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Finance agent

Collections follow-up

Every overdue invoice chased every morning, in your voice and with the invoice attached. Disputes and the accounts that need a call go to a person.

  • $12,500 fixed
  • Live in 3 to 6 weeks
  • Yours to keep
Let’s build your agent How it works
The review screen for Collections follow-up: four items, three done, and one (Disputed) waiting for the AR lead, who is asked: Disputed and past 90 days. Hand to the account owner?
How it works

Chase the ones who owe, leave the ones who promised.

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 Collections follow-up, in 5 steps. It starts with “An invoice goes past due” and ends with “A reminder in their inbox”. Each step lists what automation, the agent and your team do there.
Collections follow-upA typical run
Starts withAn invoice goes past dueIt passes the point you start chasing, say 30 days, with no payment and nobody on it yet.
Automation: At 7am it pulls every invoice past due from accounting, with the amount, the days late and the reminders already sent.
The agent: Goes through every customer reply and notes promises to pay, remittance notes and anything that sounds like a dispute.
~20h/mo

Step 1 of 5Catch up each morning

  • Automation

    At 7am it pulls every invoice past due from accounting, with the amount, the days late and the reminders already sent.

    The aging report is a standard export. It runs at 7am whether anyone’s in or not.

  • The agent

    Goes through every customer reply and notes promises to pay, remittance notes and anything that sounds like a dispute.

    “We’ll get this out after the 15th” is a promise to pay. A rule looking for the word “promise” misses it.

Reads
  • Accounting
  • AR inbox
Writes
  • AR tracker

~20 hours a month back

Automation: Looks up the accounts payable contact in the CRM, not whoever signed the deal, and pauses any account with a promise on file.
~12h/mo

Step 2 of 5Find who to write to

  • Automation

    Looks up the accounts payable contact in the CRM, not whoever signed the deal, and pauses any account with a promise on file.

    The AP contact and any promised date are fields on the account.

Reads
  • CRM
Writes
  • AR tracker

~12 hours a month back

Where teams differWriting to the buyer or straight to accounts payable is a house habit, and so is who gets copied.

The agent: Writes a reminder that fits the age and the history: a light nudge at 31 days, firmer at 60, naming the invoice and the amount.
~30h/mo

Step 3 of 5Write the reminder

  • The agent

    Writes a reminder that fits the age and the history: a light nudge at 31 days, firmer at 60, naming the invoice and the amount.

    The fourth reminder to a customer of ten years shouldn’t read like the first one to a new account.

Reads
  • AR inbox
  • Accounting
Writes
  • AR tracker

~30 hours a month back

Where teams differMost step the tone up at 30, 60 and 90 days. A few never go past a polite nudge by email.

Automation: Stops any invoice with a queried line or more than 90 days late, and sends it to the AR lead with the thread and the history.
IfYour team: Looks at the queried freight charge on INV-3190 and hands the $8,940 to the account owner for a call, or lets the next reminder go out.
~10h/mo

Step 4 of 5Hold the hard ones

  • Automation

    Stops any invoice with a queried line or more than 90 days late, and sends it to the AR lead with the thread and the history.

    Days late is a number and a dispute is a flag. Either one sends the invoice to a person.

  • Your teamIf disputed or past 90 days

    Looks at the queried freight charge on INV-3190 and hands the $8,940 to the account owner for a call, or lets the next reminder go out.

    A disputed $8,940 from a long-standing customer is a relationship call, not a template.

Reads
  • AR tracker
Writes
  • CRM

~10 hours a month back

Automation: Sends the reminder with the invoice attached, logs it on the account and sets the date for the next one if nothing comes in.
~14h/mo

Step 5 of 5Send and book the next

  • Automation

    Sends the reminder with the invoice attached, logs it on the account and sets the date for the next one if nothing comes in.

    The words are written. What’s left is attaching the invoice and noting the send.

Reads
  • Accounting
Writes
  • Customer email
  • Accounting

~14 hours a month back

Ends withA reminder in their inboxSent in your voice with the invoice attached, and the next nudge already on the calendar.
Total~86h/mo

What changes

Reminders go out every morning in your voice, paused for anyone who’s promised to pay. The AR lead sees only the disputes and the accounts worth a call.

  • 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

~86 hours a month back

$49,500 a year in time

For a business with about 400 invoices going past due each month, at $48 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 changes what a customer owes

  1. Your systems

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

    For this agentOverdue invoices from your accounting system, contacts from your CRM.

  2. Your rules

    The limits and exceptions it works to.

    For this agentWhen to remind, how often, and which customers you never chase by email.

  3. Your team

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

    For this agentThe AR lead for disputes, the account owner for your biggest customers.

  4. Your channels

    Where your team hears from it.

    For this agentEmail to customers, Slack for your team.

  5. Your output

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

    For this agentA reminder with the invoice attached, and a morning list of who to call.

Applying payments to invoices is the Cash application agent. Calls to customers and credit limits 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 team.
  • Your rulebookYour limits, exceptions and who signs off, in one place, often for the first time.
  • A test reportYour past overdue invoices, 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 overdue invoices.
The number we agree

Hours your team spends chasing overdue invoices each week. 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 your aging reports and the reminders your team sent, and a short weekly check-in.

  1. Before kickoff

    We send the access checklist.

    You, 2 hours. Access, an owner, and three months of your aging reports and the reminders your team sent.

  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 overdue invoices.

    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.

Will it sound like a robot?
It writes from the reminders your team already sends, and you approve the wording before it goes live.
Can it handle a customer who replies?
It logs the reply and passes it to the right person. A promise to pay pauses the reminders until the date they gave.
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 hours your team spends chasing overdue invoices each week. 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.

Want your overdue invoices chased every morning?

Tell us how your team handles overdue invoices 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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Switchboard Agents$12,500 fixed · live in 3 to 6 weeks How it works Let’s build your agent