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Pencil is a cloud based on-boarding and credit management system for wholesale suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors. Pencil is a white-labelled credit application portal that can be integrated into your website, sending your customers credit applications carrying your own brand. 


Features include:

  • Letting trade customers can apply for credit, enter their ABN, and on-board in 90 seconds. 
  • Performing a quick credit or cash flow check for customers before approving or rejecting a credit application.
  • Recommending which customers should get credit, including credit amounts and payment periods. 
  • Ensure ongoing monitoring and timely payments from new and existing customers.
  • Connecting with accounting software 
  • Get payment confirmation before shipping.


When you connect DEAR with Pencil, Pencil automatically generates digital credit applications for your website with your branding. New customer information and contracts automatically populate DEAR and the risk tools kick into gear. Pencil also automatically imports and matches your customer data to begin monitoring of customer credit files.


NOTE: Pencil Pay requires an API license to connect. Cin7 Core API licenses can be added to your subscription from the My subscription page. 


Prerequisites

  • Xero account
  • Sign up to Pencil with pencilpay.com (Free trial is sufficient)
  • Users will need the Settings: DEAR API Setup permission to generate API keys from DEAR.


Table of Contents


Basic Information

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Pencil Pay offers its customers a central hub to manage risk, receivables, payables, contracts and customer on-

boarding. For its customers' customers, it offers a secure portal to apply/register with suppliers, centralise contracts, view and pay invoices and manage their trade credit. 


Pencil Pay is currently only available for Australian customers. Pencil Pay will be available for customers in New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom in January 2021. 


Pencil Pay pulls from DEAR:

  • Trading terms
  • Credit limits
  • Custom tags (if applicable)


Pencil Pay pushes to DEAR:

  • Company Info
  • Delivery Info
  • Accounts Info
  • Contact Info
  • Contracted Trading Terms and Credit Limits


DEAR also syncs invoices and payments with Xero, which in turn pushes invoices and payments to Pencil Pay. 


Connect to Xero from Pencil

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First you will need to connect your Xero account to Pencil from Pencil's Integrations page. Select Xero and follow the prompts to connect your account and sync all of your customer contacts and invoices to Pencil. 

 If these accounts are already connected you can skip this step.


Connect to DEAR from Pencil

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The next step is to integrate Pencil with DEAR. This will push across your business trading terms and credit limits and synchronise overdue invoices with Pencil. You will need to generate an API channel in DEAR.

NOTE: Two free external integrations are available under DEAR's standard subscription plan. If you already have two integrations, you may first need to purchase licenses for the additional external integrations under the My Subscription page.

  1. Get your DEAR Account ID and DEAR API Application Key by navigating to Integrations → API in DEAR. 
  2. On the API Integration page, click the + icon on the top right, enter a name for the API (for easy identification, you might want to use Pencil Pay as the API name), and click Create button to generate an API channel.
  3. DEAR then creates the API Account ID and Key under the Setup tab of the API Integration page. You will need both pieces of information to connect DEAR to Pencil.
  4. Click Save
  5. Go to your Pencil account and the Integrations page. Select DEAR
  6. Enter the Account ID and Key you generated in DEAR.
  7. Save your changes. 


Configure Customer Portal

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Connecting DEAR to Pencil synchronises your payment terms and credit limits. The next step is to configure your customer portal for credit applications and embed it into your website. 

  1. In Pencil, open the Credit Forms menu to prepare your customer portal.
  2. Use Credit Forms Terms and Conditions, Credit Limits, Credit Form Design, and Trading Terms Settings to customise your customer portal. 
  3. When you have finished, go to Embed Credit Form and copy the HTML code, add it to your website's HTML, and embed the credit form into your website. This creates the portal where customers can onboard, check their balance and pay their bills. 
  4. This form can be used by any customer that wants to go on account either via your website or in store.


Onboard Customers

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Existing customers can onboard quickly to Pencil by accessing your customer portal, either through your website or via a direct link. 

  1. First they must enter their ABN and company details.
  2. Next, the user must be verified by Pencil so Pencil can process payments on your behalf. Enter the name and email of the user, the user will be sent a code to enter and complete the verification. 
  3. The user can then select the Payment Term and Credit Limit they wish to apply for. Based on the terms selected, the information required will dynamically change. This could be two or three trade references, a personal guarantee, the director's details, or the authorised representatives details. 
  4. Next the user can select a Payment Method. Pencil recommends direct debit from a bank account as the most cost-effective method. 
  5. Next, the user can review all the credit application information, read the terms and conditions, and accept. 
  6. The user will receive by email a copy of the terms and conditions and the agreement for their reference. 


Create a Payment Plan

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You can create a payment plan for your invoices from your Pencil account. Invoices are pulled to Pencil Pay from your Xero account. 

  1. First go to Invoices and find the invoice you want to create a payment plan for. 
  2. Click the Offer Payment Plan icon to continue.
  3. Use Add more invoices? to select additional invoices from the same customer to the payment plan. In this example, we will create a payment plan for one invoice only. Click Next to continue.
  4. Select the Upfront Payment, Payment Frequency, and Payment Duration. Click Next to continue.
  5. Review the payment plan offer and click Next to send it to the customer.
  6. The customer will then receive an email with the payment plan offer link. Clicking the link will take the customer to a page where they can review the information and securely make payments on the invoice. The customer will receive receipts of payments to the provided email address. 
  7. The payment information will be synced to both Xero and DEAR. 




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