Overview

Dunning fees compensate for the effort of receivables management. In Kyvento they are set to 0 out of the box, so effectively off – whether and how much you charge is a deliberate decision of your own. This article explains where you set them and what happens to them afterwards.

Setting the fee per level

In each dunning level (Settings → "Dunning" → expand the level) there is the "Dunning fee" field. It takes a fixed amount; Kyvento does not calculate percentage fees or default interest.

If you invoice in several currencies, the amount in that field applies to your account currency only. For documents in another currency a fee is charged only if you have entered a separate amount for it – otherwise the notice goes out without a fee. The input for that sits underneath the same field.

How the fee is posted

The original invoice stays untouched – it is immutable after finalization (GoBD). Instead, a separate fee receivable belonging to the invoice is created with the escalation:

• The fee is VAT-exempt – it has the character of compensation for damages, not consideration for a service. Call it a dunning fee in your texts and templates for that reason: wordings such as "service charge" or "processing fee" can count as consideration for a service and make the fee subject to VAT.
• In the dunning letter, the dunning-fee placeholder states the sum of all fees accumulated so far for this invoice – not just the one for the current level.
• For incoming payments, Kyvento allocates according to the statutory order of appropriation (Section 367 of the German Civil Code): oldest fee first, then the principal claim.

What this means for your bookkeeping

As soon as a fee is set above 0, it enters your accounting batch when it is charged – not only when the customer pays. This requires that the customer is already in default at that point, that the amount is justified and that the claim is sufficiently certain. The dunning level and the dispatch alone do not ensure this; agree texts, deadlines and amounts with your tax advisor.

For this you need a dedicated revenue account for dunning fees – without it the DATEV export contains no dunning fees at all. If you later waive an open fee, an account for the write-off is needed as well: without it the DATEV export aborts as soon as such a waiver falls into the period. You maintain both accounts under Assigning bookkeeping accounts (SKR03/SKR04).

Interaction with the payment retry

If a level has "Retry payment" enabled, Kyvento first attempts the automatic collection. The dunning fee then only arises if the collection fails – a successful retry spares the customer the dunning notice and the fee entirely.

Legal framework (in brief)

• The fee must not exceed the actual damage caused by the delay – essentially postage and materials. Excessive flat fees are not enforceable vis-à-vis consumers.
• A fee on the first reminder is only enforceable if the customer was already in default. Check that before entering an amount on level 1.
• Default interest (Section 288 of the German Civil Code) and the B2B late-payment flat fee are yours to claim – record such items as a separate invoice if needed.

Good to know

A payment can never settle the principal claim while bypassing an open fee. Customer credit behaves differently: it only settles the invoice itself. If a dunning fee remains open, it persists as a separate item, and the invoice only counts as paid once the fee has been settled too. The dunning run does not escalate any further in that case – dunning only continues as long as the principal claim is open.

Next steps

• Align the deadlines of the levels – see Setting dunning deadlines
• What happens when payment is received – see Matching incoming payments automatically