Invoice follow-up for accounting firms
The accounting firm’s paradox: it manages its clients’ cash flow but rarely chases its own fee notes, for lack of time and for fear of damaging the advisory relationship. The agent chases every invoice according to the engagement letter, with a tone calibrated for a relationship meant to last years.
In your day-to-day
- 01
Fee-note reminders following the schedule in the engagement letter, with the invoice and the breakdown of work attached.
- 02
Detection of clients who systematically pay after closing, flagged to the partner before the engagement renewal.
- 03
Automatic pause of the sequence when a client disputes the engagement scope, with the file handed to the partner.
A typical scenario
Picture a six-person firm with 320 client files, mostly billed by monthly direct debit with a balance due when the annual accounts are delivered. Every spring the receivables swell: balance invoices go out in May, and nobody has time to track them before September.
- 01
As each set of accounts is delivered, the agent adds the engagement balance to its schedule and watches for the payment — without waiting for the quarterly receivables review.
- 02
A rejected direct debit is re-presented after a message to the client, and only repeated rejections reach the partner, with the file’s payment history attached.
- 03
Before the summer, the partner receives the short list of clients past two due dates, each with a draft payment plan ready to discuss at the accounts meeting.
What changes
Receivables stop swelling after busy season, and the money conversation moves: it happens at the accounts meeting, prepared, rather than cold on the phone in October.
Order of magnitude
Working assumptions
- →320 files, a quarter of them with a balance due on delivery of the accounts — roughly 80 balance invoices in May-June
- →average balance of €3,000
- →observed payment slippage of about three weeks past the due date when nobody chases
In the region of €240,000 of balances collected some three weeks earlier across the billing peak — an estimate to calibrate on your actual ledger, but the order of magnitude holds for most firms this size.
Indicative estimate built on average sector assumptions — it gets recalibrated on your actual volumes during scoping.
What eats your days
- →
Client documents arrive loose by email, and staff spend their mornings filing instead of producing.
- →
The firm’s own fees are chased last — the cobbler’s children go barefoot on receivables too.
- →
A file falling behind only becomes visible close to the deadline, when it is too late to smooth the workload.
How it works
- 1
Plugged into your invoicing
The agent reads your existing tool — invoicing, accounting, ERP — with no migration and no double entry. It knows every invoice, its due date and its history.
- 2
Written reminders, not templates
Each reminder is written for that client: friendly for a good payer one week late, firm and documented by the third notice. You approve the policy once; the agent applies it.
- 3
Escalation and audit trail
Sensitive account, dispute, large amount: the agent hands over to a human with full context. Every action is logged, every euro recovered is attributed.
Typical results
-30%
average collection delay, typical order of magnitude
100%
of overdue invoices chased, no exceptions, no oversights
0 h
of human time on first-level reminders
Orders of magnitude observed in production; your diagnostic sets your own baseline and targets.
Frequently asked questions
Won’t chasing my clients damage the advisory relationship?+
The opposite is what damages it: a late, awkward reminder after six months of silence. The agent applies a gentle gradation from the first delay — a factual nudge, never a formal notice without your approval — and you validate the policy per client type before go-live.
Can it account for instalments and direct debits agreed in the engagement letter?+
Yes: the agent reads your invoicing and knows the agreed payment mode — monthly direct debit, instalments, balance on delivery of the accounts. It only chases what is actually due, and flags rejected direct debits separately.
Is this the problem eating your team’s time?
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