This user guide explains how to enable automatic reminders for your sales invoices, adjust them to meet your company's needs, and manage exceptions. You will also learn how collection services can be used in automation and how to report invoices that have encountered errors.

CONTENTS

With automatic reminders and notices, you can enable the automatic processing of sales invoice reminders.
During activation, the user is guided through the feature, and customers are pre-assigned to general rules based on which reminders are sent to customers. This ensures that all domestic customers - both business and consumer - are included in the reminders. Foreign customers can also be included, but this must be done by the user.

The service itself is free, but a transaction fee of 0.25€ (VAT 0%) is charged for each reminder, notice, and collection letter sent. This fee is in addition to the normal transaction fee. 

With automation, you can create as many separate rules as you want, meaning not all customers need to be reminded at the same pace. When creating a new rule, you can consider, for example, the size of the invoice to be reminded, the collection fee, or the sending rhythm of the reminder invoice. If there are customers who should not receive reminders at all, these customers can be removed from active rules and reminded manually. If necessary, the settings of general rules can also be modified to better serve the company's operations.

Service activation and required permissions

The service can be activated from Sales > Interest and Collection > Automatic Reminders.

The first page that opens is where the service can be activated. The service activation can be done by those who have one of the following permissions for the company:

  • Accounting firm main user (TPK)
  • User administrator (KH) 
  • Company main user
  • Activation with the above rights is not possible if the user has the setting in Sales and Ledgers rights: Show only invoices and orders entered by themselves

Adding/editing/deleting rules:
Function-specific rights: Basic functions of sales ledger: edit rights
 - Editing rules is not possible if the user has the setting in Sales and Ledgers rights: "Show only invoices and orders entered by themselves".
Viewing rules:
Function-specific rights: Basic functions of sales ledger: read rights
 - Viewing rules is not possible if the user has the setting in Sales and Ledgers rights: "Show only invoices and orders entered by themselves".


Notifications via email

You can subscribe to receive a summary of soon-to-be-sent reminders, notices, and collection assignments/letters via email. The email is sent weekly on Monday. Email notifications can be subscribed separately through your communication settings. This can be done by clicking your name at the top right, selecting My Basic Settings, and on the Communication tab, "Send a message about invoices to be sent during the week of automatic reminders". 

  • The email is sent to the email address provided in the user's communication settings
  • Messages are not sent if the user has blocked system communication in their settings
  • Details of collectible invoices are shown per invoice. Information about notices and reminders is shown in summary form, as their quantities may be large.


How to use the service?



The service is activated by clicking the OFF position to the ON position. During activation, the user is asked for confirmation, as using the service incurs transaction costs.


The page also shows the general rules to which customers are assigned based on the information on the customer card.

Customers who have selected "individual customer" on the customer card are assigned to the general rule for individual customers. Other customers are by default assigned to the general rule for business customers. If the country information is something other than Finland, these are interpreted as foreign customers and left out of the rules. These customers can be found under "Automation blocked". These customers can also be added to the desired rule by the user.

Creating a new rule

Creating a new rule starts with the “Create new” button on the right.
For the new automation rule, select the targeted customer type (business customers or individual customers). The customer type affects, for example, the maximum amounts of collection fees used in automation and the reminder frequency for collectible customers. Additionally, give the rule a name and optionally a short description.  


Next, define the settings for automatically sent reminders and notices for the rule. Select the sending channel, possible collection fees, and the timing of the reminder. Additionally, you can choose to send reminders only when a certain open amount is exceeded or based on the auxiliary business name marked on the invoice.

  • The law related to the collection of individual and business customers differs from each other. Therefore, the default values provided are different for individual and business customers.
  • Reminders cannot be sent via automation to customers who have ordered e-invoices or direct payments. Reminders for individual customers cannot be sent as e-invoices (consumer e-invoice), so if the customer type is Individual Customers, this sending channel is not shown on the list.
  • The sending channel "system default" is formed based on the information saved on the customer card in the order 1. e-invoice (not individual customers) 2. email invoice 3. printing service
  • Collection letters cannot be sent by email, so the sending channel can be selected as e-invoice or PDF eLetter
  • A receipt for the collection fee is recorded only when the invoice recipient pays the fee. The payment is recorded on the default account for collection. Automation does not add a collection fee if one has already been added to the invoice earlier.
  • For currency-denominated invoices, the collection fee is applied at the amount entered in the collection fee field. For example, if you enter 10.00 as the collection fee amount, the collection fee for SEK-denominated invoices will be 10.00 SEK.


Next, select the customers you want to include in the rule. Customers can also be searched by typing the name or part of it in the search field.


Finally, a summary of the rule is shown, where the rule details are checked and the new rule is finalized. If necessary, you can return to previous steps by clicking the dots (1-4) in the rule view.


Collection fee in automation

  • In the Collection section, the user is not suggested the amount of the collection fee, but it can be added if necessary. The maximum amount for the fee depends on the size of the open amount of the invoice.
  • For currency-denominated invoices, the collection fee is applied at the amount entered in the collection fee field. For example, if you enter 10.00 as the collection fee amount, the collection fee for SEK-denominated invoices will be 10.00 SEK.
  • The collection fee set by the automation rule always overrides the collection fee set on the invoice, even if the collection fee was set manually on the invoice.
  • If both reminders and notices are enabled in the automation rule and a collection fee is added to both, the notice-level collection fee remains on the invoice. If no collection fee is defined for the notice level, the collection fee set for the reminder remains in effect.


Editing rules

Automation rules can be selected for editing from the panel located on the left side. The panel has options for General Rules for Business and Individual Customers, as well as any self-added rules. Click the rule to be edited from the left side, and the rule editing is done through the panel on the right. Collection fees can be added to the invoices to be sent, define how many days after the reminder is sent, and the amount below which invoices are not reminded. Additionally, you can define whether the reminder is sent as an e-invoice, by email, or through traditional postal mail. You can also choose to send reminders only when a certain open amount is exceeded or based on the auxiliary business name marked on the invoice.

  • The law related to the collection of individual and business customers differs from each other. Therefore, the default values provided are different for individual and business customers.
  • Reminders cannot be sent via automation to customers who have ordered e-invoices or direct payments. Reminders for individual customers cannot be sent as e-invoices (consumer e-invoice), so if the customer type is Individual Customers, this sending channel is not shown on the list.
  • The sending channel "system default" is formed based on the information saved on the customer card in the order 1. e-invoice (not individual customers) 2. email invoice 3. printing service
  • A receipt for the collection fee is recorded only when the invoice recipient pays the fee. The payment is recorded on the default account for collection. Automation does not add a collection fee if one has already been added to the invoice earlier.




“Targeted customers” tab shows which customers belong to which rule. Through this view, customers can also be transferred to another rule by selecting the desired customers and pressing the "Do for selected" button at the bottom. Transferring customers to another rule is also possible from the customer listing mass actions and from the "additional information" tab on the customer card.

Additionally, customer rules can be managed through the interface, meaning when new customers are added or existing ones are modified, setting the rule is possible using the customer.nv resource. These are automatically added to general rules according to the principles mentioned above.

Events:
Rule-specific events can be found on the third tab of the rule. To ensure the transparency of automation, you can see everything the automation has done for the specific rule here. Events can be filtered, for example, by invoice, allowing you to see if a specific invoice has been successfully sent by the reminder service. The invoice processing history also records the actions of the automation.

All events can be found under the "Events" heading at the top:

Here you can filter events by date or invoice number, for example.


Preventing automatic processing

Customers who do not want to be included in the automatic reminder can be added to the "No automation processing" rule.  This is done through an existing rule (Business Customer Rules/ Individual Customer Rules), from the Targeted Customers tab, by selecting the customer and pressing the "Do for selected" > "Block automation" button at the bottom.

If the automatic reminder is to be removed on an invoice basis, the automation is edited from the top of the sales invoice under "Automatic Reminder".



Situations where automation does not send a reminder

  • The invoice recipient is under a collection ban
  • A payment plan has been set for the invoice. Automation does not send invoices retroactively even if the payment plan is removed.
  • Automatic processing is blocked for the customer to be reminded
  • The invoice has already been reminded, notified, or has been in collection
  • An invoice in Paid status (invoice principal paid) has unpaid notice fees
    • No new automatic notice is sent for the fees
  • The invoice to be reminded is a factoring invoice (Note does not apply to OP Invoice Loan)
  • The invoice to be reminded is already in the sending process
  • The invoice to be reminded is an interest invoice
  • The invoice to be reminded is a credit invoice
  • The invoice is in external collection
  • The invoice recipient has a consumer e-invoice agreement
  • The customer was not part of the automation when the automation first attempted to process the invoice. For example, the invoice was due on April 15th, and the customer is added to the automation on April 16th. In this case, the automation attempted to process the invoice on April 15th and interpreted the invoice as bypassing automation. In this situation, the customer must be reminded manually, and if automatic notices are enabled, the automation will send a notice.

Using Intrum and Amili collection in automation

  • Netvisor-supported collection services, Amili collection and Intrum, can also be used in automation.
  • The user can forward the invoice to the collection partner with an automation rule if they have activated the service (detailed instructions for using the services: Amili collection service, Intrum Oy - Notice & Collection Service). 
  • Both reminders, notices, and collection letters can be sent to these partners.
  • If the invoice is sent to the collection partner already at the reminder stage, notice and collection actions are not available in automation, as the collection partner handles the collection.
  • If desired, both collection services can be used in automation. However, only one service can be used in the same rule.
  • If the sending channel is defined as a collection service in the rule and the collection service is later deactivated, a notification will appear "The sending channel selected for the rule has been deactivated" in the automation management interface, and automatic processing will not succeed.  
  • When using collection partners, the rule does not set a collection fee on the invoice.

Intrum additional notes:

  • If Intrum's service is used in automation, the automation follows the selection according to the "Material format" setting (Sales > Settings > Basic information and settings > Intrum Oy collection texts > Collection settings). 
    • Send materials to the service according to the invoice status: if the setting is selected, Intrum Oy's notice service is available in the channel selections for reminder and notice actions in automation. Intrum Oy's collection service is included in the channel selections for collection actions.
    • Send materials always to the collection service: Intrum Oy's collection service is included in the channel selections for all automation actions.
  • The minimum open amount limit for invoices forwarded to Intrum is 5 euros. Invoices below 5 euros are bypassed in processing, and a message is left in the automation processing history.
  • Invoices for foreign customers can also be sent to Intrum's service.
  • Removing an invoice from Intrum's service can only be done manually (from the Open Sales Invoices list).
  • If the settings of Intrum's collection service are changed regarding the used channel on the "Collection settings" page, the channel is automatically updated in the automation rules where Intrum is the sending channel. For example, if all materials were previously sent to Intrum's collection service and the setting is changed so that materials are sent to the service according to the status, the sending channel for reminders and notices is updated to Intrum Oy's notice service.

Amili collection additional notes:

  • In automation, Visma Amili notice service is available in the channel selections for reminder and notice actions. Perintäpalvelu Visma Amili is included in the channel selections for collection actions.
  • Invoices for foreign customers can also be sent to Amili collection service.

Error notifications

If an invoice for automatic reminder is not sent for some reason and encounters an error, this is visible on the front page under Exceptions and Notes and in the section for invoices sent by Automatic Reminders. The error is visible for 30 days and then disappears automatically. Unfortunately, it cannot be reset otherwise. 


Keywords: Automatic reminders, permissions, rule creation, collection service

This article has been translated using an AI-based translation tool. The contents or wording of these instructions may differ from those in other instructions or in the software.


Did you find it helpful? Yes No

Send feedback
Sorry we couldn't be helpful. Help us improve this article with your feedback.