If you offer credit to your customers you should assess the risk of offering credit and decide at what level the credit limit should be set for individual customers. To assess the current credit worthiness of a customer, your company can register with a credit checking bureau. Providing you have Internet access, you can use Sage Accounts to check a customer's credit status online. If required, you can also do the same for any suppliers you deal with.
Cause
Resolution
To enter the credit bureau company's information
To use the Sage Accounts online checking facility you must first enter your bureau company's details.
Settings > Internet Resources.
Credit Info tab > select the first line you want to amend > Edit.
Complete the Edit Credit Bureau Details window as follows:
Bureau's Name
Enter the name of the credit bureau company, for example, Dun and Bradstreet.
Bureau's Web Site
Enter the credit bureau company's website address or a description of the website page, for example, http://www.dnb.com/us/ or D&B.
Note: This is for description purposes only.
Checking URL
To go straight to the credit checking page of the bureau's website when you launch it from the customer or supplier record, enter the URL here.
Note: If you enter ~CN~ at the end of the checking URL, when the web page is launched it replaces the ~CN~ with the credit reference from the customer or supplier record. The credit reference is a number generated by the bureau company for the specific company you want to check.
OK > Close.
Tip: If required repeat this process for any other credit bureaus that you want to add.
To set a default credit bureau
If you enter more than one bureau company, you may want to flag one of the companies as the default. If you set a bureau company as default, when you create a new customer or supplier record the default bureau company's details are automatically added to the Credit Control tab.
Settings > Internet Resources > Credit Info tab.
Select the company you want to mark as default > Default.
Close.
To add a credit reference and bureau details to a customer or supplier record
Note: You only need to follow the steps below if you created the record before setting the default bureau, or if you're changing bureaus. Any customer or supplier records you create after setting the default bureau automatically contain the default bureau details.
Customers or Suppliers > double-click the customer or supplier you want to amend > Credit Control tab.
Complete the Credit Control window as follows:
Credit Ref
Enter the customer or supplier's credit reference obtained from the credit bureau, for example, DB9876DW.
Note: This reference must be entered in upper case and can be up to sixty characters.
Bureau
From this drop-down list choose the relevant bureau for this customer or supplier.
Save > Close.
To run a credit check on a customer or supplier
Customers or Suppliers > double-click the customer or supplier you want to run the credit check for.
Credit Control tab > Credit Ref dialler button. This connects to the bureau's website and the CN number is replaced by the credit reference to take you to the required customer or supplier details.
button.