Book a fit call

Workflow template for finance and accounting

Collections call brief

Before you phone a customer about overdue invoices, one page sets out every open invoice and its age, what they were told and promised, any dispute or credit note still open, who to ask for and the questions to settle. After the call, what was agreed is written up for a person to confirm.

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The outcome

The person making the call picks up the phone knowing the whole account. Every open invoice is there with its age, oldest first. Every earlier contact is there in the log's own words, and every promise the customer made is marked kept, part kept, broken or still pending, judged against the payments that actually arrived. A payment that turned up in the promised week but went to a different invoice is pointed out, so the call can clear it up instead of tripping over it.

The brief names the contact to ask for and why, and gives a short numbered list of questions, each with its facts: what held up the broken promise, what the open query is really about, when the rest will be paid, where an unapplied payment should go. Disputes get a status question and nothing more. Invoices that are not yet due are left alone. Nothing in the brief threatens the customer or hints at a consequence.

What the caller may offer is quoted word for word from your own written collections terms, sorted into what the caller can agree alone, what needs approval first and what is never offered on a call. Without written terms, the caller offers nothing beyond asking for payment and a date.

After the call, the caller's notes become a call record: the answer to each question, every promise with its date and amounts, anything the customer asked for that goes beyond your terms marked as not agreed, the actions that follow with an owner each, and a contact log entry ready to paste in. Your finance manager or owner confirms it. Nothing is sent, entered or changed by the workflow template.

Who starts the work, and when

The credit controller, the bookkeeper or the owner runs it before phoning a business customer whose account has overdue invoices: when written reminders have gone unanswered, when a promised payment has not arrived, or when a balance needs settling by phone. The same person runs it again straight after the call with their notes. The finance manager, or the owner in a smaller company, confirms the call record and decides anything beyond the written terms.

It stops, and passes the account to that person, when the customer is an individual rather than a business, when the records mention insolvency, a lawyer or a collections agency, or when the customer has asked not to be phoned.

What they supply

  • The open items export for the account from the accounting system: invoices, credit notes and unapplied payments, with dates, amounts and references.
  • The payments received on the account in the last 90 days, and which invoices each was applied to.
  • The contact log: earlier calls and emails, with any promise recorded as an amount, a date and the invoices it covers.
  • The customer's contacts, with the one preferred for payments marked.
  • The disputes file, with each dispute's amount, reason, status and owner.
  • The collections terms: your own numbered rules on what a caller may agree, written once and approved.
  • The settings: the customer, today's date, the caller and the approver, the ledger balance on the account, and the account status.
  • After the call, the caller's notes, as typed.

When a column heading in an export does not match what the workflow template expects, it stops and asks which column is which.

What comes out

Before the call, one brief in a fixed order: who to ask for and who else is on file; where the account stands, with a check that the figures add up to the ledger balance; the open invoices, oldest first; the earlier contacts and every promise judged; open disputes, queries never logged as disputes, and unused credit notes and payments; the numbered questions; and what may be offered, quoted from your terms.

After the call, a call record in a fixed order: the answer to each question, or "not covered in the notes"; the customer's promises, checked against your terms; requests beyond the terms, marked not agreed; what the caller said they would do; the actions for a person, each with an owner; what is still open, with the arithmetic; and the contact log entry.

If the open items do not add up to the ledger balance, it stops and shows the difference before drafting anything.

An invented example

Illustrative example with invented data. The company, the customer, the people, the phone numbers, the invoices, the payments, the notes and every date below are invented. The company is an invented 40-person wholesale distributor of garden supplies. Its customer appears as Customer A, a business that runs three garden centres, and the customer's staff appear as Contact 1 and Contact 2. The company's own staff appear by role only. Phone numbers use the 555-01 range kept for fiction.

On the morning of Monday 9 November 2026 the credit controller exported Customer A's account and ran the brief before phoning. After the call, the credit controller ran it again with the call notes. The inputs come first, in full, so the workflow template can be run on them. The brief and the call record it returned follow.

The inputs

1. Settings (typed by the credit controller)

Company: invented wholesale distributor of garden supplies, about 40 people
Customer: Customer A, account A-1042
Customer type: business
Today: Monday 9 November 2026
Caller: Credit controller
Approver: Finance manager
Applies payments and enters the contact log: Credit controller
Currency: USD
Ledger balance on the account today: 12070.40
Payment terms on the account: 30 days from invoice date
Account status: open
Promise grace days: 3
Contact log and payments period: 90 days

2. Open items export: open_items.csv

doc_no,doc_type,doc_date,due_date,amount,open_amount,reference
INV-5521,invoice,2026-08-14,2026-09-13,4860.00,4860.00,PO 7731
INV-5588,invoice,2026-09-02,2026-10-02,2315.40,2315.40,PO 7790
INV-5604,invoice,2026-09-11,2026-10-11,3120.00,1120.00,PO 7802
INV-5650,invoice,2026-09-29,2026-10-29,1985.00,1985.00,PO 7844
INV-5702,invoice,2026-10-20,2026-11-19,2740.00,2740.00,PO 7901
CN-0218,credit note,2026-10-05,,-350.00,-350.00,"Return of 10 bags of compost, INV-5588"
PAY-1105,unapplied payment,2026-11-05,,-600.00,-600.00,"Remittance: on account"

3. Payments export: payments.csv

payment_id,date,amount,applied_to
PAY-0925,2026-09-25,3410.00,INV-5480
PAY-1016,2026-10-16,2000.00,INV-5604
PAY-1105,2026-11-05,600.00,unapplied

4. Contact log: contact_log.csv

date,method,direction,contact,logged_by,summary,promise_amount,promise_date,promise_invoices
2026-09-21,email,out,Contact 1,Credit controller,"Statement sent. Noted INV-5521 overdue.",,,
2026-10-07,phone,out,Contact 1,Credit controller,"Contact 1 said INV-5521 is approved and will be in the payment run on 16 October.",4860.00,2026-10-16,INV-5521
2026-10-22,phone,out,Contact 1,Credit controller,"INV-5521 not paid. Contact 1 said Contact 2 is holding it over a query on PO 7731 and would call back.",,,
2026-10-28,email,in,Contact 2,,"Contact 2 reports 12 cases of plant pots on INV-5650 broken on delivery and asks for a credit.",,,
2026-11-02,phone,in,Contact 2,Credit controller,"Contact 2 promised 600.00 on account this week. INV-5521 to follow once the PO 7731 query is answered; the query is about the delivery address.",600.00,2026-11-06,

5. Contacts: contacts.csv

contact,role,phone,email,preferred_for_payments,notes
Contact 1,Accounts payable clerk,555-0142,ap@customer-a.example,yes,In the office Monday to Thursday.
Contact 2,Finance director,555-0157,,no,Approves the weekly payment runs.

6. Disputes file: disputes.csv

dispute_ref,doc_no,raised_date,amount,reason,status,owner,last_update
D-27,INV-5480,2026-09-08,120.00,Short delivery of one pallet,resolved,Warehouse manager,Credit note CN-0201 issued 15 September.
D-31,INV-5650,2026-10-28,410.00,12 cases of plant pots reported broken on delivery,open,Warehouse manager,Photos requested from Contact 2 on 29 October; none received yet.

7. Collections terms

Collections terms, approved by the finance manager, 1 March 2026
1. Our standard terms are payment within 30 days of the invoice date.
2. The caller may accept a promised payment date up to 14 days after the day of the call without approval.
3. A later date, or payment in instalments, needs the finance manager's approval before it is agreed.
4. No discount, fee waiver or credit is offered on a call. Credits are issued only through the dispute process.
5. Copies of invoices, credit notes, statements and proofs of delivery may be sent on request.

8. The credit controller's notes, typed after the call

Call Mon 9 Nov 2026, 10:20 to 10:34. Rang 555-0142, spoke to Contact 1.
- 5521 held because PO 7731 has our old delivery address for them (Store 2, should be Store 3). Wants 5521 reissued showing Store 3, then it goes in a run. Asked if they can pay 5521 in two halves, 19 Nov and 3 Dec. Told her I'd have to check with the finance manager.
- The 2,000 on 16 Oct was meant for 5604, not 5521.
- 600 on 5 Nov is for 5604.
- 5588 and the rest of 5604 (520.00) go in the 19 Nov run.
- 5650: paying the 1,575 not in dispute on 19 Nov. Contact 2 sending the photos this week.
- CN-0218: she hasn't seen it. Said I'd email a copy today.

The output, before the call (Part A)

COLLECTIONS CALL BRIEF: Customer A, account A-1042

For: Credit controller, call on Monday 9 November 2026. Prepared from: open items (7 rows, balance 12,070.40 USD, ties to the ledger balance in the settings); payments (3 rows, 25 September 2026 to 5 November 2026); contact log (5 entries since 11 August 2026); contacts (2); disputes file (1 open); collections terms (Collections terms, 1 March 2026).

Account status: open. For the caller's information; not a line to use on the call.

Ask for: Contact 1, Accounts payable clerk, 555-0142. Why: made the BROKEN promise of 7 October 2026.

Also on file: Contact 2, Finance director, 555-0157: approves the weekly payment runs; on 28 October 2026 emailed about broken plant pots on INV-5650 (see D-31); on 2 November 2026 said INV-5521 waits on the PO 7731 query.

Where the account stands

  • Overdue: 10,280.40 on 4 invoices. In dispute: 410.00. Overdue and not in dispute: 9,870.40, of which 4,860.00 is held by a query not logged.
  • Not yet due: 2,740.00 on 1 invoice.
  • Credits not yet used: 950.00 (CN-0218 350.00; PAY-1105 600.00).
  • Check: 10,280.40 + 2,740.00 − 950.00 = 12,070.40.

Open invoices, oldest first

  • INV-5521, PO 7731, invoiced 14 August 2026, due 13 September 2026: 4,860.00 open of 4,860.00, 57 days overdue. Held by a query not logged: see question 2.
  • INV-5588, PO 7790, invoiced 2 September 2026, due 2 October 2026: 2,315.40 open of 2,315.40, 38 days overdue.
  • INV-5604, PO 7802, invoiced 11 September 2026, due 11 October 2026: 1,120.00 open of 3,120.00, 29 days overdue.
  • INV-5650, PO 7844, invoiced 29 September 2026, due 29 October 2026: 1,985.00 open of 1,985.00, 11 days overdue. In dispute: 410.00, D-31.
  • INV-5702, PO 7901, invoiced 20 October 2026, due 19 November 2026: 2,740.00 open of 2,740.00, due in 10 days.

What they were told and promised

  • 21 September 2026, email, out, Contact 1 (by Credit controller): "Statement sent. Noted INV-5521 overdue."
  • 7 October 2026, phone, out, Contact 1 (by Credit controller): "Contact 1 said INV-5521 is approved and will be in the payment run on 16 October."
  • 22 October 2026, phone, out, Contact 1 (by Credit controller): "INV-5521 not paid. Contact 1 said Contact 2 is holding it over a query on PO 7731 and would call back."
  • 28 October 2026, email, in, Contact 2: "Contact 2 reports 12 cases of plant pots on INV-5650 broken on delivery and asks for a credit."
  • 2 November 2026, phone, in, Contact 2 (by Credit controller): "Contact 2 promised 600.00 on account this week. INV-5521 to follow once the PO 7731 query is answered; the query is about the delivery address."

Promises:

  • 7 October 2026, Contact 1: 4,860.00 by 16 October 2026, for INV-5521: BROKEN: nothing applied to INV-5521 by 19 October 2026. In that window, PAY-1016, 2,000.00 on 16 October 2026, was applied to INV-5604.
  • 2 November 2026, Contact 2: 600.00 by 6 November 2026, on account: KEPT: PAY-1105 600.00 on 5 November 2026.

Disputes, queries and credit notes

  • D-31, INV-5650, 410.00, raised 28 October 2026: "12 cases of plant pots reported broken on delivery". Status: open; owner Warehouse manager; last update: "Photos requested from Contact 2 on 29 October; none received yet."
  • Query not logged: INV-5521 (PO 7731): "Contact 1 said Contact 2 is holding it over a query on PO 7731" and "the query is about the delivery address" (22 October 2026 and 2 November 2026). Not in the disputes file; the finance manager decides whether to log it.
  • CN-0218, credit note, 350.00, dated 5 October 2026: "Return of 10 bags of compost, INV-5588". Not yet used.
  • PAY-1105, unapplied payment, 600.00, received 5 November 2026: "Remittance: on account".

Questions to settle on the call

  1. Contact 1 promised 4,860.00 for INV-5521 by 16 October 2026; nothing was applied to INV-5521 by 19 October 2026. In that window PAY-1016, 2,000.00 on 16 October 2026, was applied to INV-5604. Ask: What held up INV-5521, and was the 2,000.00 paid on 16 October meant for INV-5604?
  2. On 22 October and 2 November 2026 the log records INV-5521 held over a query on PO 7731 about the delivery address. The query is not in the disputes file. Ask: What exactly is wrong with the delivery address on PO 7731, what do you need from us to clear it, and on what date will INV-5521 be paid once it is cleared?
  3. Overdue and not in dispute: INV-5588 2,315.40, 38 days overdue; INV-5604 1,120.00, 29 days overdue; INV-5650 1,575.00 of 1,985.00, 11 days overdue (410.00 is in dispute D-31). Total 5,010.40. Ask: On what date will these be paid?
  4. PAY-1105, 600.00, received 5 November 2026 with the remittance "on account", has not been applied. Ask: Which invoice or invoices should the 600.00 go against?
  5. CN-0218, 350.00, dated 5 October 2026, for the return of 10 bags of compost on INV-5588, has not been used. Ask: Have you received CN-0218, and which invoice will you take it against?
  6. D-31 on INV-5650, 410.00, is open, with the warehouse manager as owner. Photos were requested from Contact 2 on 29 October 2026; none have arrived. Ask: Have the photos of the broken cases been sent, or when will they be?

What you may offer, quoted from the collections terms (Collections terms, 1 March 2026)

  • Standard terms: item 1: "Our standard terms are payment within 30 days of the invoice date."
  • May agree without approval: item 2: "The caller may accept a promised payment date up to 14 days after the day of the call without approval." Item 5: "Copies of invoices, credit notes, statements and proofs of delivery may be sent on request."
  • Needs the finance manager's approval first: item 3: "A later date, or payment in instalments, needs the finance manager's approval before it is agreed."
  • Never offered on a call: item 4: "No discount, fee waiver or credit is offered on a call. Credits are issued only through the dispute process."
  • Anything asked for that is not written here: "I'll take that to the finance manager and come back to you."

Prepared for the credit controller. Every line traces to the files named above. Nothing has been sent, no one has been contacted and no record has been changed.

The output, after the call (Part B)

COLLECTIONS CALL RECORD: Customer A, account A-1042, call on 9 November 2026, 10:20

Draft for the finance manager to confirm. From the credit controller's notes of 9 November 2026 and the brief of 9 November 2026.

Spoke to: Contact 1, Accounts payable clerk.

Answers to the brief's questions

  1. What held up INV-5521, and whether the 2,000.00 of 16 October was meant for INV-5604: INV-5521 is held because PO 7731 has the old delivery address (Store 2; it should be Store 3). The 2,000.00 of 16 October was meant for INV-5604, not INV-5521.
  2. The PO 7731 query, what clears it, and when INV-5521 will be paid: the delivery address on PO 7731 is Store 2 and should be Store 3; Contact 1 wants INV-5521 reissued showing Store 3, after which it goes into a payment run. Payment date: not settled; Contact 1 asked to pay it in two halves, on 19 November and 3 December (see Requests and offers beyond the written terms).
  3. Date for INV-5588, INV-5604 and the part of INV-5650 not in dispute: INV-5588 and the rest of INV-5604 (520.00) go in the 19 November run; the 1,575.00 of INV-5650 not in dispute is paid on 19 November.
  4. Where the 600.00 of 5 November goes: INV-5604.
  5. CN-0218: Contact 1 has not seen it; the credit controller said a copy would be emailed today. Which invoice it will be taken against: not covered in the notes.
  6. D-31 photos: Contact 2 is sending them this week.

Promises made by the customer

  • 19 November 2026: 4,410.40, from Contact 1: INV-5588 2,315.40 (open balance; amount not stated in the notes); INV-5604 520.00; INV-5650 1,575.00. Within the collections terms, item 2.

Requests and offers beyond the written terms (not agreed)

  • Contact 1 asked: INV-5521 paid in two halves (2,430.00 each if equal; amounts not stated in the notes), on 19 November 2026 and 3 December 2026. Collections terms, item 3: "A later date, or payment in instalments, needs the finance manager's approval before it is agreed." For the finance manager to decide.
  • Contact 1 asked: INV-5521 reissued showing the Store 3 delivery address. The collections terms do not cover it. For the finance manager to decide.

What the credit controller said they would do

  • Email Contact 1 a copy of CN-0218, by 9 November 2026.
  • Check the two-payment request for INV-5521 with the finance manager, no date given.

Actions for a person

  1. Decide whether INV-5521 may be paid in two halves (2,430.00 each if equal; amounts not stated in the notes), on 19 November and 3 December 2026 (collections terms, item 3). Owner: Finance manager.
  2. Decide whether INV-5521 is reissued showing the Store 3 delivery address, and whether the PO 7731 query is logged as a dispute. Owner: Finance manager.
  3. Email Contact 1 a copy of CN-0218. Owner: Credit controller. By 9 November 2026.
  4. Apply PAY-1105, 600.00, to INV-5604, as Contact 1 directed. Owner: Credit controller.
  5. Enter the contact log entry below once this record is confirmed. Owner: Credit controller.
  6. Record on D-31 that Contact 2 says the photos will be sent this week. Owner: Warehouse manager.
  7. Check that the 4,410.40 promised for 19 November 2026 has arrived. Owner: Credit controller. By 23 November 2026.

Still open after the call

  • The payment date for INV-5521, 4,860.00: waits on the finance manager's decisions in actions 1 and 2.
  • Which invoice CN-0218 will be taken against: not covered in the notes. If it is taken against INV-5588, the 19 November payment on INV-5588 would be 2,315.40 − 350.00 = 1,965.40, and the total for 19 November 4,410.40 − 350.00 = 4,060.40.

Contact log entry, for the credit controller to enter

2026-11-09,phone,out,Contact 1,Credit controller,"INV-5521 held: PO 7731 has the old delivery address (Store 2, should be Store 3). Customer asks for INV-5521 reissued and paid in two halves on 19 Nov and 3 Dec; not agreed, with the finance manager. 2,000.00 of 16 Oct was for INV-5604. 600.00 of 5 Nov to go to INV-5604. CN-0218 not received; copy to be emailed. Contact 2 sending D-31 photos this week.",4410.40,2026-11-19,INV-5588;INV-5604;INV-5650

Points in the notes the record could not place: None.

Draft for the finance manager to confirm. Nothing has been sent, entered or changed.

Where it fits

  • Finance and accounting, which owns collections, the ledger and the contact history behind every call.
  • Manufacturing, where trade customers buy on credit terms and an unpaid invoice often sits behind a query about price or quantity that nobody wrote down.
  • Logistics and trade, where distributors and wholesalers carry many small accounts, each with its own queries about deliveries, returns and credit notes.
  • Construction, where suppliers and subcontractors chase invoices tied to purchase orders and site deliveries, and a query about a delivery address or quantity can hold up a whole invoice.
  • Professional services, where the owner often makes the call and needs the account straight before speaking to a client they will keep working with.
  • Established businesses, where long-standing customers have long histories of promises, credits and part payments to keep straight.
  • Growth & scaling, when the customer list outgrows what the owner or bookkeeper can remember about each account.

What has to change for your company

Write your collections terms once, as numbered items your finance manager or owner approves: how far out a caller may accept a promised date, who approves instalments or later dates, what is never offered on a call, and what may be sent on request. Name your caller and your approver. Map your accounting system's exports to the column headings the workflow template expects. Set how many days' grace a promised payment gets before it counts as missed, and how far back to read the contact log. Keep the contact log in the shape the call record writes, so each confirmed entry can be pasted straight in.

It is the step before and after a phone call. Written reminders by age are overdue-invoice follow-up preparation; matching short or unexplained payments is a receivables exception review; the weekly picture for management is the weekly receivables summary. It runs in ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or Gemini from the files you supply and needs no access to any system.

What has been checked

Fully Powered AI wrote this workflow template. It was editorially reviewed on 12 November 2026. It was tried once on its invented example in Claude on 12 November 2026, and the record is published alongside it. A few small clarifications were made to the workflow template after that trial and have not been run again. 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 on accounts your credit controller has already called, with hard cases written in advance: a promise still inside its grace days, a payment that went to the wrong invoice, a query that was never logged as a dispute, a customer who asked to be contacted only in writing, call notes that agree to a later date than your terms allow. The caller checks every figure against the ledger before anyone relies on the brief. Pilot acceptance-test preparation sets those cases up, and what we test before we call an AI workflow ready describes the record we keep.

Who decides

People decide

Your people keep

  • Anything beyond the written terms
  • Whether a query is logged as a dispute
  • Whether the call record is confirmed
By design

It does not

  • Contacts nobody
  • Threatens nothing and hints at no consequence
  • Offers nothing beyond your written collections terms
  • Sends, enters or changes nothing

Questions people ask

Who is the collections call brief for?

The credit controller, the bookkeeper or the owner runs it before phoning a business customer whose account has overdue invoices, and again straight after the call with their notes.

Does it phone or email the customer?

No. Nothing is sent, entered or changed by the workflow template. The person making the call does the talking, and the finance manager or owner confirms the call record.

What may the caller offer?

Only what your own written collections terms allow, quoted word for word and sorted into what the caller can agree alone, what needs approval first and what is never offered on a call.

What happens to a dispute?

Disputes get a status question and nothing more. Queries the customer raised that were never logged as disputes are picked out for the finance manager to decide on.

What has been checked?

It was editorially reviewed on 12 November 2026. It was tried once on its invented example in Claude on 12 November 2026, and the record is published alongside it. A few small clarifications were made to the workflow template after that trial and have not been run again. It has not yet been tested in a client environment.

The full workflow template

Everything above is the outline. The complete workflow template is the working version: the roles, the inputs, the procedure, the exceptions and stop conditions, the output format, the reviewer checklist, the acceptance tests, the instructions for an AI assistant and what to customize for your company. It comes with a download and the link to its folder in Fully Powered’s public repository.

View the full template

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Next step

Put this workflow template to work for your team: on your plan, or built with you in a sprint.

Put this on your plan

Add it to a workflow in the Fully Powered Planner, beside the teams and roles that will run it.

Build this in a sprint

In a sprint, Fully Powered adapts this workflow template to your rules, proves it on your own work and puts it in the hands of the roles that own it.

Two ways to begin:

Rather talk it through first? Book a fit callDiscuss adapting this

  • Overdue-invoice follow-up preparation

    Every overdue invoice gets a follow-up drafted in your firm’s tone for its age and addressed from the right person, and every invoice that should not be chased is held with the reason written down.

  • Receivables exception review

    The controller gets every short payment, unmatched or ambiguous receipt, possible duplicate and disputed invoice on one list, each with its evidence and a proposed next step, before anything is applied on a guess.

  • Weekly receivables summary

    The finance lead takes one page into each week’s management meeting: what came in, where every receivable stands, which exceptions are open and who owns them, and the decisions management must make. Every figure ties to the aging report.