Dunning - Omoplata Docs

Dunning is the process of sending payment reminders to members who have outstanding overdue invoices. Omoplata supports both automatic and manual dunning with escalating reminder levels, helping you recover unpaid fees while maintaining a professional relationship with your members.

How dunning works

When an invoice passes its due date without being paid, it enters the overdue status. The dunning system identifies these overdue invoices and either sends reminders automatically or allows you to send them manually.

Reminder timing

The timing of reminders follows two rules:

First reminder -- sent a configurable number of days after the invoice due date (default: 14 days).
Subsequent reminders -- sent after a configurable interval from when the previous reminder was actually sent (default: 14 days).

The interval is measured from the actual send date of the previous reminder, not from the invoice due date. This means if a reminder is sent a few days late, the next one still follows the full interval.

For example, with the default 14-day intervals:

Invoice due date: January 1
First reminder due: January 15 (14 days after due date)
If the first reminder is sent on January 20, the second reminder is due February 3 (14 days after the first was sent)

Reminder levels

Omoplata uses four escalating dunning levels. Each level can have its own late fee and delivery method:

Level	Name	Default fee	Default delivery
1	Payment reminder	None	Email
2	First formal reminder	5.00	Email
3	Second formal reminder	10.00	Email + postal letter
4	Final reminder	15.00	Email + registered mail

The reminder level is determined by the highest step among all invoices included in a single reminder. Each invoice tracks its own step count independently, so if a member has multiple overdue invoices at different stages, the overall reminder level reflects the most advanced one.

Late fees

Late fees are added on top of the original invoice amount. They are configurable per level and can be set to zero if you prefer not to charge fees for early reminders.

Automatic vs manual dunning

Automatic dunning

When automatic dunning is enabled, Omoplata checks for overdue invoices daily and sends reminders based on your configured timing rules. To enable it, turn on the auto dunning toggle in your dunning settings.

Each day, the automatic process:

Finds all invoices in overdue status.
Checks whether enough time has passed since the last reminder (or since the due date for the first reminder).
Groups invoices by payer.
Sends reminders at the appropriate level.
Records the delivery status and updates each invoice's reminder step.

Manual dunning

Even with automatic dunning enabled, you can send reminders manually at any time from the dunning page. This is useful when you want to follow up with a specific member immediately or when you want more control over the process.

To send a manual reminder:

Go to Finance > Dunning.
Find the member with overdue invoices.
Select the invoices to include in the reminder.
Click send.

The dunning dashboard

The dunning page at Finance > Dunning shows all members who have overdue invoices, organized by person. For each member you can see:

Their name and contact information.
The number and total amount of overdue invoices.
The due dates of their oldest unpaid invoices.
The history of reminders that have already been sent, including delivery status.

Filtering

The dunning list supports three filter views:

All -- every member with overdue invoices.
No reminder -- members who have not received any reminder yet.
Sent -- members who have already been sent at least one reminder.

You can also search by member name, email, or invoice ID.

Delivery and tracking

Each reminder send is tracked with a delivery status:

Status	Meaning
Pending	Reminder has been created but not yet dispatched.
Sent	Successfully dispatched (email sent or letter queued).
Delivered	Delivery confirmed (for example, email read receipt received).
Failed	Delivery failed (for example, email bounced or invalid address).

Configuring dunning

All dunning behavior is controlled through settings. The key settings are:

Setting	Description	Default
First reminder days	Days after invoice due date to send the first reminder	14
Reminder interval	Days between subsequent reminders	14
Level 1 fee	Late fee for payment reminder level	No fee
Level 2 fee	Late fee for first formal reminder	5.00
Level 3 fee	Late fee for second formal reminder	10.00
Level 4 fee	Late fee for final reminder	15.00
Level 1-4 delivery	Delivery methods per level	Email, Email, Email + post, Email + registered mail
Auto dunning	Whether automatic daily reminders are sent	Off

Legal considerations

If your club is based in Germany, be aware that formal payment reminders (Mahnungen) have legal requirements. A valid reminder should include the debtor's name and address, invoice reference and date, amount due, original due date, a new payment deadline, your bank details (IBAN), and a note about consequences of non-payment. For final reminders before escalating to a collection agency, sending via registered mail (Einschreiben) provides the strongest proof of delivery.

Escalation path

If dunning does not result in payment, the typical escalation path is:

Level 1 -- friendly payment reminder via email. No fee.
Level 2 -- first formal reminder with a small late fee.
Level 3 -- second formal reminder sent both by email and postal letter. Higher fee.
Level 4 -- final reminder sent by email and registered mail. Highest fee. This step establishes legal proof of notification.
Collection agency -- if the final reminder goes unanswered, you may hand the case to a collection agency (Inkasso). At least one formal reminder must have been sent and its deadline must have passed before escalating.

After reaching the final dunning level, you can mark the invoice as uncollectible if you decide not to pursue further collection, or as void to write it off entirely.