How are late fees assessed? (Recap)
How are late fees assessed? (Recap)
Late fees are assessed based on the settings of each fee.
Pricing period = How often do you want the fee to recur until paid?
Grace Period = How much wiggle room are you offering past the due date before the customer is charged a late fee?
Example:
LATE FEE SET UP - Monthly pricing period, $5 per month with a 5 day grace period.
ASSESSED LATE FEE ON CUSTOMER'S INVOICE:
Invoice due 12/16/2022
5 day Grace Period makes the invoice subject to a late fee as of 12/22/2022 (12/16 + 5 = 12/21. Late fee will be assessed the following day).
May 2025, customer has yet to pay for their invoice. They have accrued a late fee of $145. 29 months x $5 per month.
Reviewing & Waiving late fees
All columns are filterable
Select the applicable Accounts / Invoice
Select Waive Fees
We recommend these steps for any Business who has imported data, including but not limited to invoices from your previous invoicing system where our system may attempt to assess a late fee. Another option for filtering a date range is if your business has not charged late fees prior to a specific date and you're starting fresh from this point forward.
To waive late fees for a previous period or to set late fees to start assessing after a specific date -
The default date range at the top of the Late Fee review is 24 months (2 years). This range can be adjusted as needed, however keep in mind the larger the date range, the more date the system has to review and pull.
Starting with the first tab of the Late Fee review 'READY FOR INVOICE'
To filter by date range (date the late fee would be sourced from, not the current invoice date) select the Filter option for the Source Invoice Date column and add the filter of SOURCE INVOICE DATE / IS BEFORE / (DATE)
For this example, let's say you want to waive late fees prior to 2025 -
Filter the SOURCE invoice date to 'is before' 01/01/2025
Select all or specific Customers/Fees to waive
Select Waive Fees
How to waive late fees based on amount owed on invoice-
(typically associated with a customer having made a payment towards the invoice and you do not want to penalize)
Source invoice amount is the total amount of the invoice
Source invoice balance is the remaining balance of the unpaid invoice.
For this example, we are going to waive the late fees for any invoice balance less than $10
Filter the Source Invoice Balance by Less Than (<) or Less Than and or equal to (<=) if you want to waive the fee at $10, including the $10 not just less than.
Select the applicable Account / Invoices, select Waive Fees
These same filters can be used for filtering by Account Balance, Source Invoice Amount, etc.
Bulk invoicing of late fees
There are two options for invoicing for invoices in bulk.
The first is from Create Manual Invoices
The second is from the Late Fee Review page
From the Ready for Invoice tab, select the accounts / invoices to be invoiced for Late Fees only (do check that you have no pending manual Work Orders set ready for invoice)
Select Create draft invoice
Make sure to include those late fees 😉
Add a custom note, review your invoices and create
FAQs
I waived a late fee and I didn't mean to, can I undo it?
YES!
From the Waived tab, select the Accounts / Invoices and select the Unwaive button
Do waived late fees display in the customer details?
Not at this time. We highly recommend using Billing or Account notes to document that fees have been waived.
Once I waive the late fee, will the system try to assess a new late fee for that same invoice?
NO.
Once the fee is waived, the system considers that late fee resolved and no longer needed. If you want to charge your customer for the late fee, you can undo / update the status of the waived fee back or you can manually add a custom fee to an invoice.
Can I waive a partial amount of the late fee?
Not at this time. You can waive the fee or not, but in either situation it is the full amount. If there is a smaller late fee you want applied instead, we recommend linking a new late fee to that customer.
What is a Source invoice?
Source invoice is the invoice that is late. That is the invoice that the system is attempting to apply a late fee to.
How often are late fees assessed?
Daily. The system will review your data for past due invoices that match the late fee requirements.