---
title: "About dunning process by document"
description: "You select the By document option in the Dunning process field on the Dunning settings tab of the Customer ledger preferences (AR101000) window to set that the system groups overdue documents by customer account and by document dunning level when it prepares dunning letters."
lang: en
languages:
en: https://docs.vismasoftware.no/visma-net-erp/help/customer-ledger/manage-dunning-letters/about-dunning-process-by-document/index.md
lastmod: 2026-02-19
---
> Documentation index: https://docs.vismasoftware.no/visma-net-erp/help/customer-ledger/manage-dunning-letters/llms.txt
# About dunning process by document
Last modified February 19, 2026
> You select the By document option in the Dunning process field on the Dunning settings tab of the Customer ledger preferences (AR101000) window to set that the system groups overdue documents by customer account and by document dunning level when it prepares dunning letters.
For more information: [Customer ledger preferences (AR101000)](https://docs.vismasoftware.no/visma-net-erp/help/customer-ledger/customer-ledger-windows/customer-ledger-preferences-ar101000/index.md).
You can prepare a separate dunning letter for each document, or you can group the documents of a customer account with different levels into one letter. If you group documents into one letter, in the printed version, the documents are grouped by level.
In general, you prepare dunning letters as follows:
1. You select the documents for which you want to prepare dunning letters and initiate the preparation.
> [!NOTE]
> Before you start preparing dunning letters, make sure that customers do not have open payments, prepayments and credit notes that can be applied against outstanding documents.
1. Optional: You edit the lists of included documents (if needed) and release the prepared dunning letters.
1. You can skip this step if you have enabled the automatic release of letters.
1. You print or send by email the reviewed and released dunning letters.
You can use the following windows to view the history of dunning letters that have been produced:
+ [Dunning letter history by customer (AR408000)](https://docs.vismasoftware.no/visma-net-erp/help/customer-ledger/customer-ledger-windows/dunning-letter-history-by-customer-ar408000/index.md): Displays the history of dunning letters that have been produced for the selected customer account
+ [Dunning letter history by document (AR408500)](https://docs.vismasoftware.no/visma-net-erp/help/customer-ledger/customer-ledger-windows/dunning-letter-history-by-document-ar408500/index.md): Shows the history of dunning letters that have been produced for documents of the selected customer account
In this topic, you will read about the letter generation rules, the dunning process workflow, and the way the system changes the status of the dunning letter.
## Dunning letter generation rules
When you group overdue documents by customer account and document dunning level, the generation of the letters is based on the following rules:
+ The letter of the **first** level is generated for a document for which the number of days past due exceeds the number of days specified for this level in the **Days past due** field on the **Dunning settings** tab. The document is marked with the first dunning level.
+ The letter of the **second** level is generated when the document (whose level is 1) is still unpaid and the number of days the document is past due exceeds the number of days specified for this level in the **Days past due**. The system increases the dunning level of the document. (If you have only two levels defined, see the description for the letter for the last level.)
+ The letters of the **next** levels in the series are generated similarly to the letters of the second level.
+ The letter of the **last** level for the document is generated if the document is still unpaid and the number of days the document is past due exceeds the number of days specified for this level. When this letter is prepared, the system selects the **Final reminder** check box for this letter in the [Print/release dunning letters (AR522000)](https://docs.vismasoftware.no/visma-net-erp/help/customer-ledger/customer-ledger-windows/print-release-dunning-letters-ar522000/index.md) window. In this case, the customer account can be selected on the [Manage credit holds (AR523000)](https://docs.vismasoftware.no/visma-net-erp/help/customer-ledger/customer-ledger-windows/manage-credit-holds-ar523000/index.md) window, so you can put this account on credit hold. The rest of the overdue documents of this customer account are still included in the dunning process.
> [!NOTE]
> If for some reason the process of dunning letters preparation was delayed for a period of time, the system will shift the dates of dunning letters generation for the period of the delay.
If you want to notify customers receiving dunning letters about all open
documents, unpaid (the due date is still in the future), due (the due date has passed), and
overdue (the number of days past due has exceeded the number of days past due specified for the
level), you select the **Include other unpaid documents** check box on
the **Dunning settings** tab of the [Customer ledger preferences (AR101000)](https://docs.vismasoftware.no/visma-net-erp/help/customer-ledger/customer-ledger-windows/customer-ledger-preferences-ar101000/index.md) window. (Unpaid and due
documents are marked with a level of zero.)
With this check box selected, the system includes
open documents as follows: If you prepare a dunning letter for a document associated with the
first level, the system includes overdue, unpaid, and due documents.
When you prepare the next
dunning letter for this document, the system includes overdue and unpaid documents, but no due
ones.
## Dunning letter statuses
During the processing of a dunning letter, the system changes its status as follows:
Draft
: This status indicates that the dunning letter has been prepared and can be released. You can edit the list of customer documents included in the letter. If the **Automatically release dunning letters** check box is selected on the **Dunning settings** tab of the [Customer ledger preferences (AR101000)](https://docs.vismasoftware.no/visma-net-erp/help/customer-ledger/customer-ledger-windows/customer-ledger-preferences-ar101000/index.md) window, the system skips the **Draft** status.
Released
: This status indicates that the dunning letter has been released and can be printed, sent by email, or voided. If a non-zero dunning fee was specified for the level of this letter (on the **Dunning settings** tab of the [Customer ledger preferences (AR101000)](https://docs.vismasoftware.no/visma-net-erp/help/customer-ledger/customer-ledger-windows/customer-ledger-preferences-ar101000/index.md) window), the invoice for the dunning fee was also created during the release of the dunning letter. If the **Automatically release dunning fee documents** check box (on the **Dunning settings** tab of the [Customer ledger preferences (AR101000)](https://docs.vismasoftware.no/visma-net-erp/help/customer-ledger/customer-ledger-windows/customer-ledger-preferences-ar101000/index.md) window) is selected, the system automatically releases the invoice when the corresponding dunning letter is released.
Voided
: This status indicates that the dunning letter has been voided, the system decreased the dunning level for each document that was included to this letter and these documents are available for preparing a new letter with the **Draft** status.
## Letter preparation
You use the [Prepare dunning letters (AR521000)](https://docs.vismasoftware.no/visma-net-erp/help/customer-ledger/customer-ledger-windows/prepare-dunning-letters-ar521000/index.md) window to prepare
dunning letters.
The table lists the overdue documents grouped by customer and by document
dunning level.
For instance, if a customer account has two overdue documents with different
levels, the system will display two rows in the table.
If a customer account has two documents
with the same level, the system will group the documents into one row.
The way by which you select and process documents affects the contents of the letter prepared.
If you want to prepare separate dunning letters for documents of the same customer account but
each with a different dunning level, you should select a one document and click
**Process** (in the window toolbar) and then select the next one and process
it.
If you want the system to group into one letter documents of the same customer but with
different dunning levels, you should select all such documents and click
**Process**.
After you have selected the documents that you want to process (by selecting the check boxes
in their rows), you click **Process** to prepare these dunning letters. You
can instead prepare dunning letters for all records in the table by clicking **Process all**.
If the letters have been generated successfully, the system displays a green
check mark in the window toolbar.
If the **Automatically release dunning letters** check box is cleared in the [Customer ledger preferences (AR101000)](https://docs.vismasoftware.no/visma-net-erp/help/customer-ledger/customer-ledger-windows/customer-ledger-preferences-ar101000/index.md) window, the
letters are prepared with the **Draft** status and you need to release them; if the check box
is selected, the letters are prepared with the **Released** status and are ready for printing
or emailing.
> [!NOTE]
> You can schedule the preparation of dunning letters to be performed automatically by using the automation schedule functionality.
## Letter editing and releasing
If the **Automatically Release Dunning Letters** check box is cleared in
the [Customer ledger preferences (AR101000)](https://docs.vismasoftware.no/visma-net-erp/help/customer-ledger/customer-ledger-windows/customer-ledger-preferences-ar101000/index.md) window, each generated letter has the **Draft** status, and
you can adjust the list of documents included for each letter or delete the draft of the letter
itself.
The [Print/release dunning letters (AR522000](https://docs.vismasoftware.no/visma-net-erp/help/customer-ledger/customer-ledger-windows/print-release-dunning-letters-ar522000/index.md) window displays the list
of prepared dunning letters.
You can highlight the row in the table with the letter you want to
edit and click **View dunning letter**in the table toolbar.
The system
navigates you to the [Dunning letters (AR306000)](https://docs.vismasoftware.no/visma-net-erp/help/customer-ledger/customer-ledger-windows/dunning-letters-ar306000/index.md) window, where you can view and
adjust the list of documents.
If you have deleted either the documents from the list or the letter itself (with all the documents it included), the system will process these documents the next time you prepare dunning letters.
On this window, you can exclude a particular document from the dunning process by selecting the document in the table and clicking **Revoke** in the table toolbar. The system removes the document from the list and marks it as excluded from the dunning process by selecting the **Revoked** check box in the **Dunning letter info** section on the **Financial details** tab of the [Sales invoices (AR301000)](https://docs.vismasoftware.no/visma-net-erp/help/customer-ledger/customer-ledger-windows/sales-invoices-ar301000/index.md) window for each document involved. (You can select or clear this check box in the Sales invoices window as well.)
The deletion or exclusion of documents from the list may influence the level of the dunning
letter that is displayed on the **Dunning letter level** in the top part
of the window. The system uses the value of this field to define the dunning fee amount for which an
invoice should be generated. If there are documents with different dunning levels included in
the letter, the system sets the highest document level (that is, the level with the largest
value) as the dunning level of the letter.
If you delete documents with the highest level, the
system decreases the level of the letter.
By using the [Dunning letters (AR306000)](https://docs.vismasoftware.no/visma-net-erp/help/customer-ledger/customer-ledger-windows/dunning-letters-ar306000/index.md) window, you can also release the letter and then print or email it (or void it, if needed).
In the [Print/release dunning letters (AR522000](https://docs.vismasoftware.no/visma-net-erp/help/customer-ledger/customer-ledger-windows/print-release-dunning-letters-ar522000/index.md) window, you can release groups of dunning letters by selecting the **Release dunning letter** action and processing the selected documents or all listed documents.
When a dunning letter is released manually or automatically, the system updates the information in the **Dunning letter info** section on the **Financial details** tab of the Sales invoices window. For each document involved, the system updates the date of the last released dunning letter that included the document, and increases the document dunning level by one.
## Letter previewing and sending
You use the [Print/release dunning letters (AR522000](https://docs.vismasoftware.no/visma-net-erp/help/customer-ledger/customer-ledger-windows/print-release-dunning-letters-ar522000/index.md) window to print released dunning
letters or initiate the emailing of them.
In this window, you can print dunning letters to be sent
through postal mail, or generate emails that you can preview before sending them in the [Pending emails (SM507000)](https://docs.vismasoftware.no/visma-net-erp/help/email/email-windows/pending-emails-sm507000/index.md) window.
> [!NOTE]
> This is the default workflow of sending emails; consult your system administrator to find out whether it has been modified.
Letters from all branches can be sent separately or can be consolidated (on generation) into a
single letter to the customer.
This is controlled by the **Consolidate dunning letters for all branches** check box on the **General settings** tab of the [Customer ledger preferences (AR101000)](https://docs.vismasoftware.no/visma-net-erp/help/customer-ledger/customer-ledger-windows/customer-ledger-preferences-ar101000/index.md) window. In the **Dunning letter from branch** field on this tab, you should also select the branch that will be specified as the
sender.
Related pages
Concepts
Tasks
Windows
---
[View this page](https://docs.vismasoftware.no/visma-net-erp/help/customer-ledger/manage-dunning-letters/about-dunning-process-by-document/)