In the structure of your workflow, you have the option of choosing the logic of your first action. This will determine which workflow action your customer will enter according to the due date of their oldest invoice.
Standard logic
By choosing the standard logic, your customer will automatically enter at the first action of your workflow, regardless of the due date of their oldest invoice. Let’s take the following workflow as example:
Once the first action is sent, the contact delay will be applied for the trigger time between the first and second action. Here, the second action will be sent 8 days after the first one.
For each customer, the sequence of actions will be based on the carrying invoice. Once the carrying invoice is paid, the sequence will start over from the beginning, on a new carrying invoice.
Note: given a new carrying invoice (no actions have ever been executed on that carrying invoice), the first action will depend on the status of the invoice. If the invoice is due, then the action will be "Invoice almost due"; however, if the invoice is overdue (no matter how old it is), the action will be "1st reminder".
Here are two use cases for the Standard logic:
| Your customer John Smith has 4 overdue invoices: |
|
Invoice A - 2 months overdue Invoice B - 5 weeks overdue Invoice C - 3 weeks overdue Invoice D - 3 days overdue |
| Mr Smith is at the 4th reminder of the workflow. He decides to pay Invoices B and C. |
| The carrying invoice is still Invoice A, the workflow keeps going as planned, and will send the 5th reminder when it's supposed to be triggered. |
| Your customer John Smith has 4 overdue invoices: |
|
Invoice A - 2 months overdue Invoice B - 5 weeks overdue Invoice C - 3 weeks overdue Invoice D - 3 days overdue |
| Mr Smith is at the 4th reminder of the workflow. He decides to pay Invoice A which is the carrying invoice. |
| Then invoice B becomes the new carrying invoice and the workflow will start over at the 1st reminder. |
Contextualized logic
This logic takes into account the due date of your customer's oldest invoice. Let's take the following workflow structure as an example:
If your customer's most overdue invoice is 18 days old, he will enter the dunning plan at the 3rd action, which is the action closest to the due date of the invoice.
The fact that workflows always start at the beginning can sometimes be an issue for our customers. For example, a customer can have an invoice that's been due for 15 days to become the carrying invoice (e.g. once the previous carrying invoice is paid).
This causes actions to be out of context, and the tone of voice to be off, given the age of the invoice. This is why we propose contextual actions. This new logic will allow the first action of the sequence to be the closest past action.
Note: This logic only affects the way we determine the first action. Subsequent actions will always be generated in order. Once the carrying invoice is paid, the workflow won’t necessarily go back to the 1st reminder. But to the reminder closest to the due date of the new carrying invoice.
Even if you change the workflow logic, if a customer has an ongoing collection, the logic will stay standard until the carrying invoice is paid. When a new carrying invoice will start the collection, the contextual logic will be applied.
Here are two use cases for the Contextual logic:
| Your customer John Smith has 3 overdue invoices: |
|
Invoice A - 24 days overdue → carrying invoice Invoice B - 17 days overdue Invoice C - 12 days overdue |
| Mr Smith is at the 5th reminder of the workflow. He decides to pay Invoice B. |
| The carrying invoice is still Invoice A, the workflow keeps going as planned and will send the 6th reminder when it's supposed to be triggered. |
| Your customer John Smith has 3 overdue invoices: |
|
Invoice A - 24 days overdue → carrying invoice Invoice B - 17 days overdue Invoice C - 12 days overdue |
| Mr Smith is at the 5th reminder of the workflow. He decides to pay Invoice A. |
| The carrying invoice is now Invoice B, the next reminder will be the 3rd as it’s the closest to the invoice in the past. |
What happens if I forget to send or complete a manual action?
All actions planned before the due date expire when the invoice is due.
All actions planned after the due date will never expire. The only ways to proceed to the next action are to execute it or ignore it by clicking on “Ignore” in the Actions list view.
Do you have any questions? Don’t hesitate to get in touch!