Summary
- Trove is credit control software for growing UK finance teams. It syncs two-way with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central on Trove’s Advanced plan.
- Business Central chases with reminder terms. Each set of reminder terms has levels that decide when a reminder goes out, what fee it adds and whether it calculates interest.
- Business Central reminders are created, issued and sent as documents. You can run the Create Reminders action manually or automate create, issue and send through the Reminders Automation page.
- The Customer Statement report sends statements. It prints in the customer’s currency and can include an aging band.
- An entry marked On Hold won’t trigger a Business Central reminder, and no interest is calculated on it.
- Business Central stops at the reply. It doesn’t read customer replies, record promised payment dates or give several people a shared chasing list.
How chasing works in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, step by step
- Set up reminder terms and levels on the Reminder Terms page.
- Assign the reminder terms to each customer on the Customer Card.
- Create reminders with the Create Reminders action, or Suggest Reminder Lines for one customer.
- Issue the reminders, which posts any fees or interest and emails or prints each one as a PDF.
- Send statements with the Customer Statement report.
- Put disputed entries on hold so they don’t trigger new reminders.
- Automate steps 3 and 4 and the send on the Reminders Automation page, once the terms are right.
The rest of this guide walks through each step, then shows where the process runs out.
Set up reminder terms and levels in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
Reminder terms are the rules. Levels are the steps inside them: level 1 is the first reminder, level 2 the second, and so on.
- Select Search (Alt+Q), enter Reminder Terms and open the page. Microsoft’s setup guide covers every field.
- Create a code for each set of terms you need. A common split is one for standard customers and one for key accounts who get a gentler sequence.
- Set Max. No of Reminders. Business Central won’t create more reminders than this for an entry.
- Select a line and choose Levels. For each level, set the grace period and timing, whether to tick Calculate Interest, and any fee. Fees use Add. Fee Calculation Type: Fixed, Single Dynamic or Accumulated Dynamic.
- Choose Currencies to set a fee per currency. If you don’t, Business Central converts the fee from your local currency.
- Choose Beginning Text and Ending Text to write what each level says. Placeholders such as %7 (the total) and %2 (the due date) pull in the figures.
- Set up the email and attachment wording with Customer Communication, and choose the reminder report on the Report Selection Reminder/Finance Charge page.
Then open each customer’s Customer Card and assign the right reminder terms.
If you send more reminders than you’ve set levels, Business Central keeps using the conditions of the highest level. Set up as many levels as you actually plan to send. Our data on how many invoice reminders to send shows most paid invoices are paid after the first or second reminder, so the first two levels matter most.
Create and issue reminders in Business Central
Creating a reminder builds a draft. Issuing it makes it real: it posts entries and goes to the customer.
- Search for Reminders and open the page.
- Choose Create Reminders to build reminders for every customer with overdue entries. To do one customer, choose New, fill in the header and choose Suggest Reminder Lines. Microsoft’s guide to sending reminders lists the options.
- Check the lines. If you delete a line after an amount has gone into the text, choose Update Reminder Text so the totals match.
- Choose Issue, fill in the Issue Reminders page and choose OK.
Issuing moves the reminder to Issued Reminders, posts reminder entries and, if you’ve set Post Interest or Post Additional Fee, posts those amounts to the customer and the general ledger. The reminder is printed or emailed as a PDF. If you issue one by mistake, select it on Issued Reminders and choose Cancel.
Automate reminders in Business Central
Since 2024 release wave 1, Business Central can create, issue and send reminders on a schedule. Microsoft’s release plan dates general availability to 1 April 2024.
- Search for Reminders Automation and choose New. Microsoft’s automation guide has the detail.
- In Reminder Terms Filter, choose which terms this automation covers.
- Set Cadence to Manual, Weekly, Monthly or Custom. For daily runs, adjust the recurrence on the Job Queue Entries page.
- On the Actions FastTab, add a create action, an issue action and a send action, and use Move up and Move down to order them.
- In the send action’s setup, choose email or print and whether to attach overdue invoices, all invoices or none as PDFs.
The send step needs email set up in Business Central. Check Log entries after the first few runs to confirm it’s doing what you expect.
Send customer statements from Business Central
Statements show the customer everything open on their account, which helps when they pay in batches.
- Search for Customer Statement and open the report. You can also generate one from a customer card.
- Set the date range. Set Statement Style to Open Items if you only want unpaid entries.
- Add an aging band if you want overdue amounts grouped. Businesses often use 30D, which gives 30, 60 and 90 day columns. The Customer Statement report page explains the options.
- Under Output Options, choose how the statement goes to the customer.
If you invoice in more than one currency, the statement always prints in the customer’s currency. To send statements to several customers at once, use Scheduled Statements on the customer list.
Put an invoice on hold in Business Central during a dispute
When a customer disputes an invoice, fill in the On Hold field on the customer ledger entry. According to Microsoft’s guide to collecting balances, three things follow:
- the on-hold entry won’t trigger a reminder on its own
- if another overdue entry triggers a reminder, the on-hold entry is still listed on it
- no interest is calculated on the on-hold entry
The second point catches people out. A customer disputing one invoice can still receive a reminder that lists it, because a different invoice went overdue. Check the lines before you issue, or leave Include Entries On Hold unticked when you use Suggest Reminder Lines.
Nothing in the On Hold field tells you why the invoice is on hold or when to look at it again. That lives in someone’s inbox or a spreadsheet.
UK late payment interest and compensation in Business Central
UK businesses can claim statutory interest of 8% above the Bank of England base rate, plus fixed compensation of £40, £70 or £100 per invoice depending on its size. Our guide to UK late payment fees explains the rules, and the late payment fee calculator works out both for a single invoice.
In Business Central, interest comes from the Finance Charge Terms page, and you tick Calculate Interest on each reminder level where you want it to appear. If you’d rather charge interest without sending a reminder, issue a finance charge memo instead.
Compensation is less tidy. Business Central sets fees per reminder level and per currency, while the statutory compensation is per invoice and depends on the invoice amount. Test how a fee lands on a reminder covering several invoices before you rely on it for compensation.
Where Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central stops: what a chasing tool adds
Business Central handles the outbound side well. The gaps start when a customer replies, or when more than one person is chasing.
A typical process: invoices and DSO live in Business Central, but every chase is written and sent manually from Outlook, because it’s easier to keep track of replies that way. On a recent demo call, a finance lead at a group running Business Central across four regional entities described exactly this. Notes went in a message field because there was nowhere better to put them. Small payment promises often went unrecorded because logging them took too long, and the third reminder meant manually messaging the sales contact.
If you run several entities like this, our guide to bringing credit control in-house across a group covers the set-up.
| Task | Business Central on its own | What a chasing tool adds |
|---|---|---|
| Sending scheduled reminders | Yes, through reminder terms and Reminders Automation | Reminders sent from your own Outlook or Gmail address, with wording that varies between sends |
| Reading customer replies | No. Replies land in an inbox and someone reads them | Replies read and turned into tasks, such as "set the expected payment date" or "send a copy invoice" |
| Recording promised payment dates | No step in the reminder process captures a promised date | The date picked out of the reply, chasing paused, and a follow-up booked in case the money doesn't arrive |
| Pausing on disputes | On Hold stops the entry triggering a reminder, but it can still appear on one | The customer or invoice paused with a note of why, and a reminder to review it |
| Several people chasing | Reminders are created in batches by reminder terms. The reminder process has no chasing owner per customer or shared to-do list | A shared list of overdue customers, each with an owner, so everyone sees who's chasing what |
| Sales visibility | Account managers need Business Central access or someone to tell them | Chases visible in the CRM, and later reminders sent from the account manager |
| SMS and letters | Email or print | Text and letter reminders as a step in the sequence |
| Per-customer workflows | Yes, by assigning different reminder terms | Workflows chosen by customer data, and changed by what the customer says |
If you’re comparing tools for this, our Business Central credit control software comparison puts the options side by side.
How Trove works with Business Central
Trove connects to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central on the Advanced plan, through a two-way ERP integration. It reads customers, contacts, invoices and payments, and writes notes, emails, payment dates and contacts back. Webhooks keep it in step, so chasing stops as soon as a payment is reconciled.
Reminders go out from your own Outlook or Gmail address, so replies come back to the inbox you already use. If you run several companies in Business Central, multi-entity support keeps each one’s currency and sender address separate under one login.
Here’s the gap from the table above, closed for one invoice. A customer replies to a chaser: “We’ll pay on the 3rd.” Trove’s AI Reply Agent reads the reply, picks out the date and suggests it as the expected payment date. You approve it, and Trove writes the date back to Business Central, pauses chasing and books a follow-up in case the money doesn’t arrive. If the payment lands first, the follow-up is cancelled.
That’s the step finance teams skip on small invoices. It’s also why the cash forecast is rarely right. Trove’s data shows 7 in 10 expected payment dates are met within three days, so a logged date is worth having. It’s also what fills the promised payments table in a monthly debtors pack for your CFO.
FAQs about chasing invoices in Business Central
Can Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central send payment reminders automatically?
Yes. Since 2024 release wave 1, the Reminders Automation page can create, issue and email reminders on a weekly, monthly or custom schedule through the job queue. You need email set up in Business Central for the send step.
How do I set up reminder terms in Business Central?
Search for Reminder Terms, create a code, then choose Levels to set timing, fees and interest for each reminder. Assign the terms to each customer on the Customer Card.
Can Business Central send customer statements by email?
Yes. Run the Customer Statement report and choose how to send it under Output Options, or use Scheduled Statements on the customer list to send to several customers at once.
Does an invoice on hold get included on Business Central reminders?
It won’t trigger a reminder on its own, but if another overdue entry triggers one, the on-hold entry is listed too. No interest is calculated on it.
Does Trove integrate with Business Central?
Yes, on Trove’s Advanced plan. The sync is two-way: Trove reads customers, invoices and payments, and writes notes, emails, payment dates and contacts back to Business Central.
Trove runs a free 30-day trial. You can start a free trial here or book a demo if you’d like to see it with your own Business Central data first.
