[ADD] accounting: From Vendor Bills to Payments

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BGPrAIllovFcsDNCjlM6TY7bZt6wGG8-4B-GJqioVIs/edit

accounting/receivables/getting_paid/automated_followups.rst

@@ -1,3 +1,171 @@
-========================
+==========================================================
-Automated followup plans
+How to automate customer follow-ups with plans?
-========================
+==========================================================
+
+With the Odoo Accounting application, you get a dynamic aged receivable
+report, customer statements and you can easily send them to customers.
+
+If you want to go further in the automation of the credit collection
+process, you can use follow-up plans. They will help you automate all
+the steps to get paid, by triggering them at the right time: send
+customer statements by emails, send regular letter (through the Docsaway
+integration), create a task to manually call the customer, etc...
+
+Here is an example of a plan:
+
++--------------------------+--------------------------+-------------------+
+| When?                    | What?                    | Who?              |
++==========================+==========================+===================+
+| 3 days before due date   | Email                    | automated         |
++--------------------------+--------------------------+-------------------+
+| 1 day after due date     | Email + Regular Letter   | automated         |
++--------------------------+--------------------------+-------------------+
+| 15 days after due date   | Call the customer        | John Mac Gregor   |
++--------------------------+--------------------------+-------------------+
+| 35 days after due date   | Email + Letter + Call    | John Mac Gregor   |
++--------------------------+--------------------------+-------------------+
+| 60 days after due date   | Formal notice            | Bailiff           |
++--------------------------+--------------------------+-------------------+
+
+Configuration
+=============
+
+Install Reminder Module
+-----------------------
+
+You must start by activating the feature, using the menu 
+:menuselection:`Configuration --> Settings` of the Accounting application. 
+From the settings screen, activate the feature **Enable payment follow-up management**.
+
+.. image:: ./media/automated_followups01.png
+  :align: center
+
+Define Payment Follow-ups Levels
+--------------------------------
+
+To automate customer follow ups, you must configure your follow–up
+levels using the menu :menuselection:`Accounting --> Configuration --> Payment Follow-ups`.
+You should define one and only one follow-up plan per company.
+
+The levels of follow-up are relative to the due date; when no payment
+term is specified, the invoice date will be considered as the due date.
+
+For each level, you should define the number of days and create a note
+which will automatically be added into the reminder letter.
+
+.. image:: ./media/automated_followups02.png
+  :align: center
+
+Odoo defines several actions for every reminder:
+
+-  **Manual Action:** assign a responsible that will have to call the customer
+-  **Send an Email:** send an email to customer using the provided text
+-  **Send a Letter:** send a letter by regular mail, using the provided note
+
+.. image:: ./media/automated_followups03.png
+  :align: center
+
+.. Note:: 
+    As you need to provide a number of days relative to the due date,
+    you can use a negative number. As an example, if an invoice is issued
+    the January 1st but the due date is January 30, if you set a reminder 3
+    days before the due date, the customer may receive an email in January
+    17.
+
+Doing your weekly follow-ups
+============================
+
+Once everything is setup, Odoo will prepare follow-up letters and emails
+automatically for you. All you have to do is to the menu 
+:menuselection:`Sales --> Customers Statement` in the accounting application.
+
+.. image:: ./media/automated_followups04.png
+  :align: center
+
+Odoo will automatically propose you actions based on the follow-up plan
+you defined, invoices to pay and payment received.
+
+You can use this menu every day, once a week or once a month. You do not
+risk to send two times the same reminder to your customer. Odoo only
+proposes you the action you have to do. If you do it every day, you will
+have a few calls to do per day. If you do it once a month, you will have
+much more work once you do it.
+
+It’s up to you to organize the way you want to work. But it’s a good
+practice to reconcile your bank statements before launching the
+follow-ups. That way, all paid invoices will be reconciled and you will
+not send a follow-up letter to a customer that already paid his invoice.
+
+From a customer follow-up proposition, you can:
+
+-  Get the customer information to contact him
+
+-  Drill down to the customer information form by clicking on its name
+
+-  Change the text (or the email or letter) and adapt to the customer
+
+-  Change the colored dot to mark the customer as being a good, normal
+   or bad debtor
+
+-  Log a note is you called the customer
+
+-  Exclude some invoices from the statement table (litigation)
+
+-  Send an email with the statement
+
+-  Print a letter, or send a regular mail (if you installed the Docsaway
+   integration)
+
+-  Plan the next reminder (but it’s better to keep in automatic mode so that Odoo
+   will stick to the follow-up plan of the company)
+
+-  Drill down to an invoice
+
+-  Change the expected payment date of an invoice (thus, impacting the
+   next time Odoo will propose you to send a reminder)
+
+.. note::
+    You can force a customer statement, even if Odoo do not proposes
+    you to do it, because it’s not the right date yet. To do this, you
+    should go to the Aged Receivable report (in the report menu of the
+    Accounting application). From this report, you can click on a customer
+    to get to his customer statement.
+
+How to exclude an invoice from auto follow up?
+===============================================
+
+To see all **overdue invoices** or **on need of action**,
+
+Go to :menuselection:`Accounting -> Sales -> Customers Statement`
+
+.. image:: ./media/automated_followups05.png
+  :align: center
+
+Exclude a specific invoice for a specific date
+------------------------------------------------
+
+Odoo can exclude an invoice from follow-ups actions for specific date by
+clicking on **Log a Note**, then choose one of the ready options (ONE
+WEEK, TWO WEEKS, ONE MONTH, and TWO MONTHS), So Odoo will calculate the
+required date according to the current date.
+
+.. image:: ./media/automated_followups06.png
+  :align: center
+
+Another way to achieve it is the following: click on the required invoice, 
+then choose **Change expected payment date/note**, then enter a new payment date and note.
+
+.. image:: ./media/automated_followups07.png
+  :align: center
+
+Exclude a specific invoice forever
+-----------------------------------
+
+Odoo can exclude an invoice for a specific customer by clicking on
+the checkbox **Excluded**
+
+.. note::
+    If you click on **History**, you can see all follow ups actions.
+
+.. image:: ./media/automated_followups09.png
+  :align: center