What's the Unsettled Balance report and how do I use it?

Overview

The Unsettled Balance report makes it easy to manage finished-contract invoice balances incurred by customers and those designated to other sources of business (see Split Billing), resulting in increased revenue at the dealership.

To access the Unsettled Balance report, you must have the View Reports permission enabled.

Unsettled balances will categorized by the following payer types:

• Customer: The balance is owed by a customer.
• Additional Payer: A partial or total amount of the customer's balance has been allotted to a third party.

Unsettled Customer Balances that have been paid and Additional Payer Balances that are marked as paid will appear in the Revenue Report, which can be used to determine the sum of balances your dealership expects to be reimbursed.

 

Understand the Key Terms

Table Summary

There are multiple top-level items within the report to provide you with an at-a-glance summary of balances as they progress through the transaction cycle.

• Unsettled Total: Transaction amount total where no attempt to charge was made
• No Attempt: Transaction amount total where no attempt to charge was made
• Pending: Transaction amount total that has been submitted for settlement (these transactions are not guaranteed to settle)
• Settled: Transaction amount total of successfully charged and processed transactions 
• Unsuccessful: Transaction amount total of failed transactions (includes declined transactions or those that failed due to processing errors)

Table Columns

There are multiple columns within the report's main table to help you understand contract and billing details. Learn about each column below.

• Unsettled: The balance owed by the customer or additional payer
• Pending: The transaction amount that's currently being processed 
• Settled: The transaction amount that has been successfully processed
• Transaction Status: The status of the transaction (transactions disbursed from the customer's bank to Dealerware will not appear in the report, but they will appear in the Revenue Report)
• Contract ID: The contract associated with the outstanding balance
• Contract Finish: The date on which the contract was completed
• Payer Type: The type of payer who owes the balance, either Customer or Additional Payer (third party)
• Name: The customer or additional payer name associated with the contract & balance
• Program: The program (collection of vehicles categorized by use case) associated with the contract
• RO Number: The repair order associated with the contract (appears only if an RO was added to the contract)
• Stock: The vehicle stock number associated with the contract
• Mobile Number: The phone number associated with the balance (whether a Customer balance or Additional Payer balance)

Transaction Statuses

• No Attempt: No attempt was made to process the balance.
• Authorized: A hold has been placed on the customer’s credit card for the indicated amount. The credit card has not yet been charged.
• Submitted for Settlement: The payment is in the process of being deducted from the customer's bank account.
• Settled: The payment was successfully deducted from the customer's bank account and is pending disbursement.
• Authorization Expired: The hold placed on the customer's credit card has expired (banks have varying pre-authorization time limits). You may still charge the customer for an expired pre-authorized amount.
• Failed: The transaction failed, due to errors on the payment processors end.

Customize and Download Table Data

The report contains robust filtering capabilities that allow you to customize and drill into specific data points. Learn how to filter or customize the report below.

• Select the Calendar icon to filter by date

• Select Filter to filter the table by specific columns, filters, and values

• Select Columns to add or remove columns from the table

• Select Download to save the table data as a CSV file

Manage Balances

The report contains Customer balances, which are incurred by customers, and Additional Payer balances which have been designated to additional payers such as an OEM subsidy program, warranty company, or another third party.

Customer balances can be settled using Dealerware, however, Additional Payer balances can only be marked as Paid in Dealerware and then settled outside of Dealerware.

Locate Customer or Additional Payer Balances

• To locate a Customer or Additional Payer balance, select Filter at the top-right of the report
• Select the Columns dropdown followed by Payer Type
• Select the Operator dropdown followed by Equals
• Input Customer into the open field to filter by customer or input Additional Payer to filter by additional payer

 

Charge a Customer Balance

• After filtering by Customer, locate the applicable Customer balance
• Navigate to the far right of the row containing the balance
• Select Action

• Select Manage Billing

• After being redirected to Contract Details: Billing, navigate to the Customer section
• Select Charge

Mark an Additional Payer Balance as Paid

• After filtering by Additional Payer, locate the applicable Additional Payer balance
• Navigate to the far right of the row containing the balance
• Select Action

• Select Manage Billing

• After being redirected to Contract Details: Billing, navigate to the Additional Billing Information section
• Observe the Amount Due balance

• Select the Paid toggle to mark the balance as paid
• Marking the balance as paid will remove the balance from the report and import the balance into the Revenue Report