There is no brainer in analyzing the fact that a business cannot stand on the test of sustainability sans a customer base. Customers and the payments received from them are in every sense the blood pumping organ in a business landscape. However, what is critical here is ensuring that these payments reaches to your organizations desk, on-time. This not only lets your business float but also gives you flex to gear up for the long haul. Sap dunning is a break through method to ensure that you experience minimal complications with your customers with regard to payments.

The effects of an untimely payment
Businesses especially ones based on saas models are likely to experience hiccups in meeting business goals due to untimely payments. However, what may take you by surprise completely is that most outstanding payments of your customers are unintentional and recoverable. There are a number of factors that govern this occurrence. Un-updated billing information, debit or credit card misplacement are two of the many reasons of its occurrence. Thus, it is pertinent for businesses to rethink about the customer experience and find a better solution to tackle payment errors without vandalizing customer relations. Sap dunning laser focuses on exactly resolving this problem.
So before diving into the benefits that sap dunning brings to your organization, let’s find out what the application is. Let’s find out what a dunning system is?
What is an ideal dunning system about?
Dunning is a process of customer-vendor correspondence with regard to bills that are outstanding due to some reason. A dunning system is an application where a reminder-letter is auto-generated by the system and sent to delinquents addressing payment faults. It is the fastest and hassle free method to trace liable customers in the defaulter list, saving a lot of valuable business time simultaneously.
Here is a quick glance at the major benefits that SAP dunning systems have to offer you.
The many benefits of SAP dunning systems:
- Time efficient: Depending the whole process of sending over monthly payment reminders to all delinquent accounts is indeed a risky bid. It is vulnerable to human errors and memory. Automating the whole process frees a lot of valuable time which can be utilized for business improvement without bearing hassles and stress of missed out payments.
- Cost efficient: Bearing a friendly notification to your customers whose cards not functioning as intended can leverage your timely payments. And you do not need to invest on human resource monthly for the task too.
- Improved work efficiency: Saving your time from payment hassles, it not only allows you to focus more on your business services but also build greater efficiency in the existing one.
- Improved customer relations: Customers are the life pumping element of your business. Hurting them anyway means hurting your organizations. Thus, in a situation of failed payment, it is always better to generate a friendly notification to them instead of calling and losing them forever.
- Improved customer base: Customer retention is any day as important as customer acquisition. An efficient dunning system helps to ensure that your customer retention is as efficient as acquisition.
The following are some of the features of SAP dunning systems
- Automated electronic collection and retry attempts
- Customizable email notifications
- Automated triggered customer notifications
- Automated dunning follow up
- Active orchestration
- Credit card expiry notice/payment reminders/account updater
- Unbound dunning configurations
Dunning configuration in SAP
Sap dunning configuration includes the following configuration setup:
- Dunning procedure: It controls the path of dunning to the customer and vendor and can be easily custom defined as per our requirement.
- Dunning level: It defines dunning text of which a maximum nine dunning levels are available. The text changes with regard to consistent payments made with the dunning level increasing.
- Dunning Areas: It defines the client/company via a code with which you are working on the program. The code is easily customizable at organizational level, for instance, sales organization.
In addition to the 3 major functions, SAP provides additional functionalities too. Dunning charges to customers and vendors, dunning block facilities for special customers are some of them. Here is the step-by-step guide to set-up the above configuration.
A SAP dunning procedure configuration majorly circumscribes 12 steps.
1) Dunning keys creation: This limits the dunning level of an item.
2) Defining block reason for dunning notices: Here the reason of a dunning block is defined under a key.
3) Defining dunning procedure: Here we create dunning text, level. Charges and company codes in the dunning procedure.
4) Creating dunning interval in days to dunning procedure: Here the interval period of every dunning is defined.
5) Defining dunning levels to dunning procedures: Here the number of dunning levels is defined.
6) Determining dunning charges: This step defines the dunning charge as per the dunning level.
7) Defining minimum amounts to dunning procedures: This step enables customization of charges of administration to customers with reference to dunning level.
8) Dunning texts and forms assignment: Here, dunning forms are inserted by clicking on dunning text thereby assigning required forms with reference to the level.
9) Defining dunning level: The dunning level and input days in arrears for each dunning levels are defined here.
10) Assigning special indicator: In case of bad debt, special indicators are kept in reserve.
11) Assigning company code: The company code is assigned with reference to the dunning level.
12) Assigning sort fields to dunning procedures: Here the sorting fields are assigned.

SAP dunning systems not only allows business to be more creative with their whole business process but also improves flexibility, customer experience and finally customer relations in the long run. Apprisia makes sure that you get the most of the powerful application of SAP. Imbibing in a 360 degree approach, our experts proactively endure to create a high yielding SAP production environment. Daily health check, continuous monitoring, patching and backups are some of the tasks that they perform to meet these goals.
Kick start your ambitious goals with Apprisia’s premium SAP support. For further information and assistance, write to us at support@apprisia.com. We will make sure you get your first response within 24 hours of time.
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Team Apprisia