Overview

When an invoice becomes overdue and how quickly the dunning levels follow one another is controlled by two levers: the payment term of the invoice and the waiting times per dunning level. This article explains both and how they interact.

First lever: the payment term

The payment term determines the due date of the invoice – only afterwards does dunning begin. Kyvento resolves it in this order:

1. the payment term set directly on the invoice
2. otherwise the payment term of the customer (customer record)
3. otherwise the account's "Default payment term (days)" (Settings → Account, "Accounting" card)
4. otherwise the system value of 14 days

Second lever: deadlines per dunning level

In each dunning level (Settings → "Dunning" → expand the level) you configure two values:

• "Days after previous level": the waiting time until this level takes effect – counted from the due date or from the previous level (1 to 365 days).
• "Payment term (days)": the deadline the dunning letter sets for the customer to pay – it appears as a placeholder in the dunning text.

The default staggering: payment reminder 7 days after the due date, 1st and 2nd dunning notices 7 days later each, final dunning notice after a further 14 days.

How Kyvento applies the deadlines

• Daily rhythm: At night, Kyvento marks overdue invoices (due date passed in your account time zone), and shortly afterwards the dunning run executes. Dunning notices are therefore created once a day, not to the minute.
• Cumulative calculation: The dunning run checks the sum of the waiting times since the due date. An invoice that is already 15 days overdue (for example after dunning was enabled retroactively) jumps at the next run directly to the level whose cumulative deadline has been reached – it does not artificially work through all earlier levels one day at a time.
• One step per run: Per dunning run, an invoice escalates by at most one level – your customers never receive several dunning notices for the same invoice on one day.

Recommendations

• Align the payment term and the first dunning deadline: a 14-day payment term plus 7 days until the reminder gives bank transfers and bank processing times enough buffer.
• Take your own response time into account: between the final dunning notice and further steps (debt collection, write-off) there should be enough time for a manual review.

Next steps

• Payment terms in detail – see "Payment terms and due dates"
• Set fees per level – see "Charging dunning fees"