Overdue payments
You can configure your approach to handling overdue payments in SkyBill by setting up reminders and finance charges. Both are based on the standard Dynamics 365 Business Central functionality, but SkyBill adjusts the processes to fit the utility billing context. Utility companies often deal with a large number of small invoices, so automating the collections process is crucial to maintaining cash flow and reducing administrative overhead. Therefore, SkyBill allows you to post finance charges automatically during invoice posting, streamlining the collections process. In Dynamics 365 Business Central, invoicing, reminders, and finance charges are typically handled as separate processes.
Learn more about setting up reminders and finance charges in Dynamics 365 Business Central. You will use standard Business Central functionality for both processes, however in each case SkyBill introduces some adjustments to fit the utility billing context.
Reminders
Reminders are follow-up notices sent to customers with overdue invoices. In Dynamics 365 Business Central, you can set up reminder terms and levels to define how and when these reminders are issued.
| To | Go to |
|---|---|
| Discover how to define reminder terms and levels so you can set up a structured follow-up process for overdue invoices. You’ll learn how to configure when reminders go out, how many levels to use, and what additional fees or interest may apply. | Set up reminder terms and levels |
| Learn how to automate the reminder workflow, so your system creates, issues, and sends follow-up notices without manual effort. The article covers how to build an automation chain and reduce administrative overhead. | Automate reminders in collections |
By default, Dynamics 365 Business Central generates one reminder per customer. However, in the utility billing context, customers may have multiple contracts for different properties. In SkyBill, you can choose to split reminders per contracts. To set up this functionality, go to select Search (Alt+Q) 
in the upper-right corner, enter Billing Setup, and then choose the related link.
Tip
Use this option if you want to mainain the balance per contract. If there is an additional fee connected to the reminder, it will in posting some transaction to the customer ledger.
Finance charges
Finance charges are additional fees applied to overdue invoices to encourage timely payments. In Dynamics 365 Business Central, you can set up finance charge terms that define how these charges are calculated and applied.
| To | Go to |
|---|---|
| Explore how to define finance charge terms (interest, fees, calculation methods) to apply to customers with finance charges. The article shows how to link these terms to accounts and control how charges are calculated. | Set Up Finance Charge Terms |
| Get an overview of how finance charges work in practice: when they are posted, how they integrate with customer accounts and ledger entries, and how reminders and charges interact in the collections process. | Finance charges |
Dynamics 365 Business Central contains two separate processes: invoicing and finance charge posting. Utility companies often prefer to combine these two processes and handle finance charges directly within the invoicing workflow. SkyBill supports this approach. You can post finance charges automatically during invoice posting.
To enable that select Search (Alt+Q)
in the upper-right corner, enter Billing Setup, and then choose the related link. On the Gen. Info FastTab, turn on the Automatic Fin.Ch. Memo Posting toggle. This way, SkyBill will calculate and post finance charges automatically whenever you post and invoice. The finance charge will be displayed as an additional line on the invoice. Turn this toggle off if you prefer to handle finance charges as a separate process according to the standard Dynamics 365 Business Central functionality described in Finance charges.
Related information
Totaling types
Tariffs
Design details
Meter points
Contracts