Payment Arrangements
When an account falls behind, a payment arrangement lets you agree a fixed monthly instalment on the arrears — "R 250 per month on the R 1,000 outstanding" — without touching the ledger. The covered invoices stay open, keep their real balances, and keep aging on the age analysis; the arrangement only caps what each debit-order run collects against them.
Credit-noting debt that is still owed makes the age analysis lie, misstates VAT (a credit note is only valid when the amount owed genuinely reduces), and worst of all: if the customer stops paying after the first instalment, the remaining debt no longer exists anywhere on the books. An arrangement keeps the debt real and only restructures collection — on default, everything is still there and immediately collectible.
Where to find it
- The register — Billing → Runs → Arrangements lists every arrangement in the control room: progress (collected vs covered), missed counts, the defaulted lane, and an EFT — no debit order badge on arrangements with no collection vehicle behind them. Active arrangements can be cancelled from here.
- Per customer — open the customer's Statement (Billing → Statements, or the customer's Billing tab); the Payment arrangement panel sits below the balance summary. It needs the manage billing permission.
Creating an arrangement
There are four doors, all creating the same thing:
- From the register — Billing → Runs → Arrangements → New arrangement: pick the customer, then the create dialog opens for them.
- From the statement — click Set up arrangement, tick the open invoices to cover (everything open is pre-selected — untick the current month's invoice so it keeps collecting in full), enter the agreed monthly instalment, choose the auto-default tolerance (default: 2 bounced runs), add a note recording who agreed to what, and create.
- From a debit-run review — the Arrange… answer on a flagged account opens the same dialog, and the run re-slices that account immediately: the covered balances drop out and the first instalment joins the very run being reviewed.
- From an open invoice — for the proactive case ("the battery replacement is R 2,400, the customer pays it over 3 months"): open the invoice and pick Collect over months… under its Actions. The invoice is already issued, so VAT landed once and nothing new is minted — the arrangement simply covers this one invoice at ±balance ÷ N per month.
A customer can have one active arrangement at a time, and an invoice can only sit under one active arrangement.
Editing an arrangement
Edit terms (on the register row or the statement panel) renegotiates an active arrangement's monthly instalment, auto-default tolerance and note — no cancel-and-recreate needed:
- Changing the amount re-baselines the schedule from today at the new rate. Everything already collected counts in the customer's favour in the cumulative miss check, and the miss counter resets — new terms, new clock.
- Changing the amount or the tolerance re-sends the written confirmation, so the customer always holds a record of the current terms.
- The covered invoices stay exactly as agreed. Restructuring which debt is covered is a cancel plus a new arrangement — the covered set and its opening balances are the arrangement's identity.
A defaulted arrangement can't be edited (the promise was already broken); replace it with a new one once the customer re-commits, or Cancel (archive) it from the register to clear the defaulted lane — its arrears already collect via the run review either way. Expanding a register row shows each covered invoice with what remains of its opening balance.
What the debit-order run collects
For a customer with an active arrangement, each monthly run collects:
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Normal billing (current invoices) | Full balance, exactly as before |
| Covered arrears invoices | Instalment slices — oldest invoice first, capped at the agreed instalment for that month |
Slices are marked with an Instalment pill in run previews and run items. Each slice is anchored to a real invoice, so reconciliation books it as an ordinary (partial) payment: the invoice's balance shrinks, the statement stays correct, and accounting sync pushes it to Xero/Sage like any other payment — Xero simply shows the invoice partially paid.
If part of the month's instalment was already collected (or is in flight), a second run in the same month collects only the remainder — the monthly cap is never exceeded.
Bounces and default
An instalment counts as missed in either of two ways, and the arrangement defaults once the configured number of misses is reached — an accounts task is filed and payment reminders resume. The covered arrears do not silently sweep back in: the account is flagged on the next debit-order run's review (Arrangement defaulted) and needs an answer — re-arrange, collect in full, or leave it to reminders. Under the safe-default policy an unanswered defaulted account collects the plan only.
- A bounced collection. One bounced run counts as one missed instalment, no matter how many invoice slices it carried. The affected invoices re-open automatically and the customer gets the normal debit-failure notice.
- The money simply never arrived. A daily check compares what should have been collected by now against what actually has been, and counts a miss when the customer is behind by a whole instalment. This is what catches an arrangement on a customer who pays by EFT — with no debit order there is no bounce to detect, so without it the arrangement would suppress reminders indefinitely. It equally catches a month where nobody generated a run.
The two can never double-count the same month. The check is cumulative, so a customer who pays two instalments one month is not flagged for paying nothing the next. Each arrangement allows a grace period (7 days by default) after its monthly deadline — the collection day where the customer has one, otherwise the day of the month the arrangement was agreed.
A defaulted arrangement can be replaced with a new one once the customer re-commits.
Reminders
While an arrangement is active and honoured, the covered invoices are excluded from overdue payment reminders — the customer is keeping their promise, so they aren't chased for the very debt being collected. Bounce notices still fire immediately when an instalment fails, and normal reminders resume the moment the arrangement defaults or is cancelled.
Completion and cancellation
- The arrangement completes automatically when every covered invoice reaches a zero balance — whether through instalments or a manual EFT that settles the arrears early.
- Cancel arrangement stops it immediately: the covered invoices simply collect at full balance again from the next run. Nothing needs to be reversed, because nothing was ever credit-noted. Cancelling is a staff action only — the customer can see their arrangement in their portal but cannot end it there.
What the customer receives
The arrangement talks to the customer at four points, so "how much will be deducted?" is never a mystery:
- Confirmation on creation — the moment an arrangement is created, the customer is emailed a written record of the terms: the covered amount and invoice numbers, the monthly instalment, the collection day, roughly how many instalments, what happens if collections bounce, and that an early EFT settles it. Text-opted-in contacts also get the terms on their phone (WhatsApp with an account button, SMS fallback) — a promise made on a phone call deserves a record where the customer will actually see it. A re-confirmation (after an Edit-terms, or a retry once an email address is fixed) states what actually remains, acknowledging what has already been paid — never the original total. While the confirmation hasn't reached the customer, the register and statement panel show a Terms not confirmed chip; the daily sweep retries once an address is on file.
- Instalment-due nudges (EFT arrangements) — an arrangement with no debit order behind it (no active debit-order subscription + mandate) relies on the customer remembering to EFT. A few days before each monthly deadline the customer is emailed "your instalment of R X is due by DATE" with their account-portal link — once per month, and skipped when the month's instalment is already paid. Text-opted-in contacts get the same nudge by WhatsApp/SMS, whose button lands on the account page where Pay this month's instalment lives — the message that dies in an inbox reaches the phone. Toggle and lead time live under Billing → Config → Automation → Reminders (Instalment-due nudges, on by default).
- Settled in full — thank you — the moment the last covered invoice reaches zero (instalments or an early EFT alike), the customer gets a short thank-you confirming the arrangement is settled, nothing further collects under it, and normal billing simply continues. Sent once; the daily sweep is the backstop.
- Advance collection notice before each debit — when advance collection notices are enabled, the customer gets one email per collection run listing every line: "R 750 will be collected on 29 Sep — invoice INV-1103 (R 500), plus your payment arrangement instalment 2 of 4 (R 250). After this collection, R 500 of the arranged arrears will remain." This replaces the invoice's old job of doubling as the deduction notice.
- The statement — the statement PDF carries a Payment arrangement block (instalment, arrears covered, collected so far, remaining) and its footer note explains that the monthly debit collects normal billing in full plus the instalment. A defaulted arrangement shows "remaining — now due in full".
- Their account portal — the customer's Account link carries a Payment arrangement section on both the Overview and Pay tabs, showing the same four figures as your panel (monthly instalment, arrears covered, paid so far, still to pay), roughly how many instalments are left, the covered invoice numbers with what remains on each, and a plain statement that the monthly debit collects their normal billing in full plus the instalment. With Netcash Pay Now configured, the Pay tab's card also offers "Pay this month's instalment" — one online card / instant-EFT payment for exactly the instalment (or what remains, if less), split oldest-invoice-first behind the scenes; this is how an EFT arrangement's nudge gets a one-tap answer. A defaulted arrangement reads "Ended", and says the remaining balance is now due in full and that reminders have resumed. The terms themselves stay read-only — the customer cannot change or cancel the arrangement, since cancelling restores full-balance collection and that stays your decision. Questions come back through the portal's Contact us tab as an accounts ticket.
Where arrangements show up
| Surface | What you see |
|---|---|
| Arrangements register (Billing → Runs) | Every arrangement with progress, misses, the defaulted lane, Terms not confirmed and EFT — no debit order chips, expandable covered invoices, Edit terms and Cancel |
| Customer statement | The arrangement panel: instalment, covered total, collected so far, remaining, bounce count — plus a brief Previous arrangements history |
| Customer Activity tab | The promise history in the account feed: agreed, defaulted, settled in full, cancelled |
| Age analysis | Covered invoices carry an Arrangement badge (click-through to the register), and the footer shows how much of the arrears is under active arrangements |
| Debit-order previews & runs | Instalment slices are marked with an Instalment pill, and the preview summarises the arranged total |
| Customer account portal | The Payment arrangement section on Overview and Pay — the same figures worded for the payer, with a Pay this month's instalment button when Pay Now is configured |
If you agree to forgive part of the arrears ("pay R 800 to settle R 1,000"), issue a credit note for the forgiven portion when it is earned — that is the legitimate use of a credit note — and cover the rest with the arrangement.