Assess Finance Charges charges interest on what customers owe past due. It opens on a preview — what would be charged, customer by customer and invoice by invoice — and nothing is raised until you say so. You can waive any customer before raising the charges. Each charge becomes an invoice that ages on the customer's statement like any other; a finance charge is never itself charged interest.
Opening it
Customers ▸ Assess Finance Charges…, or Home ▸ Finance Charges. It opens over the Home Page; Esc takes you back to the Home Page. It needs permission for Create Statements.
The header shows your policy — for example 24.00% a year · 10 days grace · as at 2026-09-30 — or No rate set.
Set the finance charge policy first
Click Policy to open Finance charge policy. Every figure here changes the amount, so set it to what your own terms state.
| Field | What to enter / what it means |
|---|---|
| Annual rate % | The yearly interest rate. If the terms say 2% a month, enter 24. Above 60% a year is a criminal rate of interest in Canada; SeroBooks warns you. |
| Grace days | Days after the due date before anything accrues. |
| Minimum charge | The smallest charge worth raising — per customer, not per invoice. Below it, nothing is charged. |
| Interest runs from | The due date (nothing accrues until the invoice is actually late), or The invoice date — On net-30 terms this charges thirty days of interest on a bill that was never late. Choose it only if that is what the terms say. |
Click Save. Changing the policy needs the Edit right on Accounting Setup.
Until a rate is set, the screen says No annual rate is set, so nothing is charged. Set the rate your own terms state — Policy, above — before assessing anything.
Step by step
- Set As at — the date interest is worked out to (today by default).
- Read the preview: each customer with overdue invoices and the charge.
- Click a customer to see the invoices behind the charge.
- Click Waive on any customer you do not want to charge (Charge puts them back).
- Click Raise $… and confirm Raise (n) finance charge(s)? with Raise them.
The preview
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Customer | A customer with overdue invoices. Waived customers are greyed. |
| Overdue invoices | How many of their invoices are overdue enough to charge. |
| Charge | The finance charge for the customer. |
| (action) | Waive or Charge. |
The footer reads Tap a row to see the invoices behind a charge and Going out $… — the total for the customers not waived. Clicking a row shows, for each invoice, its reference, the amount outstanding, days past due and the charge on it; Close returns.
Messages: Set a rate to see what would be charged.; Nothing is overdue enough to charge.; Every customer is waived — nothing to raise.; Could not read the overdue accounts. (Try again). Refresh reloads the preview. The preview can be exported.
What it raises and posts
Each customer charged gets a finance-charge invoice, dated As at, that ages on their statement like any other. It posts: debit Accounts Receivable, credit your finance charge income account. It carries no sales tax.
A finance-charge invoice is left out of the overdue base next time, so interest is never charged on interest. What you approve in the preview is exactly what is raised. Raising charges needs the Create right on General Journal Entries. If your posting accounts do not include a finance charge income account, the server refuses and says so — set it in Accounting Setup.
Tips
- State the annual rate on your invoices and statements (for example in the invoice template's terms) so the charge is enforceable.
- Run Create Statements after assessing, so customers see the charge.