Iptor.com Help Centre

Definition of debtor

A business partner (customer) obliged to pay any debts, i.e. invoices.
A business partner can have a reference to a debtor, meaning that the customer ordering the goods is not responsible for paying the debt for the sales and the charges.
If no reference is made to a debtor, then the customer is obviously the debtor as well.

Credit overdraw percentage

Three fields in Work with credit profiles together form a function in the system that is used to calculate and survey a debtor’s credit overdraw situation. The Credit overdraw percentage indicates the percentage above the base credit limit that is afforded to a debtor before orders or order lines are put on credit hold.

This function works according to the following:

The values entered in Base credit limit and Credit overdraw % (optional) are calculated and automatically updated to the Credit limit field which indicates the total credit limit allowed for a debtor.

The calculation is performed as follows:

Credit limit = Base credit limit + Overdraw %

Credit limit = Base credit limit (if no overdraw % is defined)

Example:

Base credit limit = 100,000 GBP
Credit overdraw % = 20%
Credit limit = 120,000 GBP

The system always performs the credit limit check on the debtor’s credit profile.

If the Base credit limit is exceeded, but not the total Credit limit, you will only get a warning message, e.g., at order entry. No credit hold will be performed.

If the total Credit limit is exceeded, the order or order lines are held, or the lines are rejected depending on the setup in Work with credit profiles.

Different credit hold scenarios

For the Credit hold of lines and Reject lines fields in Work with credit profiles, different scenarios apply depending on which routine/program you are working in when the credit limit is exceeded:

In the Work with sales orders routine:

If both Credit hold of lines and Reject lines are set to NO, then the credit check/hold is done for the whole order.
If Credit hold of lines is YES and Reject lines is NO, then the sales order can be partially held, i.e., a subset of lines will be held during order entry, if the credit limit is exceeded.
If Credit hold of lines is NO and Reject lines is YES, then new lines will be rejected and changed lines will be held.

In the Sales order structure entry program:

If Reject lines is YES and a line is added via this program, then the line will be held instead of rejected. If a structure line is held because of the credit limit, the whole structure will be held.

In the Sales order copy routine:

If Credit hold of lines is YES, then the line or lines being copied will be held.
If Reject lines is YES, then the line will stay in error and it must be removed when lines in error are corrected in the Work with sales orders in error routine.

Checking for past due invoices

During events in which a debtor’s credit is evaluated, e.g. at order line entry, the credit profile is used to determine whether the debtor has exceeded their overdue days/amount threshold.

There are also two batch routines, preferably run nightly, that are advantageous when you want to check for past due invoices. They ensure that the past due invoice information in the Work with held sales/service orders routines are timely. They are described below.

Batch order hold

This routine should be run on a regular basis to ensure that your debtors’ orders and A/R status (such as paid invoices or new orders) are up-to-date. The program compares the debtor’s assigned credit profile’s maximum overdue days/amount combination to the credit time axis, which contains the debtor’s overdue A/R balance. If the overdue balance exceeds the debtor’s thresholds, then existing orders are put on hold with held reason code 20 (held due to overdue invoices) until the overdue A/R balance is resolved (see Batch order release below). For instructions, see Run the Batch order hold routine.

Batch order release

This program evaluates the debtor’s held orders and releases those that are eligible for release. During the evaluation process, the system compares the debtor’s assigned credit profile’s maximum overdue days/amount combination to the credit time axis, which contains the debtor’s overdue A/R balance. The system checks the held orders and if the overdue A/R balance that created the hold is resolved, then the hold is released. For instructions, see Run the Batch order release routine.

Note: You can find information about your debtors’ credit status through the list that is produced when the Batch order release is run, or through the A/R credit information and the A/R credit time axis enquiry programs.

Overdue credit stop handling

When you run the Batch order hold routine, the system checks on all debtors if there is an overdraw of amount and days for invoices, and then updates the credit stop code from the credit profile to the Credit stop code field on the A/R basic data panel for the debtor, but only if that field is blank. If a credit stop code has been manually assigned to the debtor, then the Batch order hold program interprets the defined value as more important and bypasses the update. Even if a credit stop code is not defined for the credit profile, sales orders will still be held when the Batch order hold is run, but no update of a blank credit stop code is performed.

When the debtor’s held sales orders are released, via Batch order release, from having been on hold with reason code 20 (Overdue invoice amount/days), the system removes the updated credit stop code on debtor level to allow imminent and future sales to the debtor’s customers.

Note: The code is only removed if the credit stop code on debtor level is identical to the credit stop code on the credit profile for the debtor. This is because the Batch order release program assumes that the credit stop code previously has been set from the credit profile by the Batch order hold routine. The recommendation is, therefore, to avoid using the same credit stop code for manual credit stop purposes (defined on the debtor) as for automatic credit stop via the Batch order hold routine (defined on the credit profile).

Hold functions

In this section the different ways of holding orders/lines are described. Refer to Impact of hold to understand how the different functions affect the process.

Automatic hold

There are several reasons why the system automatically puts an order or order line on hold and denies further processing. Some of these reasons could be, for example:

The debtor’s open balance is over the credit limit.
Note: This reason also applies to order lines.

Note: An order or order line that has been released, or not at all held, will be checked for credit control again when printing the pick list, if credit control handling (CR-PL) has been activated in the Function control file.
The credit stop code for the debtor indicates that orders being entered should be put on hold.
The order is held due to the debtors overdue invoices.

Manual hold

You are able to manually put a sales order or an individual order line on hold for any reason. For this purpose, user-defined order held reason codes must exist, and you need to manually define the applicable code on order header level or on line level.

Impact of hold

The only thing you can do when an order has been put on hold (on order level), besides releasing it, is maintaining the order. The system blocks all other routines that change the status of an order from further processing. See exception for printing invoice in the illustration below.

If individual lines on a sales order have been put on hold (on line level), then you can still continue the process of other lines on the order which are not being held.

This can be illustrated as follows:

Routine	Held on order level	Held on line level	Comments
Print sales order confirmation	Stopped from being printed.	Can be printed.	Line level hold: Held reason codes are shown on the confirmation list for those lines being held.
Print sales order pick list	Stopped from being printed. Tip: If an order/order line has been manually released, it is possible to print the pick list for the order/order line on the same day as the release without credit check. This could be useful if you have been in contact with the customer and you have agreed to make an exception and place the order and continue the sales order process.	Can be printed.	If a credit check is to be performed during pick list printout, orders or order lines which have previously been accepted might at this point be held due to an exceeded credit limit. Or, if the debtor has settled the balance and the credit limit is no longer exceeded, held orders or lines could at this point be released, and the process may continue.
Pick list confirmation routines (i.e. Work with pickings and Pick confirmation flow)	Stopped from being further processed.	Non-held lines on the sales order pick list can be confirmed.	N/A
Print transport note	Stopped from being printed.	Non-held lines on the transport note can be printed and further processed.	N/A
Print invoice	Can be printed if the order type is defined with print pick list YES, i.e. the order has passed the pick list process where a possible credit check has been performed. Stopped from being printed if the order type is defined with print pick list NO, i.e. the order has not passed the pick list process where a possible credit check could have been performed.	Can be printed if the order type is defined with print pick list YES, i.e. the order has passed the pick list process where a possible credit check has been performed. Stopped from being printed if the order type is defined with print pick list NO, i.e. the order has not passed the pick list process where a possible credit check could have been performed.	Status must be 45.

Credit control at order entry

This is an example of how the hold function works at order entry. We assume that all the applicable functions have been activated in the system. The system performs the credit control in the following order:

I. Does the debtor have a credit stop code that disallows sales?

II. If sales are allowed, this is performed at the same time:

Order held because of credit stop code (reason code 03); and/or
Order held because of overdue days/amount (reason code 20); and/or
Either order held because of credit limit (reason code 01);
or line held because of credit limit (reason code 01);
or line rejected because of credit limit.

Alerts/event messages

If Alert Management is installed and activated, you can configure alerts for credit control purposes. For example, when the first line on an order is held, the system could send a message concerning the event to the pre-defined and activated receiver.

Two event types are applicable and must be activated for this purpose:

Event type = SORDERHELD (order). An event is created if an order is held during credit control.
Event type = SORDLIHELD (line). If Credit hold of lines is YES for the debtor’s credit profile and the credit limit is exceeded, then an event is created for the first held line on an order.

Follow the instructions in Assign a message handler to a credit stop code.

See Setting up Alert Management and Working with Alert Management messages for further details.

Lost sales statistics

The system updates lost sales statistics either automatically or manually for the rejected order lines. See Setting up the Credit control functionality for more information.

Enquiries and printouts

Function control file enquiry contains details of how the credit control application has been set up in your system.
A/R transactions enquiry contains details and settlement information for all A/R transactions that have been entered.
A/R balances enquiry contains balance details for a debtor.
A/R credit time axis enquiry contains information about your debtor’s A/R past due balances based on the parameters set up for them in Work with credit profiles. The information in this file is referenced by the credit control routine and is used by the Batch order hold and Batch order release routines to determine which orders can be released or should be held. The A/R credit time axis is also used for credit control during sales order/line entry. The Credit time axis rebuild function allows you to refresh this file when necessary.
A/R credit info enquiry contains information about the debtor’s credit status.
Credit profiles enquiry contains all of the credit profiles that have been set up in the system.
Credit stop codes enquiry contains all of the credit stop codes that have been set up in the system.
Business partner file enquiry (A/R basic data) contains the credit handler, credit profile, credit stop code, and credit limit set up for debtors.
Order held reason codes enquiry contains all of the reason codes (system- and user-defined) that have been loaded and set up in the system.
Sales order enquiry contains:

information about all sales orders that have been entered in the system
hold information
lost sales information

Batch auto release report

Credit control handling