Late Fees: Not handled well on statements
I have recently started using the Late Fees featire of Invoice, but I don't think this is handled well on statements.
Customers need to be able to look at invoices and statements and see clearly where charges have arisen and when they were charged.
Right now, if a late fee is added automatically to an overdue invocie then on the next statement sent to the customer, the amount due for the overdue invoice appears as an updated amount. This will certainly confuse customers, who may look at the statement and compare it with the old copy of the invoice, or a previous statement that they orininally received, and the amounts will not be the same. Moreover, unless the customer looks at the updated invoice sent with the overdue invoice email, he may not even be aware that a late fee has been applied.
I think it would be much better if the late fees can be shown as separate amounts on the statement, with the date of application and the amount of the late fee separately shown. (e.g. 25 June 2010 Late fee for Invoice 1000134 GBP 25.74).
This would mean that the customer would see the original invoice amount correctly on the statement, and the fact that late fees had been applied would also be clearly identified from the stataement.
Even better would be if the system would (as an option) automatically generate and email a new invoice for the late fee, which would keep the book-keeping tidy. This would help clarify to clients where the specific charges come from.
I hope that you understand this difficulty and can take it into account for the future.
Regards,
Mark