Some customers pay the day the invoice lands. Some need three reminders. One or two you'd rather have the money up front from. That's worth writing down, because it's the sort of thing you know and nobody else in the business does.
Where it lives
Open the customer, scroll to Notes & flags, and tap Record how they pay.
Two things to fill in:
- Paying — Pays on time, Slow payer, or Bad payer. Or leave it at Not recorded.
- Watch out for — optional, and in your own words. "Always needs chasing." "Disputes every bill." "Only the wife answers the phone."
Either one on its own is fine.
What it does once it's set
- A coloured tag next to them in your contacts list, so you spot them while scrolling rather than having to open the record.
- A filter. The contacts list has a Flagged view showing just the ones you've marked.
- A heads-up before the next job. If someone you've flagged has work booked in the next seven days, Mucka puts a card in your inbox saying so, with anything they owe alongside it.
Keep the note something that stays true
Nothing rewrites what you type here — it sits exactly as you left it until you change it. So write the kind of thing that's still true in six months:
Good: "Always needs chasing." "Pays eventually, never on time." "Wants a PO number on everything."
Not so good: "2 overdue invoices." "£400 owing." "Late since June."
A number goes out of date the week after you write it, and then your own record is arguing with the figure on the screen next to it. You don't need to write those down anyway — Mucka keeps the live total and tells you when you book them in.
Who can see it, who can change it
Anyone who can open a customer's record sees the flag. That's deliberate: "why is this one flagged?" has to be answerable by whoever is looking at it.
Changing it needs permission to edit contacts, so an engineer or subcontractor can read your note but not overwrite it.
Common gotchas
- It's your judgement, not a calculation. Mucka doesn't work this out and won't change it behind you. If someone's mended their ways, you have to say so.
- It's per customer, not per property. A landlord who's slow paying is slow paying whichever of their flats you're at.
- It doesn't stop anything. You can still book them, quote them and invoice them exactly as normal. It's a note to yourself, not a block.
- Clearing it is a save too. Set Paying back to Not recorded and empty the note, then Save, and the flag comes off.