The outcome.
Collections stop depending on who remembers to chase. Each week, every overdue invoice is either ready to follow up or held for a stated reason. The drafts read like your firm wrote them: a light reminder at 10 days, a request for a date at 40, a direct note from the account lead once a promise is missed. Each cites the invoice, the amount, the due date and what the client last said.
The plan also holds back what should not go out: the disputed invoice, the one a still-unidentified payment may have settled, the balance whose cause nobody has confirmed. Nothing is sent by the capability. The account lead or billing coordinator reads each draft, edits it and sends it.
Who starts the work, and when.
The billing coordinator runs it each week after aging is refreshed and the exception list is assembled, which keeps every hold current. The billing coordinator sends the early reminders. Account leads review and send the firmer notes for their own clients.
What they supply.
- The refreshed aging report.
- Account-lead notes: promised dates, disputes, holds, preferred contacts.
- Past correspondence on each overdue invoice, to avoid repeating a reminder or ignoring a reply.
- The current exception list, which supplies holds for unconfirmed balances and unidentified receipts.
- The firm’s tone guide: brackets, one approved message for each, and who sends.
What comes out.
A follow-up plan listing every overdue invoice with its action and sender, then the drafts. Each held invoice carries its reason and who can release it.
Illustrative example with invented data. Follow-up plan as of 25 September 2026 at an invented 60-person professional-services firm.
| Invoice | Amount | Days past due | Action | From, or released by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1031, Client C | $6,400 | 58 | Draft. Promise of 11 Sep missed. | Account lead, finance lead copied |
| 1035, Client E | $3,800 | 42 | Not chased. Disputed, note of 2 Sep. | Account lead releases it once resolved |
| 1036, Client G | $1,850 | 37 | Draft. Request a payment date. | Billing coordinator, account lead copied |
| 1042, Client A | $200 | 12 | Held. Cause of balance unconfirmed. | Controller releases it once the cause is confirmed |
| 1044, Client D | $5,600 | 5 | Held. May be paid by the 23 Sep wire. | Controller releases it once the wire is identified |
| 1045, Client F | $5,600 | 5 | Held. May be paid by the 23 Sep wire. | Controller releases it once the wire is identified |
Illustrative example with invented data. Draft for 1036, for the billing coordinator to review and send.
To: [Client G payables contact] Cc: [Account lead]
Subject: Invoice 1036, $1,850: payment date
Hello [Name],
Thank you for paying Invoice 1047, which reached us on
24 September. Invoice 1036 for $1,850, due 19 August, is
still open on our records, and a copy is attached. Could you
let me know when it is scheduled for payment? If anything on
it needs a closer look, reply here and I will bring in
[Account lead].
[Billing coordinator]The draft for 1031, and the week it belongs to, are in what a fully powered finance team knows before month end.
Where it fits.
- Professional services, where the relationship sets the tone and the account lead sees a firm note first.
- Law firms, where the responsible attorney needs to know before a client is pressed.
- Marketing and advertising, where retainers and project invoices to one client age side by side.
- Finance and accounting, which owns collections and the aging report.
- Customer success and account management, whose leads send the firmer notes.
- Growth & scaling, when the client list outgrows the founder chasing invoices personally.
- Established businesses, where a steady weekly rhythm keeps old balances from settling in.
What has to change for your company.
Set your brackets and one approved message for each. Decide who sends and who is copied at each bracket, and whether a missed promise goes straight to the account lead. Agree the holds: disputed, on hold by agreement, balance under review, payment unidentified. Decide where drafts land. No draft offers a payment plan, a discount or a credit; the sender adds one only with the controller’s approval.
What has been checked.
Fully Powered AI wrote this capability template. It was editorially reviewed on 9 November 2026. It has not yet been tested in a client environment. It has not yet been tested as a packaged version in ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or Gemini.
Testing in your environment means running it against a past aging report with cases written in advance: a disputed invoice, a missed promise, a client who has already paid, a reminder sent two days ago and an invoice with no contact on file. The billing coordinator and an account lead judge each plan and draft against the expected behavior before anyone relies on it. Pilot acceptance-test preparation sets those cases up, and what we test before we call an AI workflow ready describes the record we keep.
Next step.
Bring this week’s aging report and two follow-ups your team was happy to have sent.
Related capabilities.
- Receivables exception review: the decisions that release a held follow-up.
- Weekly receivables summary: where the follow-ups due each week are reported.
- Client-status update preparation: the account lead’s other regular message to the same clients.
- The worked example: What a fully powered finance team knows before month end.