoice's own due date, use the Collections ageing.
• Next: note a promise to pay, or send the credit book's reminders.