Set up payment plans

Use Payment Plans to help your clients stay on time with their payments and ensure you get paid properly.

Create a payment plan

To create a payment plan:

1. Select Contacts, then select the Payment Plans tab.
2. Select Create New Plan.
3. Enter the debtor details, individual payment amounts, the frequency of payments and the first payment due date. Then, select Next.

The Inclusions tab will display. Select the matters with outstanding amounts that you wish to include in the payment plan, then select Save.

You can also access the payment plan window by:

• Selecting the Payment Plan tab within a contact's details
• Opening a finalised and unpaid invoice, then selecting Setup Payment Plan for this Debtor on the right-hand side of the screen:
  

View current payment plans

To view all existing payment plans, select Contacts from the left menu, then select the Payment Plans tab.

All current payment plans will be displayed in a list. Use the table headers to sort payment plan debtors by last payment, outstanding balance, status, plan details.

Select a debtor to view the payment plan details. From here, you can view:

• Payment plan graph: this displays the progress of payments against its expected trajectory.
• Information Boxes:
  • Paid: the amount that has been paid on the Payment Plan
  • Outstanding: the remaining outstanding amount on the Payment Plan.
  • Ahead/Behind:
    • Ahead: if the user has paid more than the upcoming increment amount, the value will be displayed.
    • Behind: when the user misses a payment, the amount will be displayed as due to date (the amount that should have been paid as of the current date).
  • Payments(s) left (estimate): number of remaining payments.
  • Day(s) since last payment: number of days since the last payment.
• Payments table: this lists all payments made to date towards the payment plan. These payments must be applied during the payment plan period (from the date the plan is started/first payment due on date and until the payment plan is closed).
• The right-hand panel displays:
  • Matter(s) included in the payment plan
  • Matter(s) not included in the payment plan that has an outstanding amount that can potentially be added to the payment plan.

Edit a payment plan

If the debtor’s circumstances changes, you can update the payment plan by selecting Edit Plan.

You can edit the payment amount, frequency, next payment due on date and the included matters.

Add a payment to the payment plan

To add a payment:

1. Select Add Payment in the contact's payment plan details.
2. Enter the payment amount, payment method and reference number (if applicable).
3. Enter individual amounts against each invoice (if there are multiple). 
   
4. Add a reason and note for the payment, then select Process.

Once the debtor has finished paying off all their debt, or no longer requires a payment plan, select Close Plan from their payment plan details.

View past payment plans

To view closed payment plans, select any payment plan listed under the Past Plans section from the left panel.

This view will also show the date and name of the user that closed the plan on the right panel.

Export payment plan information

To export a list of the debtors with Payment Plans:

1. Select Contacts from the left menu, then select the Payment Plans tab.
2. Select Export CSV.
   
   
3. This will export the displayed table, which contains:
   • Name: debtors name
   • Organisation: debtor’s organisation name (if applicable)
   • Last Payment On: last date received payment
   • Paid: amount paid to date
   • Outstanding: amount outstanding on the Payment Plan
   • Status: debtor status if they are on track, ahead or behind

Good to know

Throughout Smokeball you will see the payment plan icon against contacts and invoices. This will indicate that this contact or invoice is on a payment plan. Hover over the icon for more information:

• If the icon colour is blue, the related debtor is on track with their payments
• If the icon colour is red, the related debtor is behind on payments