AWRA Help Center

The policy lives in Settings → Sales & POS → Credit Policy (/settings/credit-policy), and each customer’s side of it is the Credit policy panel on their page under Sales → Customers. Every invoice, however it is raised, is checked against it before it can be approved.

Switching It On

The policy engine is off until your workspace switches it on. On the Credit Policy page, under Workspace default, tick Apply segment and workspace defaults, and hold overdue customers and press Save policy.

• While it is off, only two things stop an invoice: a customer’s own credit limit, and an approved manual hold. Payment terms set on the customer itself still give the due date.
• Once it is on, segment and workspace defaults apply, overdue customers are held automatically, and cash-only segments take effect.

Where Each Figure Comes From

Each figure — credit limit, payment terms, and the two overdue thresholds — is taken from the first place it is set: the customer, then their segment, then the workspace default. A blank field falls through to the next. The customer’s Credit policy panel shows the figure in force and where it came from (this customer, segment, workspace default, or not set).

• Default credit limit — the most a customer may owe across their open invoices. A credit limit of 0 on the customer means not set, so the segment or workspace figure applies. The customer’s own limit is on the customer’s edit form.
• Payment terms (days) — how many days after the invoice date an invoice falls due. 0 means due on receipt.
• Hold when overdue more than (days) — the customer is held once their oldest unpaid invoice is overdue by more than this.
• Hold when overdue above — the customer is held once their overdue balance goes above this amount. It is compared with each currency’s overdue balance on its own; balances in different currencies are never added together.
• A release lasts (days) — after an approved release, overdue holds are not applied to that customer again for this many days (7 unless you change it).

Segments

A segment is a named group of customers with its own terms — key accounts on 60 days and a higher limit, walk-in buyers on no credit at all.

1. On the Credit Policy page, under Segments, fill in a Name and any of the figures above, plus an optional description.
2. Tick Cash only for a segment that should never be invoiced on credit. Every customer in it is on hold for new invoices while the engine is on.
3. Press Add segment. Open a segment later to change it with Save segment, or Remove segment — its customers then follow the workspace default.
4. Put a customer in a segment from their page: in the Credit policy panel, open Segment and overrides, choose the Segment, and press Save. The same form sets that customer’s own payment terms and overdue thresholds.

Payment Terms And The Due Date

• On a new invoice, picking the customer fills the Due Date from their payment terms and shows a hint such as Customer terms: net 30 days. Changing the invoice date moves it with it.
• Your date wins. Type a different due date and it is kept. Clear it, and the terms decide when the invoice is saved.
• The same rule applies to invoices made from a quote or a sales order, and to invoices raised in the mobile app and through the API.
• With no terms set anywhere, a typed invoice needs a due date, and an invoice converted from a quote or order falls due 14 days after its date, as before.

When A Customer Is On Hold

A customer is on credit hold when any of these is true: an approved manual hold, an invoice overdue past the days threshold, an overdue balance above the amount threshold in any one currency, or membership of a cash-only segment. The Credit policy panel lists every reason. A new invoice for that customer is saved on credit hold even when it is under the limit, and cannot be approved or checked out.

There are two kinds of hold on an invoice, and they lift differently:

• Over the credit limit only — the invoice shows how far over it is, and someone reviewing it can still use Override Hold on the invoice with a written reason, as before.
• A policy hold (manual, overdue or cash-only) — cannot be overridden on the invoice. Override Hold is refused and tells you to request a release on the customer page, so that a second person decides it.

Requesting A Hold Or A Release

1. Open the customer. In the Credit policy panel, the form reads Ask to place on hold or, when the customer is held or has held invoices, Ask to release the hold.
2. Type the reason — for example Paid 80% today, balance promised Friday — and press Request. Only one request per customer can wait at a time.
3. Everyone else who may approve it is told in the bell. The request waits on the customer page, in the Hold and release requests waiting list on the Credit Policy page, and in the Approvals Hub as a Credit Hold item, on the web and in the app.
4. A different person holding the approval permission types a reason and presses Approve or Reject. The person who asked sees Waiting for another approver instead of those buttons, and can Withdraw the request while it waits. Nobody can decide their own request, whatever their role.

Approving a hold puts the customer on a manual hold. Approving a release lifts any manual hold, pauses the overdue and cash-only holds for the release period, and returns the customer’s held invoices to draft with the release recorded on each. The requester is told the outcome in the bell, and the panel keeps a Hold and release history.

Permissions

• Manage credit policy — the Credit Policy settings page, segments, and a customer’s segment and overrides.
• Approve credit holds — decide a hold or release request raised by someone else.
• Edit customers — ask for a hold or a release, and withdraw your own request.
• Create invoices — see a customer’s payment terms fill the due date on a new invoice.

The customer’s credit panel, segment assignment and hold and release requests are also in the AWRA mobile app. A credit score worked out from payment history, and holds that look at a customer’s group of related accounts together, are more we can add to your workspace.

Common Mistakes

• Setting segments without switching the engine on. Segment and workspace figures do nothing until the box under Workspace default is ticked.
• Expecting Override Hold to lift an overdue hold. It only lifts a plain over-limit hold. Ask for a release on the customer page.
• Setting the overdue amount as a total across currencies. It is checked against each currency separately, in that currency’s figures.
• Forgetting the release period. When it ends, a customer still overdue is held again on their next invoice.
• Leaving only one person able to approve. A request cannot be decided by the person who raised it, so give the approval permission to at least two people.

Related

• Customers — the customer page and its panels.
• Invoices — what a held invoice can and cannot do.
• Dunning Ladder — the reminders that go out before a hold.
• Payments & collections — the feature overview.