Printing Past Due Letters (Standard)

Printing Standard Accounts Receivable Reports

Before you can print form letters, you must:

Create a file of customer names to whom to mail
Select or create a form letter.

Creating a File Containing a List of Customers

There are two ways to build a file of customer names:

You can print the Trial Balance Report, and specify a file name in the Save File Name field. See Printing a Trial Balance Report.
You can also use the [N] Build Names function to create a list of customers. See Building a Name File for Form Letters.

When using either method, the limits you set determine which customers the list includes. Suppose you wanted to send a letter to customers who were 60 days past due. You could print the Trial Balance Report, enter a name in the Save File Name field, and specify 60 in the Pastdue limiting field. Each customer with an invoice 60 days old or older is included in the list.

Creating a Form Letter

Form letters are word processing files with special codes that indicate which customer information to include. DDMS includes three sample form letters. You can use these as is, or modify them to suit your needs. These letters are stored in word processing files named CREDIT-6, CREDIT-9, and CREDIT-C. These files are on your software update tape, under the volume serial ZEND.

Note: These form letter files (or any other form letter file you use) must be on unit 04.

The letter CREDIT-6 warns customers they have invoices that are more than 60 days overdue.

The letter CREDIT-9 serves as a second notice. It informs customers that they have invoices more than 90 days overdue, and warns of the possibility of a credit hold.

The letter CREDIT-C informs delinquent customers they have been placed on credit hold. It also says that after ten days, their account will be turned over to a collection agency.

To modify these form letters, or to create your own from scratch, use the word processor. To include information about the customer or account on your letters, use a code from the list below. Note that all of these codes must begin at position one. (Positions on a computer screen are numbered from one to 80. Position one is the first position on the left -- as far left as the cursor will go on the screen.)

Note: In the following codes, the symbols xx represent a screen position. When using these codes, you can replace these symbols with any number from 01 to 80.

//xx Customer information prints in the following format at the specified position:
Account ( ) SLSM ( )
Name
Suite
Address
City, State Zip
System Date

/Nxx The customer's name prints at the specified position.
/#xx The customer's account number prints at the specified position.
/Sxx The customer's suite prints at the specified position.
/Axx The customer's address prints at the specified position.
/Cxx The customer's city, state, and zip code print at the specified position.
/Rxx The name in the Name box in the Additional Name and Contact area in the Customer Master tab prints at the specified position.
/Oxx The name in the Contact field in the Customer Shipto/Attention tab prints at the specified position.
/Txx The customer's account total prints at the specified position.

In the (OR) screen, select the [P] Past Due action code.
In the Letter field, specify the file name of the letter to use. If the file name has fewer than ten characters, press Tab.

Note: Remember that the form letter file you specify must be on unit 04.

In the Saved Accounts field, enter the name of the file that contains the list of customers. If the file name has fewer than ten characters, press Tab.
In the Lines field, press Enter.
Use the Printer field to specify the logical name of the printer to use.
Use the Copies field to specify how many copies of each letter to print.
After the letters print, the cursor returns to the action code field.