Prepare payment reminders from verified invoice status
Turn overdue invoices into a reviewed follow-up queue. Draft reminders that reflect payment history and approved communication rules.
How this works
Turn overdue invoices into a reviewed follow-up queue. Draft reminders that reflect payment history and approved communication rules. Use this for recurring receivables follow-up when account status changes faster than a manually maintained email list. A reminder should be based on the current outstanding balance, not just the original invoice due date.
Calculate aging from verified dates and exclude paid, disputed or paused accounts before generating language. The model drafts the wording after deterministic eligibility checks. Keep one reminder record per invoice and policy stage so repeated runs do not accidentally pressure a customer twice.
Before you start
Current receivables
Use open invoices plus recent payments and credit notes with a common retrieval time.
Reminder rules
Confirm aging bands, tone, permitted recipients and suppression rules with finance.
Account context
Obtain dispute and payment-plan flags; unavailable status must remain visible.
Prepare the inputs
- as_of_date
- Required
ISO date and business timezone
Use one cutoff for the entire aging calculation.
- open_invoices
- Required
invoice ID, customer, due date, currency and balance
Distinguish original amount from outstanding balance.
- payment_and_dispute_events
- Required
dated transactions and account holds
Include events since the last receivables refresh.
- reminder_history
- Required
invoice, stage, sent time and outcome
Check both queued and sent reminders for duplication.
Implementation, step by step
Reconcile invoice status
- Compare outstanding balances with recent payments, credits and dispute notes.
- Hold records when these sources disagree rather than relying on the older invoice export.
Checkpoint: A current eligibility table has evidence timestamps.
Calculate aging
- Compute calendar or business days according to the agreed policy.
- Classify invoices into approved stages and retain the calculation date.
Checkpoint: Every eligible invoice has an auditable age and stage.
Apply exclusions
- Suppress paid balances, active disputes, agreed payment plans and recently contacted invoices.
- Keep the suppression reason so finance can distinguish paused follow-up from missing work.
Checkpoint: Eligible and suppressed counts reconcile to the input.
Draft the reminder
- Include invoice number, actual outstanding amount, due date and a clear next action.
- Use the approved tone for the stage and avoid invented penalties, promises or payment links.
Checkpoint: A concise draft is associated with each eligible invoice.
Prepare delivery review
- Confirm customer contact and attach only the relevant invoice if requested.
- Save drafts locally when email access is unavailable; log sending only after an authorized delivery receipt.
Checkpoint: The queue separates prepared, approved and sent records.
Decisions along the way
Payment arrived after extraction
Refresh the balance before sending and suppress if settled.
Customer disputes part of an invoice
Route to finance instead of sending the standard full-balance reminder.
Several invoices share a customer
Consolidate only when policy permits and itemize balances without double counting.
What you will produce
reminder-queue.csv
CSVAn auditable follow-up queue with suppressed items included.
Include: invoice_id · age_days · balance · stage · eligibility · reason
reminder-drafts.md
MarkdownCustomer-ready drafts awaiting the requested delivery step.
Include: invoice_id · recipient · subject · body · status
Check the result
- Recalculate aging around weekends, month ends and timezone cutoffs.
- Verify amount and currency against the latest receivables record.
- Confirm dispute and recent-contact exclusions were applied.
- Inspect recipient mapping and invoice attachments before authorized delivery.
When something goes wrong
Payment feed is delayed
Mark the queue stale and defer sending until finance reconciles it.
Contact address is missing
Keep a draft with no recipient and request account-owner confirmation.
Delivery response is unclear
Inspect message history before retrying; preserve the invoice-stage key.
A worked example
SYNTHETIC EXAMPLE · NOT A REPORTED BUSINESS RESULT
Request
Synthetic: prepare reminders as of 15 June.
Inputs
Invoice R4 was due 1 June for 900 USD. A 300 USD payment posted on 14 June. Invoice R5 is 20 days overdue but has an active dispute.
Expected result
Synthetic result: R4 is 14 days overdue with 600 USD outstanding and gets the approved second-stage draft. R5 is suppressed with reason active_dispute, not marked paid.
Run a small pilot
Start small
Use one finance owner's receivables queue for two scheduled runs.
Record the baseline
Record preparation time, stale balances and inappropriate reminders in the manual process.
Agree success criteria
Agree acceptable balance accuracy, suppression recall and duplicate-send rate before enabling delivery.
Stop or revise
Pause delivery if recent payments or dispute statuses are unavailable.
Keep the scope clear
- The workflow cannot impose collection charges or alter agreed payment terms.
- Drafting reminders does not authorize sending messages or escalating a customer's account.
Check before using
Finance confirms balances, recipients and appropriate follow-up before sending.
Business activities
- Manage finances and accounting
- Coordinate meetings and follow-ups
FROM A RECIPE TO YOUR WORKFLOW
Bring the company context together.
This workflow needs reliable inputs before it needs a better prompt. Moat8 Vault brings working information into a readable archive for the AI tools you use.
For this recipe: Open invoices · Recent payments and disputes · Reminder policy
Start with one recurring task, agree which sources to use, and review the first result with your team.
Discuss this workflow