Table of Contents
- If a delinquent account makes a payment on its bill day, will Sonar automatically create an invoice?
- Does the time of day matter when the account comes out of delinquency?
- Will Sonar automatically create an invoice during the month after an account comes out of delinquency?
- Does this work the same if the account moved from Active to Inactive because of delinquency?
Delinquency Billing Best Practices
Updated
by Mitchell Ivany
- If a delinquent account makes a payment on its bill day, will Sonar automatically create an invoice?
- Does the time of day matter when the account comes out of delinquency?
- Will Sonar automatically create an invoice during the month after an account comes out of delinquency?
- Does this work the same if the account moved from Active to Inactive because of delinquency?
Read Time: 11 mins
Delinquency in Sonar encourages subscribers to pay a past-due balance by letting you build an automated response to non-payment. This article explains when and why delinquency and status changes happen, then walks through two common approaches: slowing a subscriber's connection while keeping the account active, and switching the account into a new status to stop future charges.
Moving a long-term delinquent account from active to inactive is meant to stop future charges from being added. It is not meant to control service access. Limit service access when the account becomes delinquent, not when the account status changes.
Permissions
Before getting started with the feature, your user roles will need to be adjusted to account for the permissions required to use the delinquency billing feature.
Feature Details
How Delinquency Works in Sonar
An invoice can become delinquent without changing the account status. This means the invoice was not paid by its due date. The account status only changes after the Grace Period has passed.
The Grace Period adds extra time after the invoice due date. You can also adjust it on individual accounts when required.
From the Bill Day, the total time before an account becomes delinquent is:
Due Days + Grace Days
Delinquency happens in two steps:
- The invoice becomes due.
- After the Grace Days pass, the account becomes delinquent, and the delinquency process begins.
In the example below, the invoice is created on the 1st of each month and becomes due on the 16th. If the subscriber has not paid by the 16th, the invoice is past due, but the account is not delinquent yet. If the invoice is still unpaid on the 21st, after the 5-day grace period, the invoice becomes delinquent and the account moves to a delinquent status.
Settings That Work Together
Delinquency Billing uses several settings that work together. The main areas you may need to configure are:
Giving a Subscriber More Time: Grace Until
If a subscriber needs more time to pay, use Grace Until to choose a later delinquency date. Grace Until prevents the account from becoming delinquent until after the selected date has passed. You can think of it as "Grace Through" that date.
If automatic late fees apply, they can still be added to the invoice even when Grace Until is set.
When Account Status Changes are Processed
Account status changes controlled by billing settings happen at 12:00 AM UTC.
If delinquency checks do not run on a given day, Sonar waits until the next valid check day. For example, if weekend delinquency checks are disabled and an invoice would become delinquent on a Saturday, Sonar marks it delinquent on the following Monday instead. This shift also moves the account status change, because the status switch is counted from the date the invoice is actually marked delinquent.
The Delinquency Process, Step by Step
In Sonar, billing and delinquency follow this process:
- Billing runs on the bill day. Sonar checks whether the account is in an active status. If it is, billing runs and an invoice is created based on the account's services and discounts.
- The invoice reaches its due date. If no payment is made by the due date, the invoice is now past due.
- Grace days are counted. During this time, the invoice is overdue, but the account is not delinquent yet.
- Sonar checks for a delinquency exclusion. After the grace days end, Sonar checks for any Delinquency Exclusions, such as a blocked date or a skipped check day.
- If an exclusion applies (Yes): Sonar waits until the next valid processing day, then continues.
- If none applies (No): the account becomes delinquent.
- The account becomes delinquent. The account is marked delinquent at 12:00 AM UTC.
- The account is added to the Delinquent Address List. This list drives speed or access control for delinquent subscribers.
- The status switch countdown begins. Once the set Days of Delinquency for Status Switch pass, the account moves to a new status, which stops future charges.
Best Practices: Why Use Delinquency
Delinquency in Sonar is meant to encourage subscribers to take action, usually by paying their past-due balance. Delinquency settings help you move beyond reminders and late fees by creating an automated process for handling unpaid accounts.
A helpful way to think about delinquency is: how many days are you willing to let a subscriber remain unpaid before taking action? Once that time has passed, Sonar can trigger the next step, such as changing the account status.
When using Move accounts into another status after being delinquent for a preset period, make sure the status change happens before the next bill due date. This helps prevent subscribers from being billed for another month of service they may no longer be able to use.
The sections below show two ways to use delinquency effectively, including the action taken and the result it is meant to encourage.
Using a Delinquent Status to Slow Down Service
One way to encourage payment is to slow down the subscriber's connection instead of disconnecting it right away. In this setup, the account stays active, but an Address List reduces the subscriber's speed. The goal is to make the connection slow enough that normal use is limited, while still allowing access to helpful sites like the subscriber portal or their bank's website so they can make a payment.
This approach can be useful because:
- It encourages payment without fully cutting off service. This can feel less abrupt for the subscriber while still motivating action.
- It can prompt the subscriber to contact your team. If they do not realize they are delinquent, the slower connection may lead them to call in, giving your staff a chance to explain the issue and collect payment.
Creating the Address List
To create an Address List for delinquent subscribers:
- Go to Settings.
- Select Networking.
- Click Address Lists.
- Click Create Address List.
After the Create Address List window opens, create a basic Address List for delinquent subscribers. The fields in this window control which accounts are included:
This Address List should apply only to delinquent subscribers. Once created, you can use it with an Inline Device policy to reduce speeds for subscribers who are delinquent.
Using Status Switching to Deactivate an Account
This approach uses Billing Defaults to automatically move delinquent subscribers into another status. It is helpful even if delinquency is uncommon, because an automated process reduces manual work as your subscriber base grows.
In this example, Residential subscribers use RADIUS for authentication and service delivery. For the Residential Billing Default:
- Enable Move accounts into another status after being delinquent for a preset period.
- Set Days of Delinquency for Status Switch to 7 days.
- Set the Delinquency Account Status to a clear status, such as Delinquent.
Using 7 days helps account for delinquency check schedules. For example, if delinquency checks do not run on weekends, a 7-day window helps ensure the status change happens on a day when support staff are available.
These three fields control the status switch:
While Inactive can be used as the status, Delinquent is clearer because it explains why the account status changed.
To create a new Delinquent account status:
- Go to Settings.
- Expand Accounts.
- Select Account Statuses.
- Click Create Account Status.
- Enter a clear name, such as Delinquent.
- Configure the status settings as required for your workflow.
- Click Create.
After the status is created, return to the Billing Default and select it as the Delinquency Account Status.
In this scenario, delinquent accounts move into a status that removes service and prevents future billing for service the subscriber will not receive. This is a stronger step than slowing down the connection, and is usually used as a final escalation when reminders, late fees, and reduced speeds have not led to payment.
Worked Example: Weekend Check Shift
To see how a disabled check day moves both dates:
- The invoice was expected to become delinquent on Saturday, August 14, 2021.
- Weekend delinquency checks were disabled, so the invoice became delinquent on Monday, August 16, 2021 instead.
- Days of Delinquency for Status Switch is set to 10.
- The account status changes 10 days from the actual delinquency date, on Thursday, August 26, 2021.
Frequently Asked Questions
If a delinquent account makes a payment on its bill day, will Sonar automatically create an invoice?
It depends on the account's Next Bill Date and billing settings.
- If the Next Bill Date is today: If the payment brings the account out of delinquency and back to Active, billing runs normally as long as Daily Billing is enabled. The invoice is not created immediately when the account becomes active; it is created the next time billing runs.
- If the Next Bill Date is in the past: If the Bill Day is today but the Next Bill Date is already in the past, Sonar moves the Next Bill Date to the next month. No invoice is created for the current month. For example, if the Next Bill Date was 10/17/2023, the Bill Day is the 17th, and payment is made today, the Next Bill Date moves to 11/17/2023.
- If prorated account status changes are enabled: If the payment changes the account back to Active, Sonar may create prorated transactions. These transactions are not invoiced immediately.
Does the time of day matter when the account comes out of delinquency?
Yes. If the Next Bill Date is today but there is less than one hour left in the day, Sonar moves the Next Bill Date to the next month.
Will Sonar automatically create an invoice during the month after an account comes out of delinquency?
Invoices are created automatically on the account's Bill Date when Daily Billing is enabled and the account is Active.
Does this work the same if the account moved from Active to Inactive because of delinquency?
Yes. If a payment moves the account back to an Active status, the account bills on its next valid Bill Date. If the original Bill Date passed while the account was delinquent, Sonar updates the Next Bill Date to the next applicable billing date.
Related Articles
Billing Defaults | Account Statuses: Overview & Example Use Cases | Delinquency Exclusions: Overview | Building Address Lists | MikroTik: Controlling Speeds | Creating Discounts for Services and Packages
