Set up reminder policies

A reminder policy is a timetable of payment reminder emails for a posted invoice that still has a balance due. For example: three days before the due date, on the due date, then a week after.

WbizManager comes with four system policies you can use straight away. If none fits, make your own. Then switch reminders on and pick your company's default policy in Set up invoice reminders.

System policy	Sends reminders
Standard	3 days before the due date, on the due date, then 7, 14 and 30 days after
Gentle	On the due date, then 14 and 30 days after
Firm	7 days and 1 day before the due date, on the due date, then 3, 7, 14, 21 and 30 days after
Overdue only	1, 7, 14 and 30 days after the due date

Steps

1. Open Settings › Reminder Policies

   In the menu on the left, select Settings, then Reminder Policies.

   

   1. Reminder Policies in the Settings menu.
   2. New policy creates a policy from scratch.
   3. Your policies: the ones your company made. You can change, archive or delete them.
   4. System policies: they ship with WbizManager and can't be changed. Usage shows how many invoices, customers or settings use each one.
   5. The actions menu (⋮): View or Edit, Duplicate, Archive and Delete.
2. Name the policy and set the stages

   Select New policy.

   

   1. Name: for example PV Demo, weekly after due. Required, up to 150 characters.
   2. Minimum balance to remind: invoices with a smaller balance due get no automatic reminders. Use 0 to remind for any balance.
   3. Reminder stages (days from the due date): one row per reminder. A negative number is before the due date, 0 is the due date, a positive number is after it. The text next to each row says it in words.
   4. Add stage adds a row. You can have up to 10 stages, each between -365 and 365 days, and each number only once.
   5. Save.

   Only the latest stage that is due is sent, so a customer never gets several reminders at once. Reminders never go backwards: if you change the policy, stages that are earlier than one already sent are skipped. A stage dated before the invoice was posted is skipped too.

3. Write the email

   Scroll down. Type the Email subject and Email body, or leave them empty to use the standard wording. Select a placeholder to insert it where your cursor is.

   

   1. Placeholders: {CustomerName}, {InvoiceNumber}, {InvoiceDate}, {DueDate}, {BalanceDue}, {Currency}, {DaysOverdue} and {CompanyName}.
   2. Email subject: up to 500 characters.
   3. Email body: up to 4,000 characters.
   4. Attach the invoice PDF: send the invoice with each reminder.
4. Save and preview

   Select Save at the top. You'll see Reminder policy created.

   Once saved, a Preview section appears under the policy. Choose an invoice to see the email as that customer would get it, and the Stages for this invoice with their dates. Nothing is sent.

Archive or delete a policy

• Archive hides a policy from the lists where people pick one. Invoices and customers already using it keep it. Tick Show archived policies to see archived ones, and select Unarchive to bring one back.
• Delete removes a policy for good. You can only delete a policy that nothing uses; otherwise archive it, or move its users to another policy first.

Where a policy is used

An invoice's reminders follow the first policy that is set, in this order:

1. the invoice's own Reminder policy (in the invoice's Payment reminders panel, see Manage an invoice);
2. the customer's Reminder policy (see Add a customer);
3. the Organisation default reminder policy in Set up invoice reminders.

If something goes wrong

Message	What to do
Name is required.	Enter a Name.
A reminder policy needs at least one rule.	Add at least one stage.
Offsets must be whole numbers between -365 and 365 days.	Check each stage is a whole number in that range.
Each offset may appear only once.	Remove the duplicate stage.
Minimum balance cannot be negative.	Enter 0 or more.
You do not have permission to create reminder policies.	Ask your administrator for access.