What to do when customer underpays

[jacobkball]

Hi there,

 

I have a customer who has paid $60 of his $66 bill, however the invoice is still marked as 'Unpaid' with a balance of $-6.00. This would normally be ok, but I just want to carry the $6 owing over to the next billing period, rather than the automatic Overdue Notices being sent out. I also presume that his account would get suspended if the balance isn't paid, but I don't want that to happen.

 

If I mark the invoice as Paid, does the negative balance get carried over to the next billing cycle?

 

How do other people handle this type of situation?

 

Cheers

Jacob

[DataHosts]

If you mark paid it is just that...paid. No carry over. If they dont pay I suspend....simple as that. I hate to be mean but this is a business and they need to respect/understand that. They do not underpay for groceries when they buy them, nor gas these days. $6 may not seem like a lot, but if it happens every month that is $72 a year....could add up the more clients begin to do it. Plus, it may be $6 this month then $12 next

[jacobkball]

Thanks for your input - I think I'll continue to manage my clients as I see fit (which is with understanding and friendship, particularly with lucrative and long term clients such as this one) rather than your "pay up or you're out" approach.

 

On reflection, I may not have been clear enough originally - I'm not asking for advice on how to manage my clients in general - rather how I can handle this occurrence through WHMCS, as I'm sure others would have encountered it before.

 

If anyone has any other constructive advice on how I can deal with this the way I want through the system, that would be greatly appreciated. If I just have to leave it as unpaid and switch off the auto suspension for his account until the next invoice is sent/paid, then so be it!

 

Cheers

Jacob

[SteveV]

What I would do (to avoid sending a valuable client annoying payment reminders) is to change the due date of the invoice to the next payment date once his partial payment has gone through. Then, the small amount due will be added to his next invoice.

 

And, as you mentioned, switch off auto suspension for his account.

[jacobkball]

Excellent, that's what I was looking for!

[handsonwebhosting]

You can also flag the hosting account (or package) by clicking the "Override automatic suspension" so that the account doesn't automatically suspend. They'd still get the notice of being overdue, but at least it wouldn't suspend.

 

Changing the invoice due date would work, however note that it does not ADD it to the NEW invoice generated, there would be two separate invoices. One for $6.00 and one for the new amount. When the customer pays, you need to apply it to both invoices, or if they're logging in to pay, they must click each invoice and pay the due amount.

 

Note that once the account is current, the Overide automatic suspension flag does not disapear. you will need to disable that yourself.

[Patty]

Sorry to revive such an old thread, but I have the same question. Is there any improvements to the way WHMCS handles this kind of situation? I also have few clients that sometimes underpay and I usually carry that balance over to the next invoice.

 

Also is there anywhere on the admin side where we can see there's a negative balance for a client? There is the credit field on the client's Summary page, but does that also include negative balances? How does WHMCS handles this on v4+?

 

TIA for any input.

[othellotech]

I also have few clients that sometimes underpay and I usually carry that balance over to the next invoice.

You dont need to alter the invoices, the balance left over from the current one is still outstanding and still due, just make sure your email templates have the balance on them not the invoice amount

 

Also is there anywhere on the admin side where we can see there's a negative balance for a client?

The client summary tells you they owe you money

[Patty]

Great! Tks for the fast reply.

[Patty]

The client summary tells you they owe you money

 

I can't find it anywhere, just Invoice Due.

 

This is the situation: invoice due is $55.00. Client paid $50.00. I added $50 payment to the invoice but status is still Unpaid. If it stays like this, client will keep receiving overdue emails and his account will be suspended. I don't want that for situations like this.

 

If I change the status to Paid on Invoice > Options, I can't see the balance due anywhere, just on the invoice, so I don't know that he owes me money if I look into his summary page. Plus the balance won't be carried over to the next invoice.

 

I think the ideal way to handle this would be to have the option to set the invoice as paid, shows the negative account balance on Client's Summary and add that balance to the next invoice (maybe a checkbox on the Add Payment screen?)

 

I shouldn't have to disable account suspension and overdue emails for that client nor change the next due date, I might forget to enable it back next month. Or the employee who did that might not be working here next month and I won't know the settings for that account have been temporarily changed.

 

Thank you for any input.

[WHMCS John]

This is the situation: invoice due is $55.00. Client paid $50.00. I added $50 payment to the invoice but status is still Unpaid. If it stays like this, client will keep receiving overdue emails and his account will be suspended. I don't want that for situations like this.

Why not? Surely if they haven't paid, the service is terminated.

[homeearners]

If you mark paid it is just that...paid. No carry over. If they dont pay I suspend....simple as that. I hate to be mean but this is a business and they need to respect/understand that. They do not underpay for groceries when they buy them, nor gas these days. $6 may not seem like a lot, but if it happens every month that is $72 a year....could add up the more clients begin to do it. Plus, it may be $6 this month then $12 next

 

One of my clients wasn't able to set up his account through whmcs when I first started out because it wasn't set up right. He paid $24 for three months of hosting and the price is $24.95. He just sent to my paypal account without a subscription so now how do I set it up as a subscription so future payments are automatic?

[Patty]

Why not? Surely if they haven't paid, the service is terminated.

And why would you assume that? Service is not terminated because the client didn't pay $5. I'm not that strict. You don't know why he didn't pay, there's always a reason behind it and a reason not to terminate his account because of 5 bucks.

 

Anyway, that is not the point. The point is: sometimes client will underpay and the balance owed should be carried over to the next invoice. Also I'd like to be able to look at each client's account and see the account balance.

 

If WHMCS doesn't handle that, here's a request to add this feature on a future version.

 

Meanwhile, we still need to know how to deal with this kind of situation properly, as far as WHMCS is concerned, nothing to do with how we handle our business.

 

TIA

[WHMCS John]

I guess you could give the client $5 credit and apply it to the invoice. Then create a billable item for $5 to add to their next invoice.

[Patty]

OK, so I add payment for $55 and then create a billable item, is that how it works?

I never worked with billable item before so I don't know exactly how to use it. But if I can use that to add the balance due to the next invoice, that could work.

 

Is there anywhere it would show the client's account balance with this amount due?

[WHMCS John]

Add a new billable items and choose the "Add to User's Next Invoice" option. It wouldn't show on the Invoices Due stat until their next invoice was generated I think.

[Patty]

Thank you, John. I can certainly try that.

 

Tks for your help.

[mkendall]

I understand that it would not always be good to have balances added to future invoices but it would be great to have the option. My clients get confused when they get multiple invoices. If there was a check box to "apply remaining balance to next invoice" ; or if individual invoices could be checked to include in a consolidated billing statement.

[xotj123]

This discussion is somewhat odd. Attempting to show PAID on an Invoice that is clearly not PAID. You might as well use an Invoice in Excel. lol, just making jokes

 

Regards,

Tommy