Finance Charges

SME supports finance charges on late invoices also called late fees.

There are a couple parts to late fees: Default setup, Customer setup, and applying late fees to invoices.

Default Late Fee Setup: You can setup the system default late fees or finance charge for customers. Whenever a new customer is created, the default late fee will be set for the new customer. You can always change the late fee on a customer by customer basis, but it's best to setup your standard or default latefee up front. To setup the default late fee follow these steps:

1. Go to Setup>Company>Customer Defaults
2. Select edit in the middle left button
3. Set your late fee, called Finance Chg % in terms of yearly finance charge amount. For example, enter 12.0 if you want 12% finance charge per year or 1% per month.
4. Select Save

Customer Setup: When a new customer is setup, it will use the default Finance Chg %. However, if you have an existing customer or want a special finance charge or late fee for a customer, you can change this on a customer by customer basis. Note that every customer site in SME can have a default late fee. To set the customer/site late fee, follow these steps:
1.Go to the Customer or site that you want to set the finance charges 2.Select Edit 3.In the Accounts Tab set the finance charge. Set the annual finance charge. For example, enter 12.0 if you want 12% finance charge per year or 1% per month. 4.Save

Applying Late Fees: You can apply late fees to customer invoices. SME will determine if any late fees are due based upon the invoice due date. Late fee amounts are saved in the Late Fees tab to allow you to Deleted Selected late fees or clear all late fees. To apply a late fee follow these steps:

1. Select Actions>Calculate Finance Charges
2. This will determine the amount of time beyond the due date and generate a late fee based on the Finance Charge amount and amout of time. For example if the customer is 1 month late and Finance charge is 12.0 for a year which equates to 1% per month, then the late fee on a $1000 amount due would be $10.
3. The Late Fee shows in the totals tab
4. If you want to remove the late fee, go to the Late Fees tab and select an individual late fee enter and select Delete Selected or select Clear All to delete all late fees for this invoice.

Create late fees or finance charges for all overdue invoices: SME allows the generation of late fees for all overdue invoices. This will automatically determine the late fees for all invoices that are late based on the customer/site finance charge amount and the amount of time that the invoice is beyond it's due date. It is recommended to be consistant when you run this utility, for example run it at the end or beginning of every month. To run this utility follow these steps:

1. Make sure that all customers have the proper finance charge % set. See the customer setup section above.
2. Go to Utilities>System
3. Select Generate Finance Charges
4. Select Run It
5. This will automatically generate late fees for all overdue invoices.