Every open item is followed up
The dunning run checks the open items in the set rhythm and duns what no one else would remember at the end of the month.
Writing dunning letters for professional services firms, from the open item to the incoming payment.
You set dunning levels, deadlines and fees per invoice, the dunning run handles the rest in a fixed rhythm. teamspace adds late-payment interest itself, paid items disappear from the list. Part of the invoicing software, with no module surcharge.
A calm pool of receivables
Good dunning forgets nothing and stays friendly.
Three things stand between a calm pool of receivables and a growing list of open items.
A graduated tone, no sledgehammer
From the friendly reminder to the collection level: four levels, each with its own deadline, its own fee and its own text.
Paid items disappear cleanly
The optional bank interface matches incoming payments and automatically marks the right invoice as paid. You only assign unclear payments by hand.
The workflow
From the open item to the incoming payment.
Five steps from dunning. Every item moves on, no one keeps a second list.
- 1
Invoice with a payment target
The invoice arises from the order with a payment target and discount, pre-filled per client and visible on the document.
- 2
Sending the invoice
Dispatch by email, as ZUGFeRD or XRechnung. teamspace records the dispatch date, the deadline runs from there.
- 3
Due, then the dunning level
Once the payment target is exceeded, the next dunning level takes effect. Deadline, fee and text are fixed per invoice.
- 4
Posting the incoming payment
Full or partial payment is posted, the status follows from the receivable still open. In the Enterprise edition the bank interface does the matching.
- 5
What stays open
What remains are the documents that need action, not an Excel list with hundreds of items.
Dunning levels
An overdue invoice climbs four levels.
Payment reminder, dunning level 1, dunning level 2, collection. With each level the tone becomes firmer, the deadline shorter, the fee higher.
RE-2026-0042
offene Forderung
Stufe 1
Zahlungserinnerung
Frist +7 Tage
Gebühr 0,00 €
Stufe 2
Mahnstufe 1
Frist +14 Tage
Gebühr 5,00 €
Stufe 3
Mahnstufe 2
Frist +21 Tage
Gebühr 10,00 €
Stufe 4
Inkasso
Frist Übergabe
Gebühr nach Aufwand
Per level you set deadline, fee, processor and text. The run goes automatically or after approval, teamspace adds late-payment interest from a set level.
With one click
Every dunning letter arises from the invoice.
No one types a dunning letter anew. teamspace generates the document from the invoice, contact and document data come along automatically. What you set up once beforehand repeats by itself.
- Per dunning level its own template with deadline, fee, processor and the text that appears at the top of the dunning letter.
- Dispatch runs as an email from the system, the dunning letter is attached as a PDF. For dunning letters and invoices you can set an extended recipient circle.
- Skipping levels or switching individual invoices by hand remains possible at any time.
That turns an overdue document into a finished, ready-to-send dunning letter with one click.
Dunning run
The dunning run duns what no one else remembers.
Instead of going through the open items every week, you set up the run once. It checks all invoices, changes the level and sends out what is not blocked. How far it goes is up to you.
Zeitplan
jeden Montag, 07:00
automatisch
oder nach Freigabe
Lauf bis Mahnstufe 1
danach prüft ein Bearbeiter
Offene Posten · 14 Belege wird geprüft
RE-2026-0051
fällig · in 3 Tagen · Kulanz 2 Tage
RE-2026-0042
überfällig · 12 Tage · Stufe 0 → 1
RE-2026-0037
Handlungsbedarf · Stufe 1 → 2
RE-2026-0033
Großkunde · Mahnsperre aktiv
Mahnungslauf-Kachel
Lauf vom 10.06.
geprüft 14
Erinnerungen 6
Mahnungen versendet 3
Lauf abgeschlossen
Der Lauf prüft Fälligkeit und Kulanztage, wechselt die Mahnstufe und versendet, was nicht gesperrt ist.
Incoming payment
Paid items disappear from the dunning list.
When the money arrives, you post the incoming payment against the invoice. teamspace determines the status from the ratio of open receivable to amount paid, a partial payment leaves the remaining receivable standing cleanly.
- The optional bank interface of the Enterprise edition matches incoming payments daily on request and automatically marks the right invoice as paid.
- Only payments without a clear assignment do you still assign by hand, instead of ticking off every posting individually.
- A dunning hold keeps a document out of the run as long as a payment is still being assigned.
What is paid no longer appears in the next run. Only the genuinely open receivables remain.
“I save a lot of time writing invoices.”
Receivables management
Open items sort themselves by status.
In the document overview each invoice appears in its status, recognisable by a coloured dot. That way you see at a glance where action is needed, instead of searching a list by hand.
- Due in green, overdue in orange, action needed in red, paid with a green tick.
- The summary on the left shows the open receivable as a total, filtered by status.
- By drill-down you jump from the total down to the individual invoice and its history.
Partial payments show the remaining receivable, fully paid invoices drop out of the list. The pool of receivables stays up to date.
Requirements check
What does your list of open items look like?
Show us your dunning levels and payment targets. In twenty minutes we set up the run together and you see what it takes on.
Late-payment interest
The dunning letter calculates late-payment interest itself.
From the point of default you are entitled to late-payment interest. You define the rate once in dunning and set the dunning level from which it takes effect. teamspace adds the interest to the receivable itself from that level.
- The dunning fee is tied to the individual level, the interest rate is stored centrally and calculated on the open receivable from the set level.
- Principal claim, dunning fee and interest appear clearly separated on the dunning letter.
- With each further level the receivable grows traceably, the client sees each item individually.
That way the interest claim is not left on the table just because doing the maths is a nuisance.
Cancellation and correction
Cancel without losing the history.
Sometimes an invoice is not right. Then you cancel it and reissue it corrected, without a trace disappearing. teamspace keeps a separate history for each invoice.
- Cancellation is complete, there are no partial cancellations. When cancelling you decide whether times and costs are released for billing again.
- The invoice correction arises as a separate document and collects in the document overview.
- In GoBD mode approved invoices and cancellations are retained, they can no longer be deleted.
5 POINT activates GoBD mode on request. The system then enforces retention over ten years.
Use cases
What the dunning letter in billing depends on.
The dunning letter sits at the end of the document path and draws on these areas.
Order billing
The invoice that later becomes due arises from the order.
Learn moreOrder management
Contract data, status and hand-over to billing.
Learn moreCreating quotes
Structured quotes that become an order with one click.
Learn moreE-invoicing
ZUGFeRD and XRechnung to private and public clients.
Learn moreDATEV export
Invoices and cancellations to DATEV Unternehmen online.
Travel expenses
Pass on checked travel expenses on the client invoice.
Learn more
Part of the invoicing software
The dunning letter is the end of a chain.
Hours and items become the invoice, the invoice becomes the dunning letter on default, and at the end the posted incoming payment. Everything runs in the same system, from the quote to the pool of receivables. How it all connects is shown by the invoicing software overview.
To the invoicing softwareWhat it is about
Made in Germany, with activatable GoBD mode.
Dunning is the regulated path by which a company collects overdue invoices: from the payment reminder through several dunning levels to, in the extreme case, hand-over to collection. A dunning software follows this path automatically, with its own deadlines, fees and texts per level.
Whether a client is in default depends on the recipient: business clients fall into default without an agreed deadline 30 days after receipt of the invoice, for private clients it takes the note on the invoice or a first dunning letter. teamspace maps both paths via the dunning levels.
Dunning data is relevant to accounting. teamspace processes it exclusively in the EU, in an ISO 27001 certified data centre in Frankfurt am Main, GDPR-compliant with a data processing agreement as standard. Recording and billing happen in the invoicing software, the order arises from the CRM process, the work comes from time logging. The contracting party is 5 POINT AG, a German public limited company.
Related modules
What the open receivable depends on.
The dunning letter draws its data and its context from three modules.
Time logging online
The approved hours are the basis of every invoice that can later become due. Recording and billing run on the same employee.
- Project time and attendance
- Approval before billing
- Stopwatch, browser, web app
Project management
The project with budget and phases arises from the order. What is billed flows back into the pool of receivables.
- Project from the order
- Plan, actual and forecast
- Billing on the project
CRM
Organisation and contact supply the address, contact person and payment behaviour. The dunning letter goes to the right place.
- Master data for the document
- Contact person on the contact
- History of the processes
Requirements check
We go through your open items together.
Bring your dunning levels and a few typical receivables. In a short call you see how the dunning run and the payment matching would look at your organisation.
Frequently asked questions on dunning
How automated is the dunning process?
As far as you set it. The dunning run checks all open items in a fixed rhythm and moves overdue invoices to the next level, with direct dispatch on request. Per invoice you can set grace days after the due date, a dunning hold keeps key accounts or clarification cases out. You can also switch several invoices by hand via the multi-selection.
Can we charge dunning fees and late-payment interest?
Yes, both separately. You set the dunning fee per dunning level. You store the late-payment interest rate centrally in dunning and determine the dunning level from which it takes effect. teamspace adds the interest to the open receivable automatically from that level and shows principal claim, fee and interest separately. Note the legal limits for dunning fees with business clients and private clients.
When is a client in payment default?
With business clients, without an agreed deadline, the statutory payment term of 30 days after receipt of the invoice applies, from the 31st day the client is in default. With private clients you must note the payment term on the invoice or first send a dunning letter for default to occur.
What payment target belongs in a dunning letter?
You decide that yourself, but deadlines that are too short seem implausible. Ten working days in the first dunning letter and five working days in the second are common, to raise the pressure step by step. In teamspace you store the deadline per dunning level.
How does the incoming payment get into teamspace?
You post the incoming payment against the invoice, in full or in parts. The payment status follows automatically from the ratio of open receivable to amount paid, but can be set manually. In the Enterprise edition the optional online bank interface matches incoming payments daily on request and automatically marks the right invoice as paid. Only payments that cannot be clearly assigned do you still assign by hand. The interface does not trigger your own payments.
How far should the dunning run go automatically?
You decide that, per invoice you determine up to which level the run goes automatically. We recommend dunning automatically at most up to the payment reminder or dunning level 1 and letting a processor take a look before the sharper dunning letter. Sometimes an invoice went to the wrong address, and a quick glance catches that. For dunning letters and invoices you can additionally store an extended recipient circle.
What happens at the collection level?
Collection is the last of the four dunning levels. When an invoice moves there, it is documented in the history, and the run duns no further. You initiate the hand-over to a service provider outside teamspace, the status of the receivable remains visible in the system.
Can we cancel and correct invoices?
Yes. An invoice is cancelled in full, there are no partial cancellations. When cancelling you decide whether the linked times and costs are released for billing again. For adjustments you create an invoice correction as a separate document. Each invoice keeps its own history, in GoBD mode approved documents are retained undeletable.