Customer Account Statement & Collections

What it is and what it's for

Unlike the general Accounts Receivable reports (which show all your customers at once), the Account Statement is built for one specific customer: it's always opened from their record and answers the question "how much does this customer owe me, and since when?". It includes open credit invoices as well as unapplied credit and debit notes and unused customer prepayments.

The report groups documents by currency (if the customer has documents in more than one) and, within each currency, by project when your plan has projects enabled, showing a subtotal for each group and a grand total per currency.

How to use it

1. Open it from the customer's record. The Account Statement button appears on the customer's list, panel or details screen. It only shows up if your company has the Accounts Receivable capability enabled (see availability below). Clicking it opens that customer's statement with today's date as the cutoff.
2. Adjust the filters. Customer is required; the Cutoff Date defines up to which day balances are calculated; Project lets you see only that project's documents; and Subsidiary only shows up if your plan has subsidiaries enabled. The Include prepayments and Show applied checkboxes add, respectively, unused prepayments and — under each document — the payments and applications already recorded against it.
3. Generate the report. Click Refresh to recalculate with the chosen filters, without reloading the whole page.
4. Drill into a document. Every document number is a direct link to that invoice, note or prepayment, and the project name links to its record.
5. Print or share. The Print button generates a print/PDF-ready version with your company logo and details (you can pick one of your custom formats if you've created one). The Share via WhatsApp button sends the customer, over WhatsApp, a direct link to their own statement using the same filters you had selected.

Report columns

Bulk-emailing account statements

The Send Account Statements by Email screen lets you notify every customer with past-due balances at once, instead of opening their record one by one.

1. Filter who you're writing to. You can narrow it down by Customer, Sales Rep, Customer Class and Subsidiary (if your plan mixes currencies across subsidiaries, the system requires you to pick one before continuing, since this screen adds up local-currency balances without consolidating). The Aging filter matters most: only documents overdue by at least that many days are listed; the default is 7 days.
2. Review the list. The list groups overdue documents by customer and, within each customer, by project, showing a subtotal per customer and a grand total at the end.
3. Check who to email. Each customer has a checkbox; check it to include them in the send. If a customer has no email address on file, the system reports that instead of sending anything to them.
4. Send. The Send button generates, for every checked customer, a PDF of their account statement (using the email template configured under Communications, or a default message if you haven't configured one) and emails it as an attachment.

You can also email a single customer's statement, with a custom subject, CC and message, from the Collections Workspace: that screen reuses the same send feature, with the extra option to send a test copy to your own email before sending it to the customer.

Customer movements (self-service portal)

From the Customer Portal, in addition to their account statement (open documents only), your customer can use the AR Movements button: a view of their entire history of debits and credits per currency — not just what's outstanding — with the running balance after each movement, useful for reconciling their own books against yours. Like the account statement, it can be printed in a PDF-ready version with your company's logo and details.

Changing the estimated collection date

Every customer credit invoice has an estimated collection date: the date you actually expect to receive payment (which can differ from its formal due date). This date drives the Estimated Collections by Month/Week reports used to project future cash flow, so keeping it up to date — for example, after a collections call where the customer promises to pay on a different date — improves the accuracy of those projections.

1. Open it from the document. The Change Date button is on the credit invoice's details screen (and on other open sales documents, such as credit/debit notes).
2. Pick the new date in the New Estimated Collection Date field; the screen shows, read-only, the document's number, date and amount and its current estimated date for reference.
3. Save. The Save button validates that you picked a date before submitting the change; once done, it returns you automatically to the document's details.

You can make the same change, without leaving the screen, from the Collections Workspace, where the estimated collection date is directly editable in the list of open documents.

Available filters

Availability and permissions

• The Customer Account Statement (and the email send) requires your plan to have the Accounts Receivable capability enabled; this applies from the Start plan onward — the entry-level Billing plan, aimed only at cash sales, does not include it.
• To see the "Account Statement" button you need to be able to open the customer's list, panel or details, i.e. the Customers browse permission.
• Access to Accounts Receivable reports in general depends on your user group's browse permission over Customer Receivables and/or Relationship Receivables; depending on which ones you have, you'll see only customers, only other relationships (e.g. employees with loans), or both.
• The Subsidiary and Project filters only appear if your plan has those features enabled.
• Emailing a single account statement with a custom subject, CC and message, and quick-editing the estimated collection date from a list, both live inside the Collections Workspace.

Tips and common mistakes