Customer ledger - overview
With a variety of time-saving automation functionalities and reporting options, the Customer ledger workspace of Visma Net streamlines your entire receivable process and gives you the ability to reduce input error rates.
The primary functionalities of the Customer ledger workspace are described briefly below and extensively in other topics in this section.
Customer ledger multi-currency options
Each customer account has a default currency assigned to it. Invoices will be generated in this customer’s default currency unless currency overriding is allowed. The system automatically computes realised gains or losses when payments are received from foreign customers. Users can revalue outstanding foreign currency invoices in the base currency as often as needed by using the Currency management workspace.
Customer defaults and overrides
During Visma Net implementation, you can establish customer classes, which provide suitable default values to ease data entry. If you set up a default customer class that holds data common to most customers, users can add new customers more quickly. Also, when users enter documents, they specify a customer and most of the elements will be automatically filled in with the default values of the customer. This makes input of documents much easier and saves time.
Multiple document and payment types
With the Customer ledger workspace, your company’s personnel can create manually or generate sales invoices for sold goods and services provided. You can correct invoices by using credit notes and purchase debit notes. Users can account for goods and services paid by cash and returned for cash with cash sale and cash return documents, respectively. Payments of various types made by different methods and prepayments can be entered and posted as they are received.
For more information, see the following topics:
Payment application
When entering a customer payment, you can apply it to open invoices and notes of the customer including credit notes. To reduce the time required to match payments to invoices,Visma Net gives you the ability to automatically apply customer payments and prepayments to the oldest outstanding invoices, notes, or overdue charges. If a payment was applied incorrectly, you can void the application of the payment or the entire payment.
For more information, see About automatic payment application.
Rounding of invoice totals
If the functionality of rounding of the document amounts is activated in your system, you can set up the rules and the precision to be used to automatically round the amounts of invoices. Notice that the rounding rules and the rounding precision that you specify for invoices are the same for all currencies. For more information, see the following topics:
Workflow options
In Visma Net, you can configure the document processing workflow to match the policies established in your organisation. You can use multiple options that control processing and multiple processing forms. Newly entered documents can be released immediately or placed on hold and then reviewed by an authorised user before being released.
Also, you can configure the workflow in such way that the documents are automatically posted on release, or that posting can be performed only by authorised users.
Sending documents electronically
With Visma Net, you can set up sending released documents, such as invoices or notes, electronically to customers who want to receive documents by email. Also, you can configure sending such emails to employees who work with specific customers. For customers who do not want to receive documents electronically, you can continue to print documents for sending them via postal services.
For more information, see Manage mailings - overview.
Recurring invoices
Schedules can be used to create and maintain recurring invoices, such as invoices for regular jobs or services your company provides for customers. After a recurring invoice is entered and assigned to a schedule, you will not need to re-enter the entire invoice each time it needs to be generated.
For more information, see About schedules for recurring documents.
Payment terms
You can define payment terms, which can be associated with specific customers. The payment terms, which are applied to incoming payments, define the due dates and the cash discounts available in case invoices are paid ahead of due dates.
For details, see About payment terms.
Debt collection
Whenever customer payments are not immediately bound to the delivery of goods and services, businesses need complete and continuous tracking of outstanding debts.
In Visma Net, it is easy to configure statement cycles and print statements, so customers have a detailed record of their balances with a specific branch or the entire organisation. Credit verification rules can be defined for each customer class and for each individual customer.
Overdue charges can be applied if payments are late. A sequence of dunning letters can be configured to remind customers about unpaid invoices, and a credit hold can be applied to customers once the last letter has been generated.
To learn more, see Manage credit policy - overview.
Write-offs
After a certain period of time, a credit on your books should be written off and considered income. You can write off customer credits and balances that are less than the tolerance limits you have defined for the customers.
For more details, see Write-off methods - overview.
Salespersons and commissions
In Visma Net, you can create accounts for each salesperson and assign default commission percentages. Sales commissions are calculated automatically, based on total sales or payments minus total returns during the sales commission period.
See Manage commissions - overview for additional details.
Contracts
Many businesses use contracts if they provide goods and services to the customers during the specified period of time. For example: To maintain and repair a product during the manufacturer’s warranty period or after it has expired. In Visma Net, you can configure contract templates to provide typical settings for contracts.
Contract settings are used for contract renewals (if they’re permitted) and for recurring invoicing in accordance with the contract’s invoicing schedule.
For more information, see Manage contracts - overview.
Customer ledger security options
To restrict users’ access to some customer accounts, you can include the customer accounts and the users authorised to work with them in restriction groups. This functionality can be used to properly organise the work of salespeople.
Audit trail
Invoices have unique IDs that have been generated in accordance with the assigned number series, along with the customers’ document reference numbers. These functionalities provide an easy-to-follow audit trail while preventing duplicate entries and payments.
Other functionalities and options
In addition to the functionalities already discussed, you can use the following capabilities to organise the collection process in the most convenient and effective way for your business:
Create and maintain an unlimited number of customer accounts.
Attach scanned images or electronic versions of customer original documents to payments, notes, and prepayments or to lines of the documents
Organise and store comprehensive customer information, including multiple invoicing and shipping addresses and associated general ledger accounts.
Run multiple reports displaying customer balances, ageing periods, statements, and transaction registration information.
Use inquiries, which display current customer information in a variety of ways:
- Outstanding balances for a customer or customers by period and by currency.
- Documents that are past due for a specific customer and overdue charge amounts owed by the customers.
- Commissions payable to salespersons and their details, including sales amounts, return amounts, and total commissions.