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Solution · Finance & accountingThe reminder goes out a day after the due date, polite and as inevitable as a season
Invoices chased before they turn difficult
A robot reads the statement, ticks off paid invoices and watches the rest: a polite message a day after the due date, a repeat after a week, a place on a short call list after two. Nobody has to remember or feel awkward; the system simply does not forget.
Executive summary
Invoices go out on 14-day terms and the money arrives after 38: not because clients lack it, but because nobody reminds, and an unpaid invoice hurts nobody but you.
The robot matches statement payments to invoices daily and runs the sequence: a polite message a day past due, a repeat after a week, a call list after two; exceptions for chosen clients are written into the rules.
Average payment time falls by a couple of weeks, cash returns to your account, and money conversations become rare and calm, because arrears stop growing into conflicts.
the invoicing system (export or API); the bank statement; reminder sequences; the call list and report in Microsoft Teams
Business problem
A due date on the invoice that nobody watches
A small firm issues invoices on 14-day terms, and there the receivables process ends. What follows is physics: an invoice without a reminder is, in the client’s accounts department, a liability without priority, so it waits. Not out of bad will; people pay whoever asks, and your invoice stays silent.
On the firm’s side, watching receivables is work nobody likes and nobody has time for: compare the statement with the invoice list, establish what hangs, and then, the worst part, ask. The owner postpones those calls for weeks, because calling for your own money feels like begging, though it is exactly the opposite.
The delay has a price, paid quietly: a credit line financing other people’s lateness, interest nobody charges the clients but the bank charges you, and the tension on the account before every payroll. And the older an arrear, the harder the conversation and the greater the risk it ends not in a transfer but in a write-off.
The most unfair part is that the relationship suffers: an arrear both sides know about and neither mentions damages the cooperation more than a polite reminder ever could. Consistency is not pushiness; it is hygiene.
How it works today
Below is what the work looks like before anything is automated.
- PersonThe invoice goes out with a due date, and there the process ends
- Risk of errorWithout a reminder the invoice waits at the client without priority; whoever asks gets paid
- PersonComparing the statement with the invoices happens occasionally, by hand
- WaitingArrears grow for weeks before anyone notices
- PersonThe owner postpones calls for his own money, because they feel like begging
- Risk of errorOld arrears end in a hard conversation or a write-off
Why the current process costs more than it appears
The bill that never shows up in a budget.
- Every day of average delay is cash working in someone else’s account; at your turnover, count it in thousands.
- A credit line financing clients’ delays costs real interest every month.
- A fresh arrear is a formality; a three-month one is a conflict, a collection case or a loss.
- The awkwardness of asking is the owner’s personal cost that nobody books and everybody feels.
Cost of inaction
The first row is the cost of financing delays: the gap between the due date and actual payment times your firm’s cost of money. It is the most underestimated line in small firms, because it is paid in credit line interest and pre-payroll nerves rather than in one invoice.
The model assumes clients pay once reminded, because in the vast majority of cases that is exactly so: delay is usually lack of priority, not lack of money. The hard cases remain for humans and professionals.
A model organisation with realistic proportions – the numbers exist so you can run the same maths on your own data; they are not a client result.
A B2B services firm: around 90 invoices a month on 14-day terms, invoicing in a popular online system, Microsoft 365.
Real average payment time: 38 days; receivables watched by hand, in bursts; the calls postponed.
The credit line used mostly to cover other people’s delays; tension on the account before every payroll.
Two or three invoices a year end in dispute or write-off, always the ones nobody chased in time.
The robot reads the statement daily and ticks off the paid; a day past due a polite reminder goes out with the account number and the invoice attached, after seven days a repeat, after fourteen the item joins the call list with the client’s history; chosen clients have their own rules, and every message is in your tone.
In the modelled case average payment time falls from 38 to about 22 days, and the call list fits in a quarter of an hour a week. Model numbers, not the firm’s records.
Proposed solution
We start with the rules and the tone: when the first message goes out, how it sounds (we write it together, like a human), which clients have individual rules, and when a case moves to the phone. We also settle what the automation never does: it does not threaten, does not charge interest, does not escalate without a human decision.
The robot fetches the statement daily and matches payments to invoices from your invoicing system; unclear payments go on a short list for a click. An invoice unpaid a day past due gets a polite reminder with the attachment and the account number, because half of all delays are “I cannot find that invoice”. After a week a repeat goes out; after two, the item lands on the call list with full context: what, how much, since when, what payment history.
The owner sees the receivables state live in Teams: what hangs, what is overdue, what returns after reminders, and the weekly call list, which usually fits in fifteen minutes. Money conversations become rare, specific and calm, because no arrear has time to grow into a conflict.
UiPath Orchestrator: the daily schedule, the invoice queue, retries and an audit trail; UiPath Integration Service connectors for Microsoft Teams and Outlook 365
Payment matching with an uncertainty list, reminder sequences in your tone with attachments, individual rules, a call list with context and the receivables report
The invoicing system via export or API; the bank statement (export or API); messages by email, by SMS where that is what you agreed with the client
How the automated process works
- AutomationThe robot reads the statement daily and ticks off paid invoices
- PersonUnclear payments go on a short list for a click
- AutomationA day past due a polite reminder goes out with the invoice and account number
- AutomationA repeat after a week; after two, the item joins the call list with the client’s history
- SystemClients with individual rules are handled by their own rules
- PersonThe owner sees the receivables state and a fifteen-minute call list weekly
Human-in-the-loop model
Automation handles
- Daily payment matching and watching every due date
- Reminder sequences with attachments, in your tone, by the rules
- The call list with context and the receivables report
People decide
- The tone and the rules; the messages sound like you, because you write them with us
- The calls from the list and every conversation in hard cases
- Decisions on escalation, interest, collections and exceptions
Before and after
Systems and integrations
The stack is short on purpose: one engine, one execution layer, one place where a person decides.
Inputs
- invoices from the invoicing system (export or API)
- the bank statement
- sequence rules and client exceptions
- message templates in your tone
Automation layer
- UiPath Orchestrator
- UiPath Robots
- UiPath Integration Service
- UiPath Action Center
Target systems
- ticked-off payments and each invoice’s state
- sent reminders with history
- the call list and receivables report in Microsoft Teams
Human touchpoints: the unclear payments list; the weekly call list; the receivables report; a tone review quarterly
Technologies used
the daily schedule, the invoice queue, retries, a record of every message
Areminders with attachments, lists, reports
Athe receivables register with statuses and sequence history
Athe source of invoices and due dates; popular systems have APIs
Bthe source of payments; a daily export works everywhere
BIllustrative economic model
Numbers you can check against your own data.
The model counts the cost of money and the time; it does not count the calm before payrolls, or the relationships saved because an arrear never grew into a conflict. Turnover and rates belong to the scenario; your own numbers go into the calculator alongside.
Run the maths on your data
An illustrative estimate based on your inputs. It models freed capacity, not promised savings.
Business benefits
- Cash returns to the account a couple of weeks earlier and works for you
- Nobody has to remember arrears or feel awkward; the system does not forget
- Money calls shrink to fifteen minutes a week with ready context
- Arrears stop growing into disputes and write-offs
- Clients learn that your invoices get paid on time, because the reminder is as certain as a season
The management view
- Receivables become a process, not a collection of guilty feelings
- Every invoice’s history is complete: due date, reminders, payment, conversations
- Clients’ payment discipline improves for good, because consistency educates
Board-level KPIs
average payment time · receivables overdue · payments matched automatically · arrears resolved after the first message · invoices escalated to dispute
Security and governance
The automation has exactly the permissions it needs. Not one more.
- The robot works on invoice data: counterparty, amounts, dates, payments; nothing beyond
- Every message has a record: what, when, to whom, from which rule
- You approve the tone; the automation does not threaten, charge or escalate without a human decision
- Individual client rules are honoured without exception
- Data stays in your Microsoft 365 tenant; the robots run in the EU region of UiPath Automation Cloud
Why now
Money is expensive; financing other people’s delays from a credit line has never hurt more.
Large payers stretch terms for everyone; a small firm without a receivables process stands last in the queue for its own money.
Polite automatic reminders have become the standard; clients expect them and take no offence.
Relevant executive roles
Sleeps better before payroll and stops calling for his own money feeling like a beggar
Gets reconciled payments instead of “did that invoice come in?” questions
Gets the reminder before the arrear turns awkward, with the invoice at hand
Common questions and objections
What offends is the conversation about a three-month arrear, not a message a day past due. A polite, systematic reminder reads as good order in the firm, and clients with special arrangements have their own rules, written and honoured. In practice it is the regulars who return to paying on time fastest.
Check whether it is on and how it sounds: factory dunning tends to be cold, does not see statement payments in real time, and does not end in a call list with context. The automation ties invoicing to the bank and to your tone; if the system’s dunning is enough for you, all the better, the rest of the process remains.
Partial and cash payments are matched the same way: the robot sees the invoice balance, not just a status. A reminder about a €200 shortfall sounds different from one about the whole invoice, and it is written that way.
When this is not the right solution
- A dozen invoices a month for three regular clients: a calendar and one call suffice
- Sales purely on prepayment or cash on delivery: the problem does not exist
- Expecting hard debt collection: the automation reminds politely; disputes go to humans and professionals
A question for the next management meeting
How much of our money stands overdue in other people’s accounts right now, and who is asking for it?
Implementation approach
Scope without ambiguity, before anything is signed.
We deliver
- Daily matching of statement payments to invoices
- Reminder sequences in your tone with attachments and individual rules
- A weekly call list with full context
- A live receivables report in Microsoft Teams
- Two weeks of parallel running and tone tuning
We need from you
- Access to the invoicing system (export or API) and statements (export or API)
- An hour to write the messages together and settle the rules
- The list of clients with individual rules, if any
Stages
Discovery
The real payment time, the scale of arrears, current practice
Rules
The message tone, the sequence rhythm, exceptions, the call threshold
Build
Payment matching, sequences, lists, the report
Parallel run
Two weeks on live invoices; tone tuning
Go-live
Full traffic; payment time measured after the first month
A quick win. Effort depends on the invoicing system’s and bank’s interfaces; popular systems have APIs, a daily export works everywhere.
Before payroll it is the credit line again. Overdue, in other people’s accounts, stands a sum that would settle the matter twice over.
Send us last quarter’s invoice list with payment dates. We return the arithmetic: your real payment time, what it costs you a year, and how much a systematic sequence would shorten it.
Check how much money stands overdueThe neighbouring process usually has the same problem
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