Setting up automatic payment reminders

By the end of this page, you will know how to configure automatic reminder sending, build a scenario of steps around the due date and write the emails your customers will receive. Day-to-day follow-up (reminders to approve, history, manual sending, suspensions) is covered in Tracking and handling reminders.

How reminders work

Three elements work together, each in a tab of the Sales → Reminders module:

Element	Role	Tab
Settings	Main switch, sending days and hours, per-customer limits, reply-to address	Settings
Scenario	The steps: when to remind (before, on or after the due date) and how	Scenarios
Template	The email text (subject and message) with its variables	Templates

The engine runs every hour. For each validated customer invoice that is not settled, it picks the applicable scenario, finds the step that is due and prepares the email. Emails are only sent during the sending window, in your company’s time zone.

Email only

Reminders are sent by email. A step can also send an internal notification to the scenario’s manager, without sending anything to the customer.

Prerequisites

• Validated customer invoices with a due date: a draft, a cancelled invoice or an invoice without a due date is never reminded.
• An email address on the customer record or on its main contact.
• For the Settings tab: the right to manage automations. Without it, the tab does not appear.

Step 1: configure sending

1. Open Sales → Reminders, Settings tab.

2. Check that Automatic reminders enabled is ticked. When unticked, no reminder is sent on its own; manual sending remains possible.

3. Adjust the sections in the table below, then click Save. The What your settings produce block summarises the result in plain words, and The sending week shows the time slots day by day.

Section	Setting	Default	Limits
Sending schedule	Time zone	Africa/Douala	A recognised time zone
Sending schedule	Send from / Until	09:00 / 18:00	End after start
Sending schedule	Sending days	Monday to Friday	At least one day
Per-customer limits	Minimum delay between two reminders (days)	0 (no delay)	0 to 60
Per-customer limits	Maximum reminders per customer	3	1 to 50, or No limit
Per-customer limits	Over a period of (days)	7	1 to 90
Sending incidents	Number of attempts	3	1 to 10
Sending incidents	Delay before retrying (minutes)	60	5 to 1,440; doubled on each attempt, 24 h max
Messages	Reply-to address	Empty: the usual sending address	Valid email address
Messages	Attach the invoice PDF by default	Yes

Per-customer limits postpone, they do not block

When a customer has reached its limit, the automatic reminder is postponed to the next allowed slot. Reminders sent manually also count towards this limit: the customer receives the emails, whatever their origin.

The same settings are available from Settings → Invoicing, Reminders tab.

Step 2: create a scenario

A scenario is a series of steps placed relative to the due date. It is created as a draft and reminds nobody until it is active.

1. In the Scenarios tab, click New scenario.

2. Choose Start from scratch, or click Use on a ready-to-use scenario (table below). Either way, the scenario is created as a draft.

3. In Information, enter the Scenario name and, if needed, a Priority: if an invoice matches several scenarios, the highest priority applies.

4. In Targeted invoices, narrow the scenario if needed: Payment status (Unpaid, Partially paid), Minimum amount incl. tax and Maximum amount incl. tax, Minimum amount due, Only these customers, Except these customers, Client groups. Without conditions, the scenario may apply to all unpaid invoices.

5. In Steps, click Add a step for each one (10 at most). Steps are ordered in time automatically. For each step, set:

   • the Timing (before the due date, on the due date or after) and the Number of days, 365 at most;
   • the Action: Email to the customer or Internal notification to the manager;
   • the Message template and the Recipients: Customer’s main contact (failing that, the customer record email), Customer record email, Other addresses, In copy;
   • the options Attach the invoice PDF, Approve before sending, Only if the amount due reaches and Active step.

6. In Sending, choose the Sending mode (table below) and the Manager. The manager is notified of reminders to approve, failures and internal notifications.

7. Click Save, or Save and activate once the summary shows Ready to be activated.

Ready-to-use scenarios

Ready-to-use scenarios are created in your company’s language. The names below are those of an English-language company.

Scenario	Steps	For
Standard reminders: payment pending	3 days before the due date, on the due date, 3 days after, 10 days after; at 30 days, a firm reminder to approve and an internal notification “Review the receivable”	General case
Light reminders: trusted customers	On the due date (no PDF), 7 days after, 21 days after; no firm reminder	Customers who usually pay without chasing
Reminders: balance after partial payment	3 days after the due date, then at 14 days a firm reminder to approve; limited to partially paid invoices	Invoices already partly paid

The standard scenario needs a manager

Its internal notification step can only be activated if a Manager is set in the Sending section. Without one, the summary shows “Name a manager for internal notifications”.

Sending modes

Mode	Effect
Automatic	Reminders are sent on their own, within the sending window
Approve each reminder	Each reminder waits for approval in the To handle tab
Automatic, then approval	The first steps are sent on their own; from the step chosen in Approval from step, they wait for approval

Whatever the mode, a reminder also waits for approval if its step has Approve before sending ticked, or if the amount due exceeds the amount entered in Approval above an amount due of.

Test before activating

The Test on an invoice block shows what the scenario would do for a real invoice, without sending anything: the scenario applied, the steps that are due or upcoming and, for each one, Would be sent, Would wait for approval, Would be postponed, Not due yet, Blocked or Skipped. The test evaluates the saved version of the scenario.

The Coverage block shows how many open invoices are targeted, how many are already followed by another scenario or excluded, and the Reminders in the next 30 days.

Conditions to activate

The Activate button stays unavailable while the summary lists items under To activate:

• at least one active step;
• for each email step, a template with Active status and no unknown variable, and at least one recipient;
• for each internal notification, a Manager.

Two warnings, shown under Good to know, do not prevent activation: no step after the due date, and a step after the due date without the PDF attached.

Managing an existing scenario

Action	Effect
Pause	Nothing is sent; invoices stay attached to this scenario
Resume	Reminders resume at the step due at that moment
Set as default	The scenario applies to invoices that no other scenario targets
Duplicate	Creates a copy as a draft
Archive	Final: this scenario’s pending reminders will not be sent

A step that has already run cannot be deleted

If a step has already been used, SynkriaOps refuses to delete it: untick Active step instead.

Step 3: write the message templates

Each company receives six templates provided by SynkriaOps, in its language. In English: Courteous reminder before due date, Invoice due today, First overdue payment reminder, Second payment reminder, Firm reminder, unpaid invoice and Remaining balance after partial payment. They can be edited and duplicated, but not deleted.

1. In the Templates tab, click New template or open an existing one.

2. Fill in the Template name, the Type (Before due date, Due date, Overdue, Long overdue, Partial payment, Custom), the Tone (Courteous, Neutral, Direct, Firm, Formal) and the Language (French or English).

3. Write the Email subject and the Message. Insert variable information from the Variables list: variables are written between double braces, for example {{facture.numero}}, and are filled in when the email is sent.

4. Check the Preview, in Desktop and Mobile versions. It is built on a sample invoice with your company’s real information.

5. Click Send me a test to receive the email, then Save.

Variables are grouped by theme: Company (name, NIU tax number, RCCM trade register number, email…), Customer, Contact, Recipient (greeting), Invoice (number, due date, amounts, amount due…), Payment (payment instructions) and Reminder (days overdue, reminders already sent…).

Three variables are required

Invoice number, Due date and Amount due are marked Required: if one of them is missing for an invoice, the reminder is blocked instead of being sent incomplete. An unknown variable also prevents activating any scenario that uses the template.

Reminding a customer in another language

The message language is the template’s language. Duplicate a template, translate it and set Language to French or English. Then use it in a scenario reserved for those customers (Only these customers condition, or a scenario chosen on the customer record).

Which scenario applies to an invoice

SynkriaOps keeps a single scenario per invoice, in this order:

1. the scenario chosen on the customer record (Scenario for this client);
2. the scenario that has already reminded this invoice, so the invoice does not switch scenario midway;
3. among active scenarios whose conditions match, the one with the highest priority;
4. the default scenario.

If none matches, the invoice appears with the status No scenario in the Overview tab.

What the engine does, and does not do

• No bursts. If several steps are due at the same time (scenario activated late, old invoice), only the latest one is prepared. Skipped steps are recorded as skipped.
• Stops on payment. The amount due is checked again just before each sending: a paid, settled or cancelled invoice is no longer reminded.
• Disputes. An invoice in dispute, a receivable declared uncollectible or a credit note still to be applied blocks the reminder.
• No reclassification. The engine never moves a receivable to disputed or doubtful: that accounting decision is yours.

Were you using the former 3-level reminders?

Your former level 1, 2 and 3 settings were converted into a scenario, marked Converted from L1/L2/L3 in the Scenarios tab. A banner announces it in the module; click View the scenario to review it.

Common refusal messages

Message shown	Cause	Solution
”The end of the sending window must be after its start”	End time before or equal to start time	Correct Until
”This template is used by an active scenario: replace it in the scenario first”	Archiving a template in use	Choose another template in the steps concerned
”A template provided by SynkriaOps cannot be deleted: archive or duplicate it”	Deleting a provided template	Archive or duplicate the template
”Step ”…” has already run: disable it instead of deleting it”	Deleting a step that has already been used	Untick Active step
”Two steps swap their timing: save the change in two goes”	Two steps swapped in time in a single save	Save one step, then the other
”This scenario was changed in the meantime: reload it before saving”	A colleague edited it at the same time	Reload the page and redo the change

See also

• Tracking and handling reminders →
• Creating a customer invoice →
• Account reconciliation (lettrage) →
• Approval engine →