> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.hyperline.co/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Late payment behavior

> Use Hyperline's late payment behavior smart segment and payment metrics to identify at-risk customers and prioritize collections outreach.

Late payment behavior helps you identify customers whose paid invoice history shows payment risk. It is available as a smart segment field in [customer segments](../customers/segments).

Use it to prioritize collections, review payment terms, route manual follow-up, or focus a monitoring agent on customers with payment-risk patterns.

## How Hyperline evaluates late payments

Hyperline computes payment behavior from settled invoices. For each paid invoice, Hyperline compares the settlement date with the expected payment date.

The expected payment date is based on the invoice due date and the customer's payment terms. This avoids treating an invoice as late before the customer's configured payment delay has elapsed.

The payment behavior metrics include:

| Metric                       | Meaning                                                         |
| ---------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Paid invoices                | Number of paid invoices considered for the customer             |
| Invoices paid after due date | Number of paid invoices settled after the expected payment date |
| Late payment rate            | Share of paid invoices that were paid late                      |
| Average late payment delay   | Average delay across invoices that were paid late               |

<Note>
  Late payment behavior is based on invoices that have been settled. Unpaid overdue invoices are still visible through invoice status, reminders, and other collection workflows.
</Note>

## Smart segment: Late payment behavior

The **Late payment behavior** smart segment is computed and maintained by Hyperline. You do not need to set a threshold yourself.

Hyperline evaluates three signals together:

* Whether the customer has paid invoices late
* How often paid invoices are late
* How long late invoices are delayed on average

This keeps the segment focused on customers with meaningful late payment patterns instead of every customer with a single small delay.

## Create a late payment behavior segment

1. Go to **Customers > Segments**.
2. Click **New Segment**.
3. Enter a segment name, such as `Late payment behavior`.
4. Add a rule.
5. In the field picker, open **Payment behavior**.
6. Select **Late payment behavior**.
7. Preview the matching customers.
8. Click **Save**.

Because this is a smart segment, selecting the field is enough. You do not need to choose an operator or value.

## Build custom payment behavior rules

If you want more control, use the numeric payment behavior fields instead of the smart segment.

For example, you can combine:

* **Late payment rate** is greater than or equal to `50`
* **Average late payment delay** is greater than `10`
* **Invoices paid after due date** is greater than or equal to `2`

Use custom rules when you want to tune risk definitions for a specific collections process or customer cohort.

<Card title="Example 💡">
  You create a **High-risk payers** segment where **Late payment rate** is at
  least `50` and **Average late payment delay** is greater than `10` days. Your
  finance team follows the segment, and the monitoring agent watches it for new
  payment issues.
</Card>

## What to do with the segment

After saving the segment, you can:

* Filter the customer list by the segment
* Follow the segment to receive customer follower notifications
* Use it as the customer scope for a monitoring agent
* Review payment methods and invoice reminders for matching customers
* Export matching customers for collections review

## Related

* [Customer segments](../customers/segments)
* [Customer monitoring agent](./customer-monitoring-agent)
* [Owner and followers](./owner-followers)
* [Invoice reminders](../invoices/reminders)