Defining Payment Terms and Credit Control Parameters

Unless a customer plans to pay for orders up front, or by COD, you need to set credit control parameters for them. Use the credit information when a customer places an order or when you want to inquire about a customer's credit standing with your company.

You must be assigned the CUST.CREDIT.EDIT and CUSTOMER.MAINT authorization keys to edit the Credit Control Maintenance window.

Note: If you have recently upgraded to Release 8.7.7 or higher and you have shortcut menus to the Credit Controls window parameters, you may need to reapply that shortcut as some options have moved. Your shortcut will be grayed out to indicate that you need to update it.

Additionally, use the Number Of Days In Future For Credit Exposure In Open Ordersto exclude orders with a ship dates far into the future so as not to adversely impact customer's credit limits.

To define payment terms and credit control parameters:

1. From the Maintenance menu, select Customer to display the Customer Maintenance window.

2. In the Customer field enter a customer's name to display the customer record.

3. Select Pricing >Credit Controls to display the Credit Control Parameters dialog box.

4. Use the Total Credit Hold check box to place the customer on complete credit hold.

This means users are prevented from entering new sales orders for the bill-to customer or the ship-to accounts tagged to it, regardless of their credit limit or current A/R balance. New quotes can be entered, but they cannot be converted to sales order until this credit hold is removed. New in Release 9.0.4. You can use the Credit Hold Report to determine which customers are currently on credit hold.

5. To speed customer order entry, you can check one of the following options to avoid setting specific credit control parameters:

Note: By default, the system by passes a credit check on orders with zero dollars ($0.00).

6. If you did not check Use Default review the options to set up the customer information, as needed.

   For the area	Check the following check boxes, as needed...
   COD	Always - Accepts only COD payments from this customer. When Credit Limit Exceeded - Accepts only COD payments when this customer's credit limit has been exceeded.
   Print Approval Required Message	On All Shipping Tickets - Requires approval on all purchases by this customer, and print an approval required message on all shipping tickets. When Credit Limit Exceeded - Requires approval on purchases and print an approval required message on shipping tickets only when this customer's credit limit is exceeded. This option works with a custom form modification to define a  message to print on the shipping ticket that indicates that the purchase must be approved. This message can be any statement you want to use that indicates to your employees that they need to check for approval. For example, you could add the message, ”r;Have a Nice Day” and your employees will understand that when they see that message, approval is required. If you flag this field without using the custom form, the Sales Order Entry screen displays the message, "See Credit Manager," and the system does not print a message on the shipping ticket. If you simply want to alert the salesperson on the Sales Order Entry screen to check for purchase approval when this customer places an order, we suggest using OE Messages instead.
   No Printing of Shipping Ticket	When Credit Limit Exceeded, Unless Authorized - Keeps a picking ticket from printing for the customer who has a credit infraction, unless approved by an authorized user. Regardless of Credit Limit, Unless Authorized - Keeps a picking ticket from printing for the customer regardless of credit limits, unless approved by an authorized user.
   Authorized Personnel	Only Customer's Authorized Personnel May Place Orders - Ensures that only the customer's authorized personnel place orders.
   Checks Accepted	Personal - Accepts this customer's personal checks as payment. This information displays when orders are entered and payments are required. Company - Accepts the customer's company checks as payment. This information displays when orders are entered and payments are required.
   Apply Credits	To Oldest Bucket When Aging Account - Shows the application of all credits to the oldest balances in the aging buckets for the customer, even when the activity at the bottom of the window indicates that credits are assigned to more recent aging buckets. The A/R Aging report and Aged Receivables by Salesman report display all credits as applied to the oldest aging bucket with a balance. It does not cause a cash receipts application of credits to open invoices. You must do that manually using the Cash Receipts program. This setting overrides the setting in the Bucket to use for Aging field on the Valid Customer Invoice Status Codescontrol maintenance record.
   	To Oldest Bucket for Past Due Limit Calculation - Applies all credits to the oldest invoices that are past due according to system calculations. The system does not create cash receipts. You must create them manually through Cash Receipts. For more information, see Entering Cash Receipts. This is new in Release 8.7.9 and should be selected to ensure the system behaves as it did prior to this release.
   No Order Entry	Always - Accepts no orders for this customer. For example, set this option when you set up a branch as a customer, and you never anticipate creating transfer orders for that branch. When Credit Limit Exceeded, Unless Authorized - Accepts line items added to a sales order up to the customer's credit limit. When an unauthorized user adds a line item to an order that causes the order to go over the customer's credit limit, the system does not add the item to the order. Regardless of Credit Limit, Unless Authorized - Accepts no orders regardless of this customer's credit limit, unless approved by an authorized user.

7. On the Credit Limit tab and complete the following fields as needed:

   In the field...	Enter...
   Credit Limit	the customer's maximum credit limit in dollars. Use this field if preceding parameters regarding credit limits have been selected.
   Past Due Limit	the maximum amount that may be past due before the customer's credit limit is exceeded. This check is made in addition to the overall credit limit. The past due limit may be equal to the overall credit limit.
   Past Due Limit %	the percentage of open invoice amounts you are willing to let your customer be over before being put on credit hold. For example, if a Customer that has a Credit Limit of $100,000 and has a current amount of $20,000 in open invoices and has this new option set to 10%, the Past Due Limit dollar amount would be $2,000. The past due percent allows a past due limit to be set as a percent of the total A/R or open invoices that are unpaid. This means if the total amount of invoices in past due for the customer is more than the specified percent of the total outstanding A/R amount, all the orders for that customer are put in Credit Hold. The system uses the lower value between the Past Due limit and this new Past Due Limit Percent.
   Past Due Days	Number of days the customer is allowed to be past due and still have orders excluded from credit hold. This setting works in conjunction with the other credit limitations, such as credit limit exceptions by dollar amount and temporary credit limit settings.
   Order Limit	a dollar amount to limit the customer to orders below this amount. The credit check process begins with checking this dollar amount and then checking the remaining credit parameters set.
   Deposit % - Stock Item	the percent deposit required at order entry on stock items for this customer. Zero percent (0%) means no deposit is required on stock items.
   Deposit % - Nonstock Item	the percent deposit required at order entry on non-stock items for this customer. Zero percent (0%) means no deposit is required on non-stock items. This setting can also affect lot items.
   Terms Code	a terms code, or payment term, for this customer's standard sales orders. Use the Default Payment Terms control maintenance record to select a global terms code. The system uses that setting if this Terms Code field is left blank. Note: For split payment terms, enter a terms code to allow the customer to pay a percentage of the invoice over a defined payment period. For example, you can create a terms codes in Terms Maintenance where the customer is allowed to make payments of 25 percent over a defined billing period.
   Direct Terms Code	a terms code, or payment term, for this customer's direct sales orders only. Use the Default Payment Terms control maintenance record to select a global terms codes for direct orders. The system uses that setting if this DirectTerms Code field is left blank. If both the control maintenance record and this Direct Terms Code field are blank, the system uses the Direct Terms code. If all three areas are blank, the system assumes a NET code. If Use Default, Use Parent, or Use Bill-To are selected, then the system uses those settings to determine the terms code. Otherwise, Eclipse willnot look at the Bill-to settings for terms, terms must be loaded at the Ship-to level. Note: For split payment terms,  enter a terms code to allow the customer to pay a percentage of the invoice over a defined payment period. For example, you can create a terms code in Terms Maintenance where the customer is allowed to make payments of 25 percent over a defined billing period.
   Override Invoice Terms	Select the check box if you want the Post Service Charges program to use the terms code assigned to the customer in the Terms Code field instead of using the terms code on the transaction processed for a customer. The customer's current terms code overrides individual invoice terms when calculating service charges. Check this option if a customer's service charge terms change retroactively and apply to all outstanding invoices.
   Allow Credit Exceptions by Dollar Amount	See Defining Credit Limit Exceptions by Dollar Amount or Defining Temporary Credit Limit Settings  . For information overriding credit limits at the order level, see Overriding Credit Holds or Denying Credit in Sales Management. Note: If the order is automatically processed using these settings, the system logs that in the order's maintenance log to alert users why the order was system-released through the phantom process.
   Temporary Credit Limit Settings

Note: To define a job cost limit or adjust job information, see Entering Job Information Details.

8. Save your changes and exit the dialog box.

More Options for Defining Payment Terms and Credit Control Parameters

The following are some common options you might use while defining payment terms and credit control parameters:

See Also:

Defining Default Credit Card Information

Authorizing Customer Personal to Place Orders