You can import Action ID’s from one company to another, or with other Dynamics GP systems. You import data the same way as loading the sample collection data.

The first option is by using a file Exported from another Collections Management window:

1. 1. Sales pane —> Cards —> Collection Actions
2. 2. Click export and save the file as CNActions.csv to a location easy to remember.
3. 3. Paste the CNActions.csv into the receiving workstation GP\Data folder
4. 4. Run the Collection Sample Data Setup for Action ID’s

The other option is to manually edit or create a new file. Open Excel and save a new Comma Delimited (csv) file named CNActions.csv. There are six columns to populate, five of which are required to populate. You cannot enter a header row. Once you finish the csv and save, upload the file by running the Collection Sample Data Setup for Action ID’s.

1. Column A: Required
   • Action ID- Make sure to enter it in capital letters and only use alpha numeric values.
2. Column B: Required
   • Action Description- This provides a better understanding of what the action is.
3. Column C: Required
   • Action Type- Must be a value 1-4
     •  1 = None
     •  2 = Dispute
     •  3 = Promise to Pay
     •  4 = Special
4. Column D: Required
   • Follow-up Action Days- Enter 0 as a default value, otherwise the days you want there to be a follow up
5. Column E: Optional
   • Letter ID- Enter the Letter ID exactly as it appears in Dynamics GP
6. Column F: Required
   • Automatically Mark as Completed-
     •  0 = Uncheck box
     •  1 = Check box

You can import Text Letter ID’s from one company to another, or with other Dynamics GP systems. You import data the same way as loading the sample collection data.

The best option is by using a file Exported from another Collections Management window:

1. Sales pane —> Cards —> Collection Letters
2. Click export and save the file as CNTextLetters.csv to a location easy to remember.
3. Paste the CNTextLetters.csv into the receiving workstation GP\Data folder
4. Run the Collection Sample Data Setup for Text Letter ID’s

Modifying the csv itself is not very user friendly, as the data is saved in rows and single cells using Pipes to differentiate. In almost all circumstances, it is best to edit the Text Letter using the Letter Maintenance window and use the export feature as listed above, and let Collections Management handle the raw csv file.

You can import Word Letter ID’s  from one company to another, or with other Dynamics GP systems. You import data the same way as loading the sample collection data.

The first option is by using a file Exported from another Collections Management window:

1. Sales pane —> Cards —> Collection Letters
2. Click export and save the file as CNWordLetters.csv to a location easy to remember.
3. Paste the CNWordLetters.csv into the receiving workstation GP\Data folder
4. Copy and paste the Word Document from the Letter Maintenance window if needed, otherwise it should be on a shared drive
5. Run the Collection Sample Data Setup for Word Letter ID’s

The other option is to manually edit or create a new file. Open Excel and save a new Comma Delimited (csv) file named CNWordLetters.csv. There are six columns to populate, five of which are required to populate. You cannot enter a header row. Once you finish the csv and save, upload the file by running the Collection Sample Data Setup for Word Letter ID’s .

1. Column A: Required
   • Letter ID- Make sure to enter it in capital letters and only use alpha numeric values.
2. Column B: Optional
   • Letter Description- This provides a better understanding of what the letter is.
3. Column C: Required
   • Invoices To Attach To Email- Must be a value 1-13
     •  1   = All Disputed Invoices
     •  2   = All Invoices
     •  3   = All Invoices & Credit Documents
     •  4   = All Invoices Not Disputed
     •  5   = All Invoices Not Overdue
     •  6   = All Promised Invoices
     •  7   = All Special Invoices
     •  8   = Overdue Disputed Invoices
     •  9   = Overdue Invoices
     •  10 = Overdue Invoices Not Disputed
     •  11 = Overdue Promised Invoices
     •  12 = Overdue Special Invoices
     •  13 = None
4. Column D: Optional
   • Default Action ID- Enter the Action ID exactly as it appears in Dynamics GP
5. Column E: Optional
   • Default Subject- Enter the default Subject line on the Email/Letter
6. Column F: Required
   • Letter Per Bill To Address
     •  0 = Uncheck box
     •  1 = Check box
7. Column G: Required
   • Microsoft Word Document- Enter the path to the Word Document being used as a template

Oftentimes when people hear “multicurrency,” they think it’s going to be complicated. However Collections Management is designed with multicurrency in mind and works seamlessly with the Dynamics GP Multicurrency features.

One great example is with the Collection Letters. Let’s suppose we have our company ACMEUSA, and we have a customer in Canada, MAPLECO. We’ve agreed to bill MAPLECO in Canadian currency. It’s time to send them their monthly statement. I can set the currency to be in the Originating Currency by changing the formatting on the Collections Functions.

For example, let’s say I am including a list of all invoices with their current amount and due date. We’re using the function @%AllInvoicesDetail%@. Looking at Chapter 8 in the Collections Management User manual, we can see how to change this as needed.

In this case, we would enter @%AllInvoicesDetail,,1%@. There are two commas, because the first is for the cell padding. If you don’t want any extra cell padding, simply enter the two commas and enter 1 to display the Invoice total in Originating Currency. Now Collections Management will know to automatically use the originating currency for those invoices!

Driving off Professional Advantage’s commitment to a customer driven improvement of Collections Management, the September 2013 release has several new features that make the module better than ever!

1. MS Word Invoices— One of the most common requests is to increase the use of MS Office instead of PDF writer, for numerous reasons, but one of the most obvious is to save on costs associated with expensive licenses for each user. In the September 2013 Release, Collections Management has the ability to attach and send Word document invoices and Receivables statements.

2. MSI Installer— No more need to copy and paste chunk files, or accidentally missing a few data files to copy over to the workstation. The September 2013 Release uses a MSI Installer which utilizes the Dexterity interface for point and click install solutions.

3. SOP Type ID— When attaching invoices to Collection Letters, a new display field will show the SOP document Type ID. Collectors who split responsibilities based on the SOP document Type ID now have an easy visual indicator when selecting invoices.

4. SmartList— SmartList now has Collections Management options, and the first list available is on Collection Management notes. You can easily use SmartList to filter notes on key words, Collector ID’s, and much more without clicking through individual records in the Collections Main window. Additionally, we have added Collections notes information to the standard Receivables Transactions SmartList, so you can see if a RM document has a note attached, and what that note is.

5. Find where the Action is Needed— Some of the most important delinquent customers to track are those with overdue invoices and no Collection Notes assigned to them, indicating no action has been taken such as sending an email or giving them a call. Now, the Collections Receivables Summary window will display this information.

6. Manage your Collectors— What do you do if a Collector is out for the week but action is needed on some of their tasks? Starting with the September 2013 Collections Management release, you can view the tasks of all Collectors by leaving the Collector ID field blank.

7. Reprint Project Accounting Invoices— In addition to being able to view and collect on invoices created in the Project Accounting module, now Collections Management can reprint those invoices. You can also attach Project Accounting Invoices to Collection notes.

Looking further down the line, Holiday season 2013 promises to bring Spanish and French-Canadian releases of the new Collections Management. ¡No puedo esperar! Magnifique!

As more and more customers opt for paper free invoicing, it becomes ever more critical to utilize the email features of Collections Management to help drive down Average Days to Pay.

In previous posts, we’ve discussed how to setup Collections Management for emailing statements.

Most users are going to want to test sending out emails or processing Collection Plans before actually sending them out to their customers.

To do this, open Microsoft Outlook, and on the ribbon bar click on the Send / Receive tab. On the right of this bar in the “Preferences” area is a “Work Offline” button. Click on this to take your Outlook temporarily offline. Then run you’re your email or collection plan as a test, and in Outlook go through your Outbox to check and make sure the emails processed correctly.

You can tell you are offline by the status bar at the bottom of Outlook:

As well as on your Windows task bar:

If you need to, you can either delete all those Outbox emails and reprocess, or if they are all correct simply click on the Work Offline button again to go back online. The emails will go out on the next Send/Receive routine.

As word gets out about how much time is saved and the real word data is coming in on how Collection Plans dramatically reduces days to pay, more and more users have asked how to make the switch to using a Collection Plan.

(For information on how to install some sample Collection Plans, see this post)

The first step is to assign a customer to a Collection plan. To do this individually, open Collection Main for that customer, and click on the Blue Expansion arrow.

Within this window, enter the Collection Plan ID you want to assign the customer to, and what step in the plan to start them out on (this can differ depending on how you have your plan setup). When satisfied, click Save.

To run the plan for this customer for the first time, go to Sales pane —> Transactions —> Collection Plan Processing. Click once on the Customer ID in the top table. On the Bottom of the window, mark the check boxes next to the invoices you want to put on the plan (if you want all of them, which generally you would, click on Select —> All Invoices). Next, check the box “Custom Action ID” and set it to the desired current plan step. Then click “Process this Customer”

You will receive confirmation that the customer was processed.

Now when you click on the customer again, you will see that their invoices are all now on plan, and so long as the conditions of the plan are met, the next action ID in line should be showing.

Serious Business Intelligence almost always comes back to SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), and that means knowing the Collections Management Tables, Fields, and their relation.

SSRS reports can be used to prepare and deliver a variety of interactive and printed reports, transforming raw data into meaningful and useful information for your business decisions.

The below link is a download to a Table and Field reference guide to Collections Management. You can use it to look up which Collections table holds what information, and what the fields inside those tables mean.

For example, let’s say we want print a report on Collectors, so we need their information. We look in the Table worksheet and see that the Collector Master is CN01400:

We can then go to the Field worksheet, scroll down to CN01400, and see what the fields are:

Download the Collections Management Table and Field Reference Manual today!

Collections Management Table and Field Reference

You asked for it, and they are here! The first set of Collections Management SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) reports are out in the September 2013 release of Collections Management, and there is a lot of excitement as the curtain is pulled back on this powerful new feature.

Previously, we’ve discussed how you can start planning your own reports using our Collections Management Table and Field Reference guide.

Professional Advantage’s own Business Intelligence department put this knowledge to good use and have created two new SSRS reports for Collections Management, and it looks great to see them included in the SSRS report lineup:

The two new reports are the Aging Details, and Aging Details Collections.

The Aging Details provides a clean and streamlined way to see your Current Customer Aging:

The Aging Details Collections report provides a powerful visual queue for identifying where to focus your collection efforts. The report allows you to first see where all your aging buckets by value for a customer, and more importantly, if they have notes attached to them:

For this customer we can quickly see that there are outstanding documents over 61 days past due, but have never had any notes or actions assigned to them. It’s time to get on the ball and contact the customer about these transactions:

The second graph on this report breaks down the aging by item. This quickly points out product lines that need improvement in their Days Sales Outstanding to determine ways to get a quicker return and better bottom line for your company. Sounds like a Kaizen event is on the horizon!

It’s not uncommon to have a question or two regarding Collections Management and the upgrade process to GP2013. The answer depends a bit on whether this is a new install or an upgrade.

If it is a new install, we recommend you install both GP2013 and Collections Management from the GP Install DVD. Once everything is setup, download the latest release of Collections Management from our website and install it using the directions included in the install file (essentially, dropping in Chunk files, SQL procs, manuals, etc.).

If you are upgrading from a previous version of GP, if you are still on the Microsoft release of Collections Management, go ahead and follow the same directions above, following the Microsoft upgrade path guidelines:

https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/support/selfsupport/hottopics/HOT_TOPIC_MDGP2013Upgrade

If you already upgraded Collections Management to the new release (such as GP2010 Collections Management B52), only upgrade GP core modules to GP2013. Then, download the GP2013 install files from our website and install them as normal.

You can use the Collections Management installer for GP2013 found for download on our website:

http://www.profad.com/forms/collections-management-download/

Collections Management Service Pack R2.1 is now live and ready for download:

http://www.profad.com/forms/collections-management-download/

First, read through the release notes PDF to view directions and changes list. This new install features an MSI installer to stream line the setup process. After downloading the above service pack, you can install it by clicking on Setup.msi:

The installer will look at your system and suggest an instance of GP to install to:

Select and click through the install windows, and you should be set to go!

You can view a full list of the new features at this blog post.

Like any football coach will tell you, one of the keys to victory is looking for the openings and focusing your efforts toward them. The same is true with improving your Days Sales Outstanding: found out where there is no action taking place and filling that space with Collection Tasks and Notes.

Now you can easily create a SmartList of overdue invoices and next to each invoice you can see the collection status and the note text for each document. It makes it very easy to sort the list and see if there are any overdue transactions that don’t have any Collections Notes attached (with the new Collection Plan functionality there shouldn’t be!).

Download the version R2.1 of Collections Management to enable SmartLists today!

Taking this a step farther you can further restrict the report to only show overdue invoice without a Collections Note Attached using settings similar to these for the SmartList:

You can then save that as a favorite and add a reminder with a visual queue to show up on your Dynamics GP home page. By doing this any time there are any invoices that are overdue and don’t have a note attached you will get a visual reminder on your desktop that somehow an invoice slipped through without the customer being contacted before it was overdue. In the case below in my demonstration system there are 246 invoices with no action. In a perfect world with Collections Management configured the way it should be that reminder should have 0 results and not even show up as a reminder:

Clicking on the Reminder will bring you to a list of all of the overdue transactions with no Collections Notes attached.

SmartLists are just one way for you to see this information. Web based or emailed reports can also be used to stay on top of your collections effort. If you take a look at this video to see some more aging and reporting options with Collections Management including the ability to drill down from an aging report to see invoices, notes, additional payment history information, and an actual PDF of the original invoice.

Give it a try! Open up SmartList, go to Sales —> Receivables Transactions, click on the *, and then start adding columns as needed. A few good examples:

So hustle up, get in the game, and score a major victory for your Days Sales Outstanding!

photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/chasingfun/351674849/”>chasingfun</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/”>cc</a>

Being linked to the GP Sales module gives Collections Management a wide range of data to pull from and save on. From Salesperson, to Region, Credit Limit, to Class ID, you can organize and streamline your Collections Process using the powerful Build Query function.

Occasionally, you may come across the need to have even more. Perhaps your business is a specific business segment, and you have special needs to track on. Or maybe you have customers across a wide spectrum of different industries, and want to follow them by industry to see if certain market segments have a better Days Sales Outstanding than others.

Collections Management includes several built in User Defined fields to do just that. Without needing to know any coding or paying for expensive consulting, you can use the included User Defined fields to begin tracking on one of these metrics in as little as five minutes.

The User Defined fields are setup in Sales pane —> Setup —> Collection Setup. The very bottom of the Setup window shows all of the fields you can use:

Several different options are available, but you aren’t required to use any more or less than you need. Enter the name of the category that you want the field to appear as. For example, let’s say we want to track an Industry List, and a Not-For-Profit checkbox.

In “List 1”, type in Industry. Click on the Blue Expansion arrow. Enter in the industries you want to be selected. The list will automatically organize alphabetically A to Z.

Next, for Checkbox, enter Not-For-Profit. Our setup window user defined fields now look as follows:

The next step is to enter that information for your customers. Go to Sales pane —> Cards —> Collection Info. Enter the Customer ID and tab off of the field. We can now see the fields updated with the information we entered:

We can assign the Industry and mark the Not-For-Profit box, if applicable, and then click save.

The next post goes over how to put those User Defined Fields to good use!

photo credit: PublicDomainPictures

In a previous, post we discussed how to setup and fill out user defined fields. In this post, we’ll go over how to use those user defined fields to take your collecting processes to the next level.

 Before looking at the various options, let’s take a look to see what our current user defined fields are and then head off to look at where we can use these in action:

First stop, the Build Query window. The Build Query window lets you search for a group of customers that meet criteria which you define. The a group of User Defined Fields will show up on the Cust. Info Tab:

We can search on List 1, List 2, Text Field 1, and the Date field. Adding in a few of those options and running that query will help limit options down based purely on that information we have searched for.

 Those Queries will allow you to rapidly group Customers for assigning to Collection Plans, Building focused Query Letters, and filter on the Collection Plan Processing window.

 These powerful fields can also be added to your customized and modified reports. **For example, you can download the following Report Package and import it into GP to view all the Customer Collection Information in one compact report:

 CN_Customer_Info

To view the Report, simply go to Reports —> Customized, select the report and print!

You can change those fields using the standard Report Writer module in GP to be and appear however you need it to be. That ends up being a great way to view your customer information in a way that Receivables Management alone could not provide!

**Directions to import a customized report are available at the following Knowledge Base (KB) article from Microsoft:

KB 855278 How to export and import reports in Report Writer
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/855278

One of the best features of Collections Management is the ability to pull in Functions. Functions work a lot like the mail merge fields of Microsoft Word: you create a generic letter, including the function as a type of placeholder where the customers’ specific information will go. Whenever you process the letter, Collections Management pulls the correct data depending on the function you set up, and will then insert it into the letter. The result is a letter that is very customer specific, without you yourself needing to look up each of the details individually.

There are several different out-of-the-box functions that come with Collections Management. You can select them in either the GP Text Letter builder:

Alternatively, these functions are also available in the Word letters feature of Collections:

Beyond just inserting these functions themselves, many of them have options you can plug in to make them even more powerful.

For example, when you open the help file for Collections Management (press F1 from a Collections Management window) you can go to the Letter Functions section to see the additional options available:

This information is also available in Chapter 8 of the user manual saved in the GP\Documentation folder.

For example, you can add space padding, choose between Functional or Originating Currency, or select Aging Buckets.

If you need something more, however, you’re still in luck. If you know Dexterity (the programming language Dynamics GP is written in) you can create your own call functions for Collections Management. Starting with the R2.1 install released September 2013, the GP\Documentation folder contains a resource entitled CollectionsManagementTechnicalReference.pdf. That file gives demonstrations of how to create your own functions in Dexterity:

photo credit: Robbert van der Steeg via photopin cc

After using Collections Management for years, Collectors come and go through normal employee turnover cycles. Over time, those Collectors build up in the system with both open and closed tasks, actions and notes.

One of the first things to do is to transfer outstanding open notes from the old Collector, to the new one. To do so, go to Sales pane —> Cards —> Transfer Credit Manager. This window allows you to assign all Customers and Open Notes from one Collector, to another. You can also assign Customers to a Collector based on the Current Query.

*You can also leave the “To Credit Manager” field blank to unassign the Customers and Notes to anyone

This will update who is assigned to the customer in the Collection Information window:

As well as reassign the open To do tasks for the Collector:

That takes care of all the open notes, but what if you want to remove the Collector ID completely? If you try to do this in Collector Setup window and that Collector already has closed notes in history, you will receive an error:

In this case, the easiest solution is to simply remove the Collector from the SQL table, such as the following:

**Use caution when working in SQL. If you are unfamiliar with these steps, do not attempt them. Make a backup and try this in a test company first**

delete DYNAMICS..CN01400 where CollectorID = ‘JUAN SMITH’

That will remove the Collector from the Collector Master table. Their notes will still be able to be read in GP windows, and you will see they were the original assignee. Make sure when using the SQL script, you already transfer everything you can in the front end Transfer Credit Manager window, leaving the script to handle only what’s left in history.

photo credit a href=httpwww.flickr.comphotosmwichary2240608755Marcin Wicharya via a href=httpphotopin.comphotopina a href=httpcreativecommons.orglicensesby2.0cca

You can use the Collections Management Days Sales Outstanding window to calculate the average sales per day and average days outstanding in a rolling period. This information indicates how much you are selling, and how fast you are receiving payment for sales.

The window is found in Sales pane —> Inquiry —> Days Sales Outstanding:

Every so often we get a question on how these values are calculated, and that if you wanted to recreate them using the data in SQL, how to do so. The following script should help provide you this information:

DaysSalesOutstanding

DECLARE @begindate AS DATE
DECLARE @enddate AS DATE
DECLARE @numofdays AS INT
DECLARE @SalesForPeriod AS NUMERIC(19, 5)
DECLARE @SalesOutstanding AS NUMERIC(19, 5)
DECLARE @DaysSalesOutstanding AS FLOAT
DECLARE @AverageSalesPerDay AS FLOAT

SET @begindate = '2012-10-9' --Set the Beginning Date
SET @enddate = '2013-10-3' --Set the Ending Date
SET @numofdays = Datediff(day, @begindate, @enddate) + 1
SET @SalesForPeriod = ( (SELECT Sum(ortrxamt)
                         FROM   rm20101
                         WHERE  ( docdate >= @begindate
                                  AND docdate <= @enddate
                                  AND rmdtypal IN ( 1, 3, 5 )
                                  AND voidstts = 0 ))
                        + (SELECT ORTRXAMT=( Sum(ortrxamt) * ( -1 ) )
                           FROM   rm20101
                           WHERE  ( docdate >= @begindate
                                    AND docdate <= @enddate
                                    AND rmdtypal IN ( 7, 8 )
                                    AND voidstts = 0 ))
                        + (SELECT Sum(ortrxamt)
                           FROM   rm30101
                           WHERE  ( docdate >= @begindate
                                    AND docdate <= @enddate
                                    AND rmdtypal IN ( 1, 3, 5 )
                                    AND voidstts = 0 ))
                        + (SELECT ORTRXAMT=( Sum(ortrxamt) * ( -1 ) )
                           FROM   rm30101
                           WHERE  ( docdate >= @begindate
                                    AND docdate <= @enddate
                                    AND rmdtypal IN ( 7, 8 )
                                    AND voidstts = 0 )) )
SET @AverageSalesPerDay = @SalesForPeriod / @numofdays
SET @SalesOutstanding =(SELECT Sum(custblnc)
                        FROM   rm00103)
SET @DaysSalesOutstanding = @SalesOutstanding / @AverageSalesPerDay

SELECT @numofdays AS 'Number Of Days'
SELECT @SalesForPeriod AS 'Sales For Period'
SELECT @AverageSalesPerDay AS 'Average Sales Per Day'
SELECT @SalesOutstanding AS 'Sales Outstanding'
SELECT @DaysSalesOutstanding AS 'Days Sales Outstanding' 

To use it, simply copy the code into a query window opened against the company database, enter the starting and ending dates, and execute:

The first section calculates the Sales For Period, achieved by adding the Sales/Invoice, Debit Memo, and Service/Repair Document types in the RM20101 and RM30101 and subtracting from that value any Credit Memos and Returns.

Next, Average Sales Per Day is calculated by dividing the Sales For Period by number of days:

Sales Outstanding is generated by summing the Customer Balance from the RM00103:

Finally, Days Sales Outstanding is calculated by dividing the Sales Outstanding by the Average Sales per day:

This is a useful way to get the detail behind Days Sales Outstanding so that you can improve Collections turnaround time and get paid quicker.

As 2013 begins to head into its last month, you’re likely making a plan of updating your servers and machines with the latest service packs, builds, and year end updates from Microsoft.  It has been discovered that Microsoft’s update engine is still trying to update Collections Management.

An example of an error you may encounter in GP Utilities:

Collections Management
Unable to get extended version information for product 1157.

While Microsoft has let us know this will be resolved in future releases starting with 2014 onwards, before applying any new updates from Microsoft, please take a few minutes to update your server and workstations to ensure the smoothest upgrades possible without this event occurring.

First, if you are still using Microsoft’s build of Collections Management, go to Control Panel, and select GP/Collections management, Repair, and then deselect the Collections Management product to uninstall it.

Next, GP Utilities should not be looking at Collections anymore. There may be residual files in the system that is making it check it during the upgrade.

You can fix this by removing the calls to check Collections Management versions from the Dynutils.set. First, make a copy of the file as backup. Then open up DYNUTILS.SET in Notepad. This is found in each work station’s GP folder.

First, reduce the top most number by one:

Next, remove the 1157 and Collections Management lines:

Finally, remove the lines referring to the program, report, and form dictionary for Collections:

Note that DU1157.dic might also be listed as CPRO.dic.

Lastly, download and install the latest version of Collections Management from our website.

Once you’ve done these steps, you should be safe to install the Microsoft Dynamics GP Year End updates for 2013 without any issues referencing inability to update Collections Management.

With the latest release of Collections Management only a month away, there is plenty to look forward to. In addition to fixes of issues, there are a few new features to look forward to:

1. Faster Load times for the Collection Plan Processing Window: The Collection Plan Processing Window now loads instantly, and will populate results only when you tell it to. Because it will be looking up values based on your inputs, the time it takes to load the window with data has been greatly reduced. In addition, a new progress bar in the window will give you an idea of how long it will take to finish opening.
2. Copy in your Salespeople on Collection Emails: Whenever you send out a Collection Email, you can now choose to Copy, Blind Copy, or no copy at all the Salesperson assigned to that Customer ID. This will allow Salespeople to keep better track of outstanding Collection amounts to help your business make better decisions about new sales and the risks involved.
3. Allow Invoices to attach to emails regardless of File Extension: Previously, you had to select Adobe PDF as the invoice type choice for the Invoice Folder options, which automatically can attach professional looking invoices you’ve already generated, if you wanted to send a PDF. Now, you can leave the value in Collections Setup as text, and the PDF’s will still attach to the email without the errors about needing to install Adobe. The same applies also for Word documents, HTML files, and comma and tab delimited files!
4. Invoice folder can pull on all Sales modules: Previously, the invoice attachment for including previously created invoices in PDF or Word doc format feature only worked for RM module generated invoices. Now, the invoice can have been created in SOP, Invoicing, or RM, and so long as it is in the Invoice Folder specified in Collections Setup and named using the GP Document number, it will be included!

Those are just a few of the new features set to come out. Many fixes have been made, making this next release the best Collections Management yet!

Collection Queries are a great tool to help filter down a group of customers that meet a specified set of criteria. For example, you can run a query by Salesperson, region, balance, and much more.

Often times we get requests on how to see the results of a Query. You can view the results of a query by going to Sales pane >> Transactions >> Query Letters. At the top of this window is a Blue Expansion Arrow next to the current query number results. Click on it.

This brings up the Collections Management Query Results window. From here you can scroll up or down and view all of the different customers, balances, overdue amounts, primary Salesperson, and much more.

One additional feature you can do from this window is to click the print button, which allows you to print out the list, sorting by Customer ID, Customer Name, Total Due, or Balance Overdue.

This report can then be shared among your department so that everyone can review it. To take it one step further, you can print the results to a .csv file to open this up in MS Excel.

Once in Excel, you can run all sorts of new queries on this information.

For example, by running a Pivot table and a pie chart, we can see what telephone area codes have the highest overdue balances. We can use this information to plan improvements and focus our collections goals on these areas in particular. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination!