An invoice issued is money owed, but money owed is not money received. Some invoices are not paid on time, and they have to be followed up. This piece is about customer payment follow-ups in Odoo.
The problem of overdue invoices
A business issues invoices, and the payment terms define when each is due. Some customers pay on time; some do not. An invoice unpaid past its due date is overdue, and overdue invoices are a real problem: they are money the business has earned but not received, and money not collected is, in effect, money lost if it is never chased. Following up on overdue invoices is how a business genuinely collects the money it is owed.
Why follow-up has to be managed
Following up on overdue invoices, done badly, is haphazard: it depends on someone noticing an invoice is overdue and remembering to chase it, and under the pressure of other work, overdue invoices get missed, or chased late, or chased inconsistently. The result is money owed that is not collected, or collected slowly. Customer payment follow-up has to be managed, made a consistent, reliable process, so that overdue invoices are genuinely and promptly chased rather than depending on someone happening to notice.
How follow-ups work in Odoo
Odoo supports customer payment follow-ups, making the chasing of overdue invoices a managed process rather than a haphazard one. Because Odoo knows each invoice's due date, from the payment terms, it knows which invoices are overdue. And it supports following up on them in a managed way: surfacing the overdue invoices, supporting the process of chasing them, so the follow-up is systematic. Rather than relying on someone to notice and remember, the follow-up is driven by the system, which knows what is overdue.
What managed follow-up achieves
Managed customer payment follow-up achieves the genuine, prompt collection of money owed. Overdue invoices are surfaced and chased, consistently, rather than slipping through. This means the business collects more of what it is owed, and collects it sooner, which is money in the business's hands rather than money lost or money tied up uncollected. For a business of any size, the difference between managed follow-up and haphazard follow-up is real money: managed follow-up genuinely brings in the overdue money; haphazard follow-up leaves some of it uncollected.
Follow-up and the customer relationship
An honest note. Following up on overdue payment is necessary, and it is also a matter of the customer relationship, so it should be done in a way that is firm but appropriate. A managed follow-up process, with a sensible progression of follow-up as an invoice becomes more overdue, lets a business chase its money consistently and appropriately, rather than either neglecting overdue invoices or chasing them in an ad hoc, inconsistent way. Managed follow-up is both more effective at collecting the money and more consistent in how customers are treated.
The takeaway
Customer payment follow-ups in Odoo are the chasing of overdue invoices, made a managed, consistent process. Overdue invoices are money earned but not received, and following them up is how a business genuinely collects what it is owed. Done haphazardly, follow-up misses invoices and collects slowly; managed in Odoo, which knows what is overdue and supports systematic follow-up, the chasing is consistent and reliable. Managed follow-up genuinely brings in overdue money, sooner, and chases customers consistently and appropriately. For how we approach Odoo, see our ERP practice.