Invoice Collection Workflow

This workflow turns the Receivables dashboard into controlled collection work. Use Receivables to decide where attention matters, then use the invoice and customer records to verify context and take the next action.

Prerequisites

• Invoice issue dates, due dates, statuses, customers, amounts, and currencies are current.
• Payments, credits, and adjustments are recorded against the correct invoices.
• Customer contact details and communication preferences are accurate.
• The team has an active recovery policy with at least one step before anyone uses Auto-chase.
• Payment and communication providers are connected for the channels you plan to use.
• Disputed or relationship-sensitive accounts have a named human owner.

1. Choose the Review Period

1. Open Receivables → Overview.
2. Choose the four-week, three-month, six-month, 12-month, month-to-date, year-to-date, all-time, or custom period that matches the review.
3. Record the current Outstanding, period DSO, all-time Collection rate, and all-time Avg days to pay.
4. Note that only DSO follows the selected period among those four headline metrics.

Use the same period when you move to Receivables → Analytics. This keeps the period-based collection curve, recovery rate, CEI, payment lag, and aging movement comparable.

2. Triage What Needs Attention

Review Do next in severity order:

1. Open overdue invoices, starting with the oldest and largest balances.
2. Review failed payments before sending another message.
3. Confirm risky terms before an invoice is sent or escalated.
4. Check broken promises against payment records and customer communications.
5. Verify customer authorization before treating missing autopay as a task.

The alert is an aggregate. It may not open the exact affected record, so use Invoices and Customers to locate and verify the underlying items.

3. Read Aging Before Contacting a Customer

1. Find the largest non-zero AR Aging bucket.
2. Compare DSO, Collection Curve, and Recovery Rate.
3. Open Receivables → Analytics.
4. Review Payment Lag for average, median, and 90th-percentile lateness.
5. Review Aging Movement to see where exposure shifted during the period.

Prioritize invoices that combine high value, older age, failed payment evidence, or a broken promise. Do not use customer profitability or a risk rank alone to justify harsher treatment.

4. Open and Verify the Invoice

1. Open Invoices → Invoices.
2. Select Overdue, or filter by customer, amount, due date, or status.
3. Open the invoice details sheet, then open the full page when you need complete payment and activity history.
4. Verify:
   • customer name, email, phone, and billing contact
   • invoice number, currency, total, and due date
   • payments received, credits, adjustments, and amount remaining
   • prior reminders and communication outcomes
   • dispute, promise, settlement, and team-only note context
   • whether an active recovery sequence already exists

If the paid status and payment ledger disagree, reconcile them before contacting the customer.

5. Choose the Least Disruptive Valid Action

Send one reminder

Use Remind when one verified follow-up is appropriate and a sequence is unnecessary.

1. Confirm the recipient and amount.
2. Select Remind.
3. Confirm the action.
4. Verify the reminder date and communication activity.

A recorded reminder does not prove delivery or that the customer read it. Check the communication state before sending again.

Start Auto-chase

Use Auto-chase overdue only for an unpaid or overdue invoice that should follow the active recovery policy.

1. Confirm that Settings → Receivables Controls contains one intended active policy and at least one step.
2. Turn on Auto-chase overdue.
3. Wait for the recovery status to appear.
4. Verify the step number and next reminder date.

The current policy editor's Day values are delays from enrollment and from the preceding step. They are not absolute days after the invoice due date. Review the resulting dates before relying on the sequence.

Stop Auto-chase

Turn the switch off when the invoice is disputed, canceled, paid through another path, or should return to manual handling. Verify that the sequence is no longer active. A previously scheduled job can still wake up, but an inactive sequence should be skipped rather than sent.

Offer a settlement

Use a settlement only after confirming the business decision and customer context.

1. Enter a positive settlement amount on an eligible unpaid or overdue invoice.
2. Select Offer.
3. Verify the displayed amount and expiration date.
4. Track acceptance and payment separately.

Creating an offer does not mark the invoice paid.

Correct the invoice status

Use Mark as paid, Mark as unpaid, or Cancel only when the evidence supports the change. A status correction does not automatically repair a bank transaction, provider payment, or external accounting record.

6. Verify Delivery and Recovery State

After each action, check:

• current invoice status and amount remaining
• recovery state, current step, and next action date
• reminder or communication state
• customer contact and channel preference
• payment-provider result for a failed or retried charge
• invoice activity and communication history

For email, confirm that the workspace's email delivery service is configured. For SMS, confirm that the customer has a phone number and the workspace's SMS service is configured. Do not treat a queued record as delivered.

7. Update the Cash Expectation

1. Return to Receivables → Overview.
2. Refresh after the source invoice has been updated.
3. Review whether the invoice remains in Do next and AR Aging.
4. Update the relevant forecast or operating review when the expected payment date changes.
5. Record the owner and next review date outside the customer message itself.

Use the invoice record as the source of truth for status and payment. Use Receivables to understand the effect across the business.

8. Close the Loop

Collection work is complete only when the record shows the intended outcome:

• payment is recorded and the balance agrees
• the invoice status is correct
• Auto-chase is completed or canceled when it should no longer run
• communication history contains no unexplained duplicate or failed send
• any promise, dispute, or settlement decision is reflected in the operating record
• the forecast reflects material timing changes

Important Limits

• The general switches under Settings → Receivables Controls save team preferences but are not currently used to enforce recovery delivery, late fees, quiet hours, weekend exclusions, adaptive cadence, due-date autopay, or owner approval.
• Recovery-policy steps created from Settings control actual Auto-chase timing and channel.
• Settings-created steps always attach the invoice and do not expose template, tone-profile, fee-rule, sender, edit, delete, or reorder controls.
• A policy created from Settings is active immediately and has a five-step maximum.
• If more than one active policy exists, Auto-chase selects the newest active policy; the invoice control does not offer a policy picker.
• Tone experiments apply only to eligible tone-enabled workflow communications. Do not assume every Auto-chase message participates.
• Multi-currency receivables totals can combine raw amounts under one displayed currency label.

Troubleshooting

Auto-chase says it is starting but no next reminder appears

Confirm that the active recovery policy has at least one step and that the invoice has a customer. Refresh after the background job has had time to create the recovery sequence.

The reminder date is later than expected

The Day value is currently a delay from enrollment for the first step and from the prior step for later steps. It is not calculated as an absolute day after the original due date.

A message failed

Check the customer's email or phone, channel preference, suppression state, and provider configuration. Wait for the configured retries before sending a manual duplicate.

A paid invoice is still in recovery

Verify how the payment was recorded. Some payment-completion paths close recovery automatically, while a manual status correction may not update every recovery record. Turn off Auto-chase when the active sequence remains visible after a verified payment.

The action item remains after correction

Confirm the underlying invoice, payment, promise, or customer record first. Then refresh Receivables and allow the analytical view time to update.

Related Pages

• Receivables
• Receivables Controls
• Configure Receivables Controls
• Receivables Analytics
• Invoices
• Manage the Invoice Lifecycle