Credit control overview

Smile's credit control functionality lets you automate the management of overdue accounts.

After you set up credit control, Smile can automatically apply a set of actions when an unpaid account reaches a treatment level. The longer an account remains unpaid, the stricter the actions become. For example, actions can include issuing an email with an attached invoice or statement, setting a feature such as shaping or barring on an account or raising a helpdesk ticket. Smile can be configured to automatically restore access to services when an account's treatment level improves, for example, when it is settled.

In addition to treatment levels Smile can be configured with responsive credit control terms. Customers can be automatically moved between account terms based on an accounts’ past payer behaviour. Before computing an account’s treatment level an account on responsive terms first evaluates a set of rules to determine which account terms apply to the account. These rules count the number of overdue invoices over the account’s recent past to determine the account's payment behaviour which may result in Smile moving the account to different credit control terms. For example, if an account has sufficient overdue invoices in the past the account may move to more vigilant terms. An account will move to less strict terms or return to default terms in time if the payment behaviour improves.

You can apply credit control actions to both accounts and invoices. You can also set a minimum value for credit control. Smile does not take action against accounts or invoices with an outstanding balance that is less than the minimum value.

Smile suspends credit control actions against invoices for which an automatic payment is scheduled or if an account is in dispute. For more information, see Managing an account dispute.

Terminology

The following list defines some important credit control terms:
account terms
The credit control settings for an account. Account terms specify the duration of treatment levels and the action taken at each treatment level, among other settings.
treatment level
The debtor status of an account. Smile has three default treatment levels: settled (account is paid before the due date), overdue (the account is overdue by 14 days or less) and delinquent (the account is overdue by 15 days or more), although you can configure additional treatment levels. An account's treatment level is also known as its disposition.

Configuration

Your Smile administrators define credit control settings when they install Smile, and may occasionally update the credit control configuration to respond to business needs.

Note: For more information about configuring credit control, see the Configuration Guide.