All About Using a Flow Billing Account – PDCflow Support

About Collect on Due (COD) Billing

Updating to COD from outdated accounting processes (like paper invoicing and staggered payment terms) provides many benefits. Flow Billing makes it possible to quickly implement COD and remove the inefficiencies inherent to many archaic billing systems.

Flow Billing's digital automation processes benefit everyone: your team members save time by eliminating manual work and your customers can pay you more quickly and efficiently.

How to Update to COD With Flow Billing

Changing business processes can be challenging. We've made updating to COD via Flow Billing a three (or fewer) step process.

First, review your policies and procedures:
- Review and revise your organization's accounting policies and procedures to align with the new COD process.
- If necessary, update your policies related to invoicing, payment terms, credit limits, and collections to reflect the changes.
Next, notify your customers:
- Inform customers about the upcoming change to a COD process.
- Clearly communicate the new payment terms, deadlines, and procedures.
- Provide necessary instructions and support for customers to make COD payments easily.
Finally, add your team to PDCflow:
- Add an unlimited number of users; no extra fees will be added to your billing for additional AR team members.
- Add unlimited customers; add unlimited customers for no extra fees for more Customers or new. invoices.
- Your AR Team can add Customers and Invoices and trigger automatic workflows.
- Your AR Team can monitor and control your account by relying on built-in automated email notifications to know if there is Action Required (unresponsive new Customers, for example) and when you receive payments.

Once you've updated to COD, you can continue to add customers and invoices to your Flow Billing account and PDCflow will automatically handle your payments.

Add Customers

Within your PDCflow account, you can add Customers and Invoices. When you add a customer, PDCflow sends an email requesting each Customer’s payment method. Then, we store the payment methods securely and collect payments when they’re due.

Follow these steps to add a customer:

Step 1: On the Customers page, click the “+ Add Customer” button.

Step 2: On the Add Customer popup page, enter the required customer information, including the following:

1. 1. Customer Name: the official name of the business that will appear on invoices
  2. Account Number: an account or reference number from your system of record. This is often the customer account number from an existing accounting platform or CRM.
  3. Point of contact’s First Name, Last Name, and Email Address: who should receive the payment method request and submit the payment method request

Step 3: Optionally, add an invoice for the customer.

1. 1. Invoice ID: A unique number or ID for the invoice.
  2. Payment Amount Due ($): The amount to be paid.
  3. Due Date: The date the invoice is due.

Step 4: Click the Add Customer button.

Step 5: When the popup notification confirms “Customer successfully added,” you will see the new customer listed on the Customers page. To view a customer’s details, click on the appropriate row.

Step 6: When the customer details page slides out, you will see all the customer’s information.

Step 7: Your point of contact will have received an email to request their company’s payment method.

Step 8: When your point of contact clicks the unique link included in the email, a payment method request page will load in their browser. After valid credit card information is added and saved, PDCflow will store the payment method in your account.

Edit a Customer

Step 1: To edit a Customer, click the dropdown menu on the customer details page and select the appropriate option.

1. 1. Edit Customer: Update the business’s name.
  2. Request Payment Method: Send another email to your point of contact to request a new payment method Request. When a new payment method is saved for a customer, it becomes the Customer Default. If you need to adjust the default, navigate to the Payment Methods tab.
  3. Close Customer: Customer Standing will be updated to “Closed” and all payment methods will be removed, any outstanding invoices will be suspended, and any future payments will be canceled. This change cannot be reversed.

Add and Edit Invoices

When invoices are due, PDCflow takes care of automatically submitting a transaction for the invoice

Follow these steps to add an invoice:

Step 1: Click the Add Invoice button for the appropriate customer.

Step 2: Either select the account number or enter the account number for the customer.

Step 3: Add the other required information for the invoice.

1. Account Number: an account or reference number for the customer.
2. Point of contact’s First Name, Last Name, and Email Address: who should receive the payment method request and submit the payment method request.
3. Invoice ID: A unique number or ID for the invoice.
4. Payment Amount Due ($): The amount to be paid.
5. Due Date: The date the invoice is due.

Step 4: Click the Add Invoice button.

Step 5: When the popup notification confirms “Invoice successfully added,” the invoice has been recorded for the Customer. At this point, the payment for the invoice will be automatically charged on the due date.

Step 6: When you need to edit an outstanding Invoice, navigate to the customer’s detail page and click the “Edit Invoice” button for the appropriate invoice.

Note: Only outstanding invoices (invoices that have not been paid) can be edited.

Step 7: Edit the appropriate information for the invoice:

1. Account Number: an account or reference number for the customer.
2. Point of contact’s First Name, Last Name, and Email Address: who should receive the payment method request and submit the payment method request.
3. Invoice ID: A unique number or ID for the invoice.
4. Payment Amount Due ($): The amount to be paid.
5. Due Date: The date the invoice is due.

Step 8: When an invoice is added or edited, an email will be sent to the point of contact to inform them of the update.

How Payments Work

When you add a Customer to your account, PDCflow will automatically email your Point of Contact to request a payment method.

After your point of contact saves a payment method, it will be stored securely in your account.

Whenever an invoice is due, PDCflow will automatically process the amount due

PDCflow will automatically send you an email notification informing you that a payment was successfully charged.

PDCflow will automatically send an email to your customer with a payment receipt.

Note: When a customer does not successfully submit a valid payment method within seven days of being added to your account, PDCflow will automatically send you an email notification alerting you to the issue. You will need to send another Payment Method Request from your account to the point of contact.

Sign Up For Personalized Training

We are here to support you every step of the way! Should you have any questions, or concerns, or if you require assistance regarding Flow BIlling or implementing a COD billing process, our dedicated Customer Success Team is available to help.

Schedule a Training Meeting