Fax Customer Statements

Accounts Receivable Menu -> Customer Account Inquiry -> FAX button to queue screen -> Fax Customer Statements

Faxing the Customer Statements at month end is convenient in that it saves postage and the time required to first print the statement, then fold and stuff it in the envelope and stamp it.
The statement arrives immediately at month end, so that it gets your customer's attention sooner.
The statement can be faxed if your firm has been mailing or faxing the invoices on a daily or weekly basis.

Some firms save the invoices to mail with the monthly statement.
This approach is not recommended, because some invoices will be almost thirty days old by the time the customer first sees the invoice. This causes delays in payment being made.
Invoices should be mailed daily, weekly, or bi-weekly. Then statements can be faxed at the end of the month.

How It Works:

First the fax statements are sent at month end to customers eligible to receive faxed statements as flagged in Customer Information.
Then statements are printed for all customers which did not receive a fax, using Customer Statements.

After the fax statements are sent (and before the printing of the rest of the customers), the software notes which customers were selected for the fax statement, and the Aging Date (usually month end) of the fax statement run.
When the remaining statements are printed, the program skips all customers which were faxed with the SAME Aging Date as the current Statement print run.

Note: The Aging Dates must be identical for both the printing and the faxing of statements, in order for the two programs to relate.

Fax Setup:

Refer to Fax Software for information on configuring the software to utilize the fax commands.

How the Fax Statement Looks:

A faxed statement appears identical to the 'Plain Paper' version of the statement which prints using Customer Statements.
The words "STATEMENT OF ACCOUNT" respects the verbiage set for standard documents and Crystal Forms in the Document Field Labels, and appears at the top centre then your company name, address, phone and fax number appear next, and since your company information appears at the top, a cover page is not necessary with the fax.
For Jasper documents refer to Jasper Appearance and Formatting window of Customer Forms for the language and label controls.

Customers Without Fax Numbers:

If the customer does NOT have a fax # in Customer Information then the customer will receive a printed statement instead.

Customers with Incompatible Fax Machines:

If the customer does have a fax #, but their fax machine is incompatible with your system fax, set the Statement Output flag to 'Print Only' in Customer Information so that the customer will not be faxed, and will be eligible for a printed statement instead.

Preventing Statements for Certain Customers:

If the Statement Output flag is 'Suppress' in Customer Information, the customer will be excluded from receiving either a faxed or a printed statement.

Process Flow:

1. Generate Finance Charges on overdue accounts as required, through Finance Charges and post.

2. Fax the statements to appropriate customers, using this Fax Statements utility.

   Note: All Customers in the fax queue when the fax statements was initiated, will be flagged as having been sent the faxed statement even if the fax was unsuccessful.

3. The fax modem must determine if the faxes were successful.
   View the Fax Log associated with your faxing configuration as setup on the Fax Software tab of the Software Integration, to determine if any faxes failed.
   

   Address any fax errors as follows:

   • If the entire fax run was aborted, re-initiate the fax run or to make these customers eligible for a printed Statement use Reset Customer Faxed Statement Flag so they will get a printed statement in the next step.

   • For any faxes that failed for individual customers:

     • Determine the customer #s for the unsuccessful faxes that were reported in the Fax Log associated with your Faxing Software, by using the Fax number filter in the Keyword Search window of the Accounting Customer Search.
       
     • Try to re-fax the customers individually.
     • If still unsuccessful reset the last faxed date for relevant customers, by clicking on the configuration icon beside the Statement Output radio group in Customer Information , and blanking out the date removing the flag to allow a printed statement to be generated.
     • Call the customer later to determine what is wrong with his fax number or modem.

4. Print Statements for the remaining customers using Customer Statements with the Exclude Customers Faxed filter checked.
   The Aging Date selected must be the SAME DATE as was used in Step 2 to Fax Statements.

Generating the Faxed Statements:

To fax statements, the prompts are:

FROM CUSTOMER #

Leave this field blank to include all eligible customers, or type in the customer number to start, or select a starting customer in the Accounting Customer Search window.

TO CUSTOMER #

Leave this field blank to include all eligible customers, or type in the ending customer number, or select the customer in the window.

FROM CUSTOMER NAME

Leave this field blank for all eligible customers or type in the first part of the customer's name.

The name entered here will be matched against the Alpha Key in the Customer Information file.

TO CUSTOMER NAME

Leave this field blank for all eligible customers or type in the ending customer name.

Note: A selection of A to C would include all customers that start with A and B, but would exclude C customers.
To include C customers, use a range of A to CZ or A to D.

O/S INVOICES OLDER THAN ___ DAYS

This option can be used to select which customers receive faxed statements based on the aging of their account (i.e. how old is their account).
This selection filter is useful when sending letters to overdue accounts, as explained in the Sending Letters option at the end of this page.

When faxing regular statements, accept 0 days to include all customers.

When using the Send Letter option, enter a number of days to only send statements letters to customers with unpaid invoices over that many days.
e.g. Type 60 to send statements to customers with outstanding invoices older than 60 days.
Any customer that has an invoice that is 60 days or older will have a statement faxed to them, providing that they have a fax number and Statement Output is flagged to 'Fax or Print' in Customer Information.

O/S INVOICES GREATER THAN ___ Dollars

This option can be used to select customers based on the dollar amount of an individual outstanding invoice.
This selection filter is useful when sending letters to overdue accounts, as explained in the Sending Letters option at the end of this page.

When faxing regular statements, accept 99999999.99- to include all customers. (this number represents all invoices).

When using the Send Letter option, enter a dollar amount (e.g. 500.00) to select only customers which owe over that dollar amount (e.g. 500.00 or more) on a single invoice.
When the fax prints, the entire account aging will be included.

CUT-OFF DATE

Accept today's date, or type in a preferred cut-off date.
Invoices or payments dated after the cut-off date will not print on the statement.
The cut-off date also becomes the STATEMENT DATE on the fax.

AGE AS OF month end

Account Aging refers to classifying the invoices into Current, 31-60, 61-90 and Over 90 Days.
The current month end is the default.

Check this box to age the accounts using the current month end.
e.g. If the current month end was February 28th, an invoice issued January 31st would be aged as 31-60 Days (with the rest of the January invoices).

Uncheck this box to age the invoices according to the invoice date.
e.g. If the current month end was February 28th, an invoice issued January 31st would be aged as a Current invoice as it is 30 days or less.

SEND COVER PAGE

Uncheck this box if no cover page is required with the faxed statements.

Check this box to include a cover page.
A window is provided to enter multiple lines of notes that will be sent on the cover page for all faxed statements in the run as outlined in Fax Cover Page Comments.

COMMENTS

This option does not apply and is disabled if Send Cover Page is checked.
A window is provided to record up to two lines of 60 characters each for printing a message on the statements.

The message will be the same for all statements faxed in this statement run.
The message will appear after the outstanding invoices list and before the aging of the account.

If a more elaborate message is required to be printed with the statements, refer to the Send Letter feature below.

PRINT CURRENT FULLY PAID DOCS

Check this box to include invoices and payments dated in the current month on the statement, even if they are fully paid.
Uncheck this box to omit any transactions dated in the current month if they are fully paid.

PRINT CREDIT BAL STMNTS

Uncheck this box to skip Customer Accounts which have a credit balance total.
Check this box to include Customer Accounts which have a credit balance, i.e. -100.00 (accounts that have negative amounts owing)

ALL CURRENCIES

Check this box to include all currencies. This results in one statement per client.

Uncheck this box to generate statements for a single currency, so that statements are faxed one currency per fax run.

CURRENCY CODE

Enter the currency for the run or select it from the drop-down list.

STATEMENTS/LETTERS BY SITE

Uncheck this box to print one statement or letter per customer, that does not breakdown the invoices by Site #.

Check this box to generate a separate statement or letter for each customer site.
The default fax # for the statements/letters for all sites will be the fax numbers in the Customer Information (i.e. the customer's Head Office), not the fax # of the individual sites.
Specific fax numbers can be modified before initiating the fax run.

PRINT CONSOLIDATE STATEMENT

This option only applies if the statements or letters are being generated by site.

Check this box to print a consolidated statement after the site statements are done.
In the fax customer queue, the consolidated statement will display 'All' in the Site # field.

Uncheck this box if a consolidated statement is not required for the customer.

PRINT CURRENT PAYMENTS

Uncheck this box to skip fully applied payments received this month.
Check this box to print all payments received this month and also print the invoices which they paid.

SEND LETTER

This option provides the ability to send a note to each customer in the selection, with the account balance and aging information in place of the standard statement.
This note is a free form paragraph and is not related to the Statement Letter that can be generated from Print Statement Letters.

Uncheck this box to fax regular statements.

Check this box to send a modified statement including a note and the account aging to each customer selected for this run, and excluding the breakdown of invoice and payment details.
Use the O/S Invoices Older Than and the O/S Invoices Greater Than filters to ensure the statement letters only go to the appropriate customers.
Refer to the explanation on Sending Letters at the end of this page for more details.

PARAGRAPH #

Enter the code for the paragraph or note to be faxed with the statement, or select one from the Paragraph Search window.
New paragraphs or letters can also be created in this Paragraph Search window.

Finished?

Click ACCEPT to proceed or CANCEL to abort.

ZERO BALANCE STATEMENTS

Click YES to include statements that net to zero balance.
Click NO to exclude zero balance statements from this run.

Resulting Customer List to be Faxed:
The customers selected to be faxed will now display.
Customers without fax numbers and customers with Statement Output set to 'Print Only' or to 'Suppress' in Customer Information will automatically be excluded.
The customer fax list information includes:

SEQ

The sequence number tracks the records in this table.

CUSTOMER #

The customer number of the customer to be faxed is displayed.

Records can be deleted from this list if faxes should not be sent to a customer.
To permanently remove a customer from the list, set Statement Output set to 'Print Only' or to 'Suppress' in Customer Information.

NAME

The customer billing name is displayed.

SITE #

The site number is listed, only if statements run is being generated for Statements/Letters By Site.

FAX NUMBER

The customer's fax number is displayed, and can be changed if required.
Even if the statements are being generated for Statements/Letters By Site, it is the customer's fax number that is displayed, but this can be over-typed as required for specific sites.

Changes can be made to the customer's fax in this table.
Any changes to the customer's fax number can be saved permanently in the Customer Information by answering Update Customer at the bottom of the screen.

The fax numbers must not have spaces between the numbers, but dashes are ok.
If the fax number is long distance, there must be a 1 in front of the fax number.
e.g. 1-416-555-1000

ACCOUNT BALANCE

The customer's total amount owing is displayed.
This is the total customer balance, regardless if the statements are being generated for Statements/Letters By Site.

Finished?

Click ACCEPT twice to accept the last record and to accept customers and fax numbers listed, or click CANCEL to abort.

Fax Confirmation Action:
Select one of the following actions:

• Select Return to Details to re-access the customer fax list to review or to make further changes before faxing.

• Select Fax Statements to initiate the fax run.

• Select Fax and Update the Customer File to automatically update Customer Information with any fax number changes that have been made on this screen.

  Note: If the statements are being generated by site, and the fax numbers for the different sites are changed, the fax number assigned for the last site will be the one that is copied to the fax number field in Customer Information.

• Select Exit Without Faxing to abort the fax run and to clear the customer list queue.

Finished?

Click ACCEPT to proceed or CANCEL to return to the customer fax list.

Scheduling the Fax Run:
This pop-up dialogue box is triggered if the statement fax run is being initiated to set the optimum time for the fax run,

SEND FAXES AT

The current time will display.
Click OK to accept the default time to send the faxes immediately, or type in a preferred time to send the faxes and then click OK.

Note: It is expected that a Customer Statement will be printed for the remaining customers which do not have fax numbers, using Customer Statements.
Customers that have been faxed a statement will be skipped.

Sending Letters Feature:
As an alternative to sending a full statement to selected problem customers, a modified statement can be sent including a letter or paragraph as setup in the Paragraph Search window and the account aging information.

In this statement letter, the words "ATTN: ACCOUNTS PAYABLE" appear directly after the customer's address, and the note or letter prints in the middle of the document, followed by the aging and account balance amounts.

The Aging and Dollar amount options can be used to select the customers who will receive the letter.

To select only customers over 90 days, set O/S Invoices Older Than = 90.
To select only customers owing $400.00 or more on a single invoice, set O/S Invoices Greater Than = 400.00

Note: If Comments are filled in and a paragraph number selected as well, then the contents of the paragraph will print first followed by a blank line, then the two comments line will print, followed by the aging. Generally, the comments are not used when a letter is being sent.

Sample Letter - modified statement

        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
           LONGVIEW RENTALS  INC.             BUS #: 416-555-2345
           100 WELLINGTON ROAD WEST           FAX #: 416-555-2499
           GUELPH,  ONT
           N1H 7L7

        TO: BROOKFIELD HOMES INC.              CUST#  : 23435
            900 MEADOWVIEW AVENUE              DATE   : 07/31/20XX
            HAMILTON, ONT
            L6T 8P3                            PAGE   :     1
            ATTN:  ACCOUNTS PAYABLE

           Please note the Aging of your Account below:

           Your immediate attention in bringing your Account with us up to
           date would be greatly appreciated.   If you have already forwarded
           payment, please accept our thanks and disregard this notice.

           If you have any questions about your Account, please contact Sandy
           West.  Thank You!


                CURRENT     31 - 60    61 - 90     OVER 90     BALANCE
                -------     -------    -------     -------     -------
                    .00      100.00        .00      411.34      511.34

        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Topic Keyword: ARAR42