About Credit Hold

If you have authorization to update the Credit Hold field, you can place a customer or customer order on credit hold manually.

Or, you can use the Order Credit Hold Change Utility to selectively place customer orders on credit hold based on two parameters from the Customers form:

  • Days Over Invoice Date/Due Date
  • Aged Posted Balance Limit

Placing a customer on credit hold prevents you from making shipments to that customer, but it does not place individual orders on credit hold. To place individual orders on credit hold, use the Customer Orders form. To place a customer on credit hold, use the Customers form.

Activating Credit Hold

To activate the system's credit hold functionality, you must enter a code in the Limit Exceeded Credit Hold Reason field on the Accounts Receivable Parameters form.

Caution: 
If the Limit Exceeded Credit Hold Reason field is blank and you create or update a customer order when the customer's credit limit is exceeded, the system does not place the order on credit hold and does not prevent shipment of the order.

Identifying Customers and Orders on Credit Hold

If a customer is on credit hold, a large red X appears on the customer record and on all the customer order records for that customer. If you have manually placed the customer on credit hold, the Credit Hold check box is selected.

The Credit Hold check box on the customer order is selected in these situations:

  • You have manually selected the field.
  • The system put this order on hold because the credit limit was exceeded.
  • The Credit Hold Change Utility placed this order on hold.
Note:  It is possible that a customer could be on credit hold, with the Credit Hold field selected and a red X on its record, while a customer order for that customer would also have a red X, but the Credit Hold field on the customer order might not be selected. This happens when the customer has been put on hold manually. The system places a red X on each of that customer's orders, but it does not select the Credit Hold field on those orders.

What Happens When Order Lines Exceed the Credit Limit

The Allow Over Credit Limit check box (updateable only on new order lines) determines how the system treats customer orders that exceed credit limits. The system evaluates this field when you save the customer order and one or more of the order lines exceed either the order credit limit, if specified, or the total available credit for the customer:

  • If this field is selected, the customer order is saved as-is, with the order line's status as Ordered. The system displays a warning message, alerting you about the credit hold overage. If a reason code is defined in the Reason field (on the Credit tab of the Customers form), the system places the order on credit hold if it is not already on credit hold.
  • If this field is not selected, the system saves the order line with a status of Planned and displays a warning message about the credit overage. The system does not update the customer's On Order Balance and does not place the order on credit hold. You can then navigate to that order line later and decide whether to change its status to Ordered or delete the order line.

If you make a change to an existing order line, and the order line exceeds the credit limit, the system displays a warning message about the credit overage and automatically places the order on credit hold (if a credit hold Reason has been defined).

If the customer order is for a subordinate customer that is using the corporate customer's credit, the system places the customer order on credit hold if the current customer order amount, added to the corporate customer's posted balance, plus the on order balance, exceeds the corporate customer's credit limit.

Cross Referencing an Order on Credit Hold

You cannot cross-reference a customer order line if the customer order is on credit hold. If the customer order line was cross-referenced before the customer order is placed on credit hold, the cross-referenced information is maintained.

Using Credit Hold with EDI

If you use Infor SyteLine EDI, you can prevent any EDI customer orders from posting to the system that exceed the customer's credit limit by selecting the Validate Credit Limit field on the EDI Customer Profiles form. Or you can let EDI automatically post the customer order to the system and then place the customer order on credit hold if the customer's credit limit is exceeded by selecting a Limit Exceeded Credit Hold Reason on the Accounts Receivable Parameters form. If both fields are cleared, the EDI customer order is posted and the customer order created cannot be placed on credit hold.

Using Credit Limits and Credit Hold in a Multi-Site Environment

When you enter or change a credit limit in one site, the credit limit value is changed in all other sites replicating that data. The On Order Balance shown for the customer at each site is the cumulative balance of that customer's orders at all replicating sites. For example, a customer has a credit limit of $100. Site 1 has one open order for the customer, for $50. Site 2 has one open order for $25. ("Open" in this case means Status = Ordered and nothing has shipped.) The customer's record in the Customers form shows an On Order Balance of $75 in both sites. If you add a new CO Line Item for $35 in either site, the proposed On Order Balance would be $110. Even though each site fits under the credit limit, the line item is added as Status = Planned because the proposed On Order Balance has exceeded the credit limit.

In a multi-site environment, the Originating Site of a customer order controls the credit hold status of the customer order for all sites from which the customer order may be shipped.

When you initiate the Order Credit Hold Change Utility in a multi-site environment, the system performs the processing at all sites for the selected customers. The system checks the customer's credit limit against the On Order Balance to determine when the credit limit is exceeded. If a customer's credit limit is exceeded and the shipping site:

  • Is the originating site of the customer order, the order is placed on credit hold.
  • Is not the originating site of the customer order, a warning message displays, but the customer order is not placed on credit hold.