Automatic letters

Automatic overdue letter generation

The Automatic overdue letter generation process is used to automatically generate Debtors letters according to the Letter stage (of which there are three) recorded against their account.  Whether or not letters are generated depends on the account overdue status which takes Grace days into account, payment activity and Letter stage.

This process determines which customers are applicable using the selection criteria entered by the user and then doing the following checks.

Customers are selected by the Classification entered and the account balances for these selected customers are checked for overdue values.

To determine whether an account is overdue or not, the system validates against TMSDS/PEND-ODD Pending for Overdue Definition

• Using Overdue from number of Periods
• The Overdue Percentage
• The number of days of Grace

If the accounts have overdue values the system then checks the Customer Pending Exceptions Maintenance file and excludes those customers that have been listed as exceptions to Overdue Balance checking. The next check is whether a payment has recently been made on the account.  If a payment has been made the Letter stage flag will be cleared.  If, by clearing this Letter stage flag it means the customer no longer fits the Letter stage criteria entered by the user for this run, the customer is excluded.

The user enters the Letter stage to be checked and indicates the Letter format to be generated for that Letter stage.  This is done each time the Batch Letter Generation process is run.  The Letter formats used are the same ones created for Manually Generated Letters and will use the variables in TMSAR/LTR-VAR.

An optional Debtors Payment Control Report can be printed.  The user selects whether or not to print this report at the time of running the generation process. Once the letters have been generated, they are printed by selecting the Print Debtors Letters option on the menu.

If the customer is on the exception list or not overdue, then send NO LETTER and CLEAR STAGE.

If the customer is NOT on the exception list and OVERDUE then send the requested letter UNLESS:

• This letter is stage 1 but customer currently is stage 2
• This letter is stage 2 but customer currently is NOT stage 1
• This letter is stage 3 but customer currently is NOT stage 2

To view the end result of a letter generated and printed for a customer, select the Customer History function from Debtors Inquiry screen or select the Customer History Menu on the main Distribution Menu and then the Customer History Inquiry.  The letters can be selected and displayed in full.

1. In the menu, expand Base Modules > Distribution > Debtors & Claims > Accounts Receivable > A/R Reports > Automatic Letters and then double-click Debtor Auto Overdue Letters. ARR041 Automatic Overdue Letters Generation panel appears.

2. Enter the above selection criteria for the letter generation.
3. Click OK to generate the letter.

Automatic letter generation

This program generates customer letters for overdue accounts. By sequencing the conditions for selection and allocating a Letter Format to that condition, the appropriate letter will be produced for that account overdue condition.

The conditions for selection are based on ageing buckets and the system presumes the ageing buckets will move along the scale of increased days overdue and therefore the severity of the letters will be selected accordingly. To determine whether an account is overdue or not, the system validates against TMSDS/PEND-ODD Pending for Overdue Definition using the following.

• Overdue from number of Periods
• The Overdue Percentage
• The number of days of Grace

The Letter Formats will be taken from the standard letters currently held on the system.  Note that the variables used by the Automatic Letters are found in TMSAR/LTR-VARO and therefore if the same format is required for manually generated letters and the automatically generated letters, two formats will need to be established.

A table is set up on  TMSAR/LTR-TBL to determine which type of letter is to be produced for each customer, based on an analysis of the outstanding debt. This table, which is user defined, holds a series of statements.

Each set of conditions is grouped together by a Group Code. The conditions are outlined as below.

• The first check, determined by the sequence number being 001, can be if the first overdue bucket is greater than or equal to $100, the customer should receive Letter Format A1 which could be a gentle reminder that the account is overdue.
• The second check, determined by the sequence number being 002, can be if the first overdue bucket is NOT greater than or equal to $100, BUT there are overdue values in other ageing buckets, check whether any of these ageing buckets have a value less than $100.  If this condition is met, the customer is still eligible to receive a Letter Format A1.  At under $100 the gentle reminder may be sufficient.

When the Automatic Generation program is run, it first checks the table for a match and then checks that the customers selected are not listed as Exceptions to the Overdue Rules.  The Pending Systems, Customer Pending Exception Maintenance program (DSE027) is used to setup the exceptions.

This option of automatically generating letters is usually run as part of a month end process.  If required it can be added to the month end routine to generate the letters automatically.  The printing of the generated letters can then be done as and when required.  A Debtors Payment Control Report can be printed if required by selecting the option on the main selection panel.

1. In the menu, expand Base Modules > Distribution > Debtors & Claims > Accounts Receivable > A/R Reports > Automatic Letters and then double-click Debtor Auto Letter Generation. ARR042 Automatic Letter Generation panel appears.

2. Enter the above information, as necessary.
3. Click OK to generate the letter. Once the letters have been generated, the Customer History Inquiry reflects this and provides access to the letter details.

Print letters

Once system letters have been generated through the automatic letter generation options, they can be printed.  The generation process will extract the data from the customer file based on variables set in the standard letter format.

In the User field, enter User ID and the letters that have generated will print.

OR

If system is setup to do so, letters will be sent to spool file where it can then allocate them for printing.