How to send collection notices to overdue customers

What is it for?

When a customer does not pay on time, fiscaldoo prepares the notice: a PDF letter, an email or a task for someone in the company to phone. What is done depends on the days overdue of the customer's oldest overdue invoice, according to the notice levels the company has defined (for example, a letter at 15 days, an email at 30).

You can generate the notice for one customer, on their record, or for all overdue customers at once, in a batch that is recorded.

When to use it?

• Once, to define the company's notice levels.
• When you want to notify a specific customer, for example after a phone call.
• Once a week or once a month, to notify all overdue customers at once.

Notices do not change the invoices or the accounting: they do not create journal entries. To collect and record the payment, see How to record a payment received and issue the receipt.

Where to find it?

• Notice levels: Accounting › Record › Home › What is there to do?, Supporting lists group, Collection notice levels.
• Notice to one customer: Billing › Customers and items › Customers, open the customer, Billing tab, COLLECTION block.
• Batch notices: Billing › Collect › Collection notices (also in Accounting › Record › Collections from customers › Collection notices).

Before you start

• Your profile is Accountant (operates) or Certified accountant (signs, closes periods). The steps were done from start to finish with the Accountant (operates). Administrative and Management see the Collection notices menu and the Generate notice button, but cannot generate notices (see “Common problems”).
• The customers to notify have invoices that are issued and already overdue.
• To notify by email, the customer's record has the email address.

How to use it

1. Define the levels (once). Open Accounting › Record › Home › What is there to do?, scroll down to Supporting lists and click Collection notice levels.

2. In a company with no levels, click Create the usual levels. Three are created: 1st notice at 15 days, by Letter; 2nd notice at 30 days, by Email; Final notice at 60 days, by Letter. To change a level, open it; for another one, click New.

3. In a level, check the fields:

   • Overdue (days): from how many days overdue it applies;
   • Channel: Letter, Email or Task for the responsible;
   • Responsible: who receives the task, in the Task for the responsible channel;
   • Customer categories: if empty, it applies to all customers;
   • the notice text, which can use [PARTNER] (the customer), [DAYS] (the days overdue), [TOTAL] (the overdue amount) and [COMPANY] (your company).

4. Notify one customer. Open Billing › Customers and items › Customers, open the customer and click the Billing tab. The COLLECTION block shows Overdue (days), Overdue amount, Notice level and Next collection action.

5. Click Generate notice. With Letter, the browser downloads the PDF “Aviso de cobrança customer.pdf”. With Email, the email goes into the Odoo outgoing queue. With Task for the responsible, the task appears in the customer's activities, for the level's responsible person.

6. Notify everyone at once. Open Billing › Collect › Collection notices and click Generate notices in batch.

7. Check the options: Minimum level (if empty, all levels are included), Skip notified in the last (days) (comes with 7), One PDF per customer (comes ticked) and Customer categories. Click Preview.

   One PDF per customer, ticked, also saves each letter in its own PDF, on the customer's record, as well as the batch PDF with all the letters. Unticked, the letters are only in the batch PDF. The field help advises unticking it in very large batches, because it creates one PDF per letter.

8. Read the list: one line per overdue customer, with Customer, Level, Overdue (days), Overdue amount, Channel and Skipped because. To leave a customer out, switch on Exclude on their line.

9. Click Generate. With letters, the browser downloads a PDF with all the batch's letters, to print and send, and the window closes: you are left with the Notices runs list, with the new batch at the top. Without letters, with only emails or tasks, the batch opens.

Expected result

• On the customer: the Next collection action changes to “Done on 30/10/2026 - 1st notice: Letter, responsible: nobody in particular” and the history records “Collection notice generated: 1st notice (21 days overdue) by Letter.”. In the example, the PDF for Padaria Aurora, Lda has the company, the customer, the title “1st notice”, the text with 21 days and €143.10, and invoice FT D26/28, due on 09/10/2026, with a total of €143.10.
• With Task for the responsible: in the example, the level “Contacto telefónico” (5 days) created for Papelaria Central, Lda the activity “Cobrança: Contacto telefónico”, with the note “Papelaria Central, Lda has €4,847.43 overdue for 11 days: contact the customer.”.
• In the batch: each batch has the counters and one line per customer, with the Result (Generated or Skipped) and the Reason. Batch AVB/00001 had no letters and opened straight away: Notices generated 1, Letters 0, Emails queued 1, Tasks 0, Customers skipped 2 and Overdue amount noticed €1,597.60, the 2nd notice email to Maria João Ferreira (ENI). Padaria Aurora, Lda was skipped because it had already had a letter that day.
• In a batch with letters: in the example, with Skip notified in the last (days) at 0 and Exclude on for the other two customers, batch AVB/00003 had Notices generated 1, Letters 1, Customers skipped 2 and €143.10. The browser downloaded “Aviso de cobrança Padaria Aurora, Lda.pdf”, with the letter, and the screen stayed on the Notices runs list, with AVB/00003 at the top. To see the batch, open it from the list.
• With One PDF per customer: the letter is also kept on the customer's record, in the paperclip (Attach files) above the history, named after the level and the customer, for example “1.º aviso - Padaria Aurora, Lda.pdf”.

The batches stay in the Notices runs list, with the date and who generated them. If all customers are skipped or excluded, no batch is created: see “Common problems”.

Automatic notices, once a day

The database administrator can make the notices go out by themselves: Settings › Billing, Collection notices group, Automatic collection notices option. When you tick it, Automatic: minimum level and Automatic: skip notified in the last (days) appear. The screen says: “Once a day the notices are generated like the bulk generation does by hand. Letters stay as PDFs on the customer; emails only go to the local mail queue.” Pending validation on screen: the option was seen but not switched on, because the daily run cannot be waited for in a test session.

Important notes

• The email does not go out straight away. It stays in the Odoo outgoing queue, for the recipient on the customer's record. Pending validation on screen: the demo has no mail server, so sending from the queue could not be seen.
• The level is based on the oldest overdue invoice. The overdue amount is the sum of all the customer's overdue invoices. In the example, Maria João Ferreira (ENI) has €135.88 overdue since 23/09/2026 and €1,461.72 since 15/10/2026: 37 days and €1,597.60.
• The COLLECTION block only appears for customers with overdue invoices. If no level reaches the days overdue, the block appears without a level and without the Generate notice button.
• Do not use the invoice's “Leave out of collection” box for now. It appears on issued customer invoices, but it is disabled for all profiles, including the administrator: it cannot be ticked. To leave a customer out of a batch, use Exclude in step 8.

Common problems

“You are not allowed to generate collection notices.” appears

• Symptom: when you click Generate notice, the Invalid Operation window opens with “You are not allowed to generate collection notices.”.
• Cause: your profile is Administrative or Management. These profiles see the COLLECTION block and the Collection notices menu, but do not generate notices.
• What to do: click Close and ask the accountant for the notice.

The batch says “No notice level applies to … at 11 days overdue”

• Symptom: in the preview, under Skipped because: “No notice level applies to Papelaria Central, Lda at 11 days overdue. Why: … How to fix it: The first level starts at 15 days overdue: wait until then, or add a level that starts earlier in Configure > Banks and assets > more > Collection notice levels.”. On that line, Overdue (days) and Overdue amount show 0 and €0.00.
• Cause: the customer's delay is shorter than that of the first level.
• What to do: wait until the delay reaches the first level, or create a level that starts earlier. The levels are in Accounting › Record › Home › What is there to do?, Supporting lists group, and not in the path the message gives. The correct figures can be seen in the customer's COLLECTION block.

The batch says “Already notified at this level on …”

• Symptom: under Skipped because: “Already notified at this level on 30/10/2026.”.
• Cause: the customer has already received a notice of this level within the days in Skip notified in the last (days).
• What to do: nothing, if the previous notice is enough. To repeat it now, lower that number before Preview, or generate the notice on the customer's record (step 5), which does not skip.

“There is no customer to notify…” appears

• Symptom: when you click Generate, the Invalid Operation window opens with “There is no customer to notify: either nobody has overdue invoices for these filters, or every customer was skipped (below the minimum level, already notified, without email or excluded). Change the filters or the preview and try again.”. Underneath, the Generate collection notices window stays open and no batch is created.
• Cause: every line in the preview has a reason under Skipped because or Exclude switched on, or no customer has overdue invoices for these filters.
• What to do: click Close. If you really want to notify, change the Minimum level or the Customer categories, lower Skip notified in the last (days) or switch off Exclude on the lines, and click Preview again. If there is nobody to notify, click Discard.