Automation That Shortens Your Debtor Days

Diagnose before automating

Pull your last hundred invoices and record when the work finished, when the invoice was issued, when it was due and when it was paid. The pattern is usually immediately obvious and rarely what people assume.

In most small businesses a meaningful share of the delay happens before the invoice is even sent, which no amount of chasing fixes.

1. Invoice the same day

Every day between completing work and issuing the invoice is a day added to your cash cycle for free. Weekly or monthly invoicing runs adds an average of half that period to every invoice.

Automating invoice generation from the job or project record removes the delay and the transcription errors that cause queries. If the work is captured digitally, the invoice can go out the same afternoon.

2. Send it to the right place, with what they need

• The accounts payable contact, not just the person who ordered
• The purchase order number, if their process requires one — missing PO numbers are a leading cause of unpaid invoices
• Their reference, in the format they expect
• Supporting documentation attached, so nobody has to ask
• A payment link, because friction at the payment step is real

Ask each significant customer once, in writing, what their invoice needs to contain and where it should go. That five-minute question removes a startling proportion of “we never received it” delays.

3. Chase automatically and early

A polite reminder three days before due date, on the due date, and then at increasing intervals. Most businesses start chasing at 14 days overdue, by which point the invoice has already missed a payment run.

Automated chasing also removes the emotional barrier. Nobody enjoys chasing a customer they like, so it gets deferred; a system does not have that problem and the tone stays consistent.

4. Escalate on rules, not on mood

1. Due date: automatic reminder
2. 7 days: reminder with a statement attached
3. 14 days: notification to the account manager to make contact
4. 30 days: formal notice, and a hold on further work if that is your policy
5. 45 days: escalation to whoever makes the decision about collections

Writing the ladder down and automating it removes the inconsistency where some customers are chased hard and others are not chased at all.

5. Make paying easy

Payment links, card and direct debit options, and the ability to pay part of an invoice. Every additional step between wanting to pay and paying costs days.

For recurring work, direct debit changes the economics entirely — the payment happens without anyone deciding to make it, which is the single most effective collection mechanism available.

Frequently asked questions