Table of Contents

Automated Past Due Notification

Using the CATS service and the work scheduler, you can configure CATS to automatically send reminders and notifications to your customers when their invoices are becoming due or are past due.

Creating a Past Due Notification Work Item

To start, go to the Work Scheduler listing under Maintenance > General Maintenance > Work Scheduler.

Select “New Item” in the menu and then choose the “PASTDUE” option from the list of work item types. Or, pick Edit Item to change an existing past due notices item.

Past Due Notices Item in the Work Scheduler


This will create a new work item for your past due notification.

You can have more than one past due notices work scheduler item. This can help you treat different accounts

Notification Triggers

The first time you create a past due work item, you'll be prompted to set up an initial trigger threshold. Enter the number of days past the due date for the first trigger.

Set up past due notification triggers

The “Triggers” tab of the past due dialog contains a list of all the triggers for the current work item. You can move between the triggers by clicking on the numbers in the column on the left-hand side.

Check the box labeled “Send daily reminders” to have the trigger activate every day after the threshold is met. This allows you to send a reminder notification daily, rather than waiting for a specific date.

Configuring the Notification Message

Each trigger configured for the work item has its own message and subject-line. This means you can set up a notification to trigger for 10 days overdue, 15 days overdue, and 45 days overdue, with increasingly urgent language depending on the situation.

The notification message and subject lines have a number of special entries that allow you to display specific information related to the counterparty and invoices affected.

These special entries are surrounded by curly brackets. The entries are listed below.

Special entries that refer to multiple invoices take a [MODE] parameter to control which invoices they apply to:

[MODE] can be (do not include any brackets):

Below is an example of a past due notification setup that will send a message with a list of all overdue invoices.

Sample trigger and message setup.

Types of Triggers

The notification service works using configurable triggers based on the number of days past due for invoices.

Account Status Triggers

Account status triggers are triggers that fire only once per counterparty account.

You would use an account status trigger when you want to send an “overdue” notice to a customer which lists all their open invoices with balances. For example, if a customer has three unpaid invoices and one of them crosses a due date threshold, a message will be generated showing all three invoices in a listing.

Invoice Status Triggers

Invoice status triggers are triggers that fire for each invoice individually.

You would use an invoice status trigger to send a reminder notice to a customer when their invoices are about to come due. For example, if a customer has an unpaid invoice that is due to be paid in 5 days, a message will be generated showing that invoice.

Email Options

The email options tab lets you modify the header information for the outgoing emails. These settings apply to all triggers listed on the trigger page.

Account Whitelist & Blacklist

The default for new triggers is to include all account codes. Add Account Codes to the Include or Exclude lists to create custom lists of which account codes to include in your past due auto-generated outputs.
If you Include specific accounts, the module will only scan those accounts. If you Exclude specific accounts, CATS will not scan those accounts for past due invoices.

Include and exclude accounts from the past due auto-generated output.
Use only Include or only Exclude to dictate which accounts will be scanned for past due invoices.


Working with Past Due Contacts

You can create new contacts for use with just the past due invoice scheduler, instead of using the contacts on the account record, which are pulled in automatically on each auto-generated output.

Enter contacts for the past due invoices feature.

List contacts for default accounts

Check the box next to List contacts for default accounts. to review the contacts that are currently on your account codes.

Add to the List

Click the Add button to add a new contact. A window will pop up asking you to enter which account, Put in an account and click OK to continue.

Search the List

Next to the Filter label, enter a Name (Account code or name) or a Type search for a contact in the list.

Import/Export the List

Click on the Import/export link to call up the options to import or export from a CSV file.

Click on Import/export to pull in contacts from a CSV file.

Select a CSV file on your system to be imported, or choose to export the file for manipulation outside the system.

Choose a CSV file to import or where to export your current list.

When finished adding or modifying contacts, click the Save or Cancel button to return to the past due notices setup.

Select Save or Cancel to return to setting up a past due notice automation.