A credit limit is the most you’re happy for a customer to owe you at once. In this tutorial we’ll set limits, see what happens when an account goes over, and read the reports.

#Steps in short

1. Press Set credit limit on an account.
2. Warnings at 80%, alerts and follow-ups when over.
3. New orders over the limit are tagged Credit review.
4. Balances on customer pages, credit on order pages.
5. DSO, the ageing trend and collection effectiveness.

#1. Set a limit

On an account, press Set credit limit and enter an amount and currency. The plugin shows the account’s exposure: unpaid invoices and orders, plus orders you’ve accepted but not yet sent or invoiced. The limit is only compared with exposure in the same currency.

To set a limit for a customer who doesn’t owe you anything yet, use Credit limits → Set a limit for someone who owes nothing yet.

#2. Near and over the limit

At 80% of the limit — you can change this — the account shows as near its limit. Over the limit, it goes on your follow-up list, and staff can be emailed: Settings → Credit control → Staff to alert.

#3. Orders that break the limit

A new order that takes an account over its limit is tagged Credit review in Orbit, so your team sees it in the orders list, and it’s added to your follow-ups.

#4. See it on Orbit’s own pages

A customer’s page in Orbit shows an Account balance box — balance, oldest overdue item, last statement and any promise — with Send statement and Send reminder. An order’s page shows Payment and credit: whether it’s paid, how late, which reminders went out and whether it broke a limit.

#5. Read the reports

• Days sales outstanding — on average, how many days it takes to get paid. Give 30-day terms with a DSO of 45 and customers pay about two weeks late.
• Ageing trend — your aged debt each week for the last 12 weeks.
• Collection effectiveness — of the money you could have collected each month, how much you did.

Export to CSV downloads aged debt, open items, your reminder and statement log, or promises to pay.