Billing calculates late fees when the invoice remains unpaid after the due date plus grace days. The process for assessing late fees on overdue payments is configurable through Finance Groups. Finance groups let you apply different methods for computing fees for a specific set of customers. Finance groups are set up in Admin Console > Data Management. Your customers are then assigned to the applicable finance group when you create or edit the customer account.
Finance groups set the following rules to establish how late fees are applied for customers assigned to the group:
Whether to calculate the late fee as a percentage of the amount past due, as a flat fee, or a combination of both.
Ensure a minimum or maximum amount is assessed in place of the calculated amount when the calculated amount is too large or too small.
The minimum balance to incur a late fee.
The number of days an account is allowed to be overdue before a late fee is applied (grace period).
Whether to exempt certain charges from late fees on an invoice category basis. Invoice categories are also set up in Admin Console > Data Management.
In addition to setting up finance groups, there are several other settings available in CostGuard Client/Customer Care and Admin Console you should consider when configuring finance charge functionality in your system. These settings are covered in this article as applicable and include:
Exempting individual customer accounts from finance charges.
Excluding unpaid finance charges (e.g from the last bill period) from the current bill period finance charge calculation.
By default, late fees are waived when the invoice is not paid on time, but is paid by the next due date. You can configure the system to also assess late fees in this scenario.
Prioritizing late fee payments by ordering how payments are allocated - first by invoice category, then by invoice number or vice versa.
For the latest on how to set up finance charges and late fees, refer to the article on assessing late fees in the IDI Knowledge Center.