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Finance agent

Cash application

Customer payments matched to the invoices they pay as they land, whether the remittance came by email, portal or check stub. Short payments and cash with no clear home wait for your AR lead.

  • $12,500 fixed
  • Live in 3 to 6 weeks
  • Yours to keep
Let’s build your agent How it works
The review screen for Cash application: four items, three done, and one ($310 short) waiting for the AR lead, who is asked: Wildrose Provisions paid $310 short on INV-5182 for damaged cases. Log it as a deduction?
How it works

A deposit with no invoice number still lands on the right invoices.

Here’s a typical run, step by step: what automation handles, what the agent does, and the calls that stay with your team.

The workflow for Cash application, in 5 steps. It starts with “A customer payment lands” and ends with “Invoices marked paid”. Each step lists what automation, the agent and your team do there.
Cash applicationA typical run
Starts withA customer payment landsAn ACH, wire, card payment or check shows up in the bank, often without the invoice numbers on it.
Automation: Takes each deposit from the bank feed and the lockbox file, with the payer’s name, the amount and any reference.
~6h/mo

Step 1 of 5Pick up the payments

  • Automation

    Takes each deposit from the bank feed and the lockbox file, with the payer’s name, the amount and any reference.

    Deposits arrive as a feed with the same fields every day.

Reads
  • Bank feed
Writes
  • Cash log

~6 hours a month back

Where teams differCash can be applied in one daily batch, or payment by payment as each one clears.

The agent: Pairs the $18,110 ACH with the email Wildrose Provisions sent on Monday listing three invoices, and reads the note beside the third.
~20h/mo

Step 2 of 5Find the remittance

  • The agent

    Pairs the $18,110 ACH with the email Wildrose Provisions sent on Monday listing three invoices, and reads the note beside the third.

    Remittances come as emails, portal downloads and check stubs, each laid out its own way.

Reads
  • AR inbox
  • Bank feed
Writes
  • Cash log

~20 hours a month back

The agent: Where a note just says “August invoices”, finds the open ones from that customer that add up to the amount paid.
Automation: Sets the amounts against the open invoices. INV-5180 and INV-5181 are paid in full, and INV-5182 is $310 short.
~22h/mo

Step 3 of 5Match to invoices

  • The agent

    Where a note just says “August invoices”, finds the open ones from that customer that add up to the amount paid.

    A note like “August invoices” is a clue, not a number a rule can look up.

  • Automation

    Sets the amounts against the open invoices. INV-5180 and INV-5181 are paid in full, and INV-5182 is $310 short.

    Once the invoices are named, whether each is paid in full is subtraction.

Reads
  • Accounting
Writes
  • Cash log

~22 hours a month back

Where teams differTeams set their own small-difference limit: a few dollars of bank fees let through, or every cent chased.

Automation: Sends the AR lead the payment, the note about damaged cases and the invoice, and holds the payment until they decide.
IfYour team: Logs it as a deduction to settle with the customer, or sends it back so INV-5182 stays open for the balance.
~5h/mo

Step 4 of 5Settle the short one

  • Automation

    Sends the AR lead the payment, the note about damaged cases and the invoice, and holds the payment until they decide.

    The shortfall is a number, so which payments need a person is clear.

  • Your teamIf it’s short of the invoice

    Logs it as a deduction to settle with the customer, or sends it back so INV-5182 stays open for the balance.

    Accepting $310 less, or chasing it, is a call about the customer, not the arithmetic.

Reads
  • Cash log
Writes
  • Accounting

~5 hours a month back

Automation: Applies the payment across the three invoices, saves the remittance on it, and clears it from the unapplied list.
~9h/mo

Step 5 of 5Apply and file

  • Automation

    Applies the payment across the three invoices, saves the remittance on it, and clears it from the unapplied list.

    The match is settled, so applying it is bookkeeping.

Reads
  • Cash log
Writes
  • Accounting

~9 hours a month back

Ends withInvoices marked paidThe payment applied in accounting against the right invoices, with the remittance saved on it.
Total~62h/mo

What changes

Payments are applied as they land, with remittances read from wherever they came. Short payments and cash nobody can place go to the AR lead.

  • 4steps automated
  • 2steps for the agent
  • 1call kept with your team

Pick any step to see what happens there and why it sits in that lane.

What it could be worth

~62 hours a month back

$33,500 a year in time

For an AR team applying about 1,200 customer payments a month, at $45 an hour. We work out yours from your own volumes before you sign.

Let’s build your agent
What we customize with you

One proven agent, plugged into how you work.

Every team does this job a little differently, so we set these five with the people who do it today. We’ve done this in dozens of businesses, so we know where teams usually differ and ask about those first.

The agent

Same for every client
  • Follows the same proven steps
  • A person on every exception
  • Every decision logged
  • Tested on your past work first
  • Never writes off a balance on its own

  1. Your systems

    Where the work comes in, and where the result goes.

    For this agentPayments from your bank feed and lockbox, remittances from your AR inbox and customer portals.

  2. Your rules

    The limits and exceptions it works to.

    For this agentThe small differences you let through, and the customers who always pay several invoices at once.

  3. Your team

    Who signs off, and who covers when they’re away.

    For this agentThe AR lead for short payments, the controller for write-offs over your limit.

  4. Your channels

    Where your team hears from it.

    For this agentSlack or Teams for cash it can’t place, a morning summary by email.

  5. Your output

    What it hands back, in the format you already use.

    For this agentPayments applied in accounting, or held with the remittance and the likely invoices.

Chasing overdue invoices and tying the bank to the ledger are other agents in the catalog. Credits and write-offs stay with your team.

What you get

The agent, and everything that keeps it working.

  • The agentRunning on your systems, under your rules.
  • The review screenWhere the exceptions land for your AR lead and team.
  • Your rulebookYour limits, exceptions and who signs off, in one place, often for the first time.
  • A test reportYour past payments, run through it and checked against the number.
  • The runbookHow it works, what to check, and what to do if it stops.
  • 30 days of tuningAfter it goes live, through a full month of your real payments.
The number we agree

Cash still unapplied at the end of each day. We measure it before we start, and again at day 30.

How we get there

Live in 3 to 6 weeks. About seven hours of your time.

We do the building. Your side: access, three months of bank deposits and the remittances that came with them, and a short weekly check-in.

  1. Before kickoff

    We send the access checklist.

    You, 2 hours. Access, an owner, and three months of bank deposits and the remittances that came with them.

  2. Weeks 1 to 2

    We connect your systems and set it up.

    You, 1 hour. Walk us through your rules.

  3. Weeks 2 to 4

    We test it on your past payments.

    You, 1 hour. Review what it flagged.

  4. Weeks 3 to 6

    It runs beside your team, then goes live.

    You, 1¼ hours. Work from the review screen.

Then 30 days of tuning, with a short check-in each week, about two hours of yours. At day 30 we show you the number and hand everything over.

After it’s live

It keeps running whether or not we stay.

  • It runs in your accounts

    Your cloud, your systems, and an AI account in your name, billed by the provider at their rates.

  • Changes in the first 30 days are included

    A new rule, a changed limit, someone new signing off. That’s what tuning is for.

  • After that, your call

    Your team edits the rulebook, the care plan covers it, or a bigger change is quoted first.

Questions

About this agent.

What if a payment comes with no remittance?
It looks for open invoices from that customer that add up to the amount. If exactly one set fits, it’s matched that way, or held for a person if your rules say so. If more than one fits, a person picks.
Does it read check stubs from our lockbox?
Yes. It reads the scans your bank sends with the lockbox file, the same way it reads an emailed remittance.
What happens to a deduction?
It’s logged with the customer’s reason and the invoice, and your AR lead decides whether to accept it, chase it or pass it to sales.
Our process isn’t quite like this. Will it still work?
That’s the usual case. The job looks the same in most businesses, but the details never do. We map how your team does it today, then set the rules, systems and approvals to match. That’s what most of the 3 to 6 weeks are for.
How do we agree the number?
Together, before any work starts. For this agent it’s the cash still unapplied at the end of each day. We measure it before we start, and again at day 30.
What does it cost to run once it’s live?
Hosting and AI, paid straight to the providers, not through us. It usually runs 5x to 25x cheaper than doing the same work by hand, and we work out your figure from your real volumes before you sign.

What does your team do with a payment that has no remittance?

Tell us how your team handles payments today. We’ll show you this agent on examples like yours, and whether it fits the fixed price.

Let’s build your agentBack to Finance
New to Switchboard Agents? How it works, what’s included, and what it costs.
  • 3 to 6 weeksto live, then 30 days of tuning
  • $12,500fixed, per agent
  • Yours to keepno license fees
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