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Run AR aging and chase collections

Age your receivables into 0–30 / 31–60 / 61–90 / 90+ buckets, rank who to chase by amount and overdue days, draft the right reminder for each bucket, and track DSO month over month — so cash you've already earned actually lands instead of aging quietly.

medium ~40 min
when to reach for this

You did the work and sent the invoice — and the cash still isn't in the bank. Receivables age quietly: a few invoices slip past due, then a few more, and three months later there's real money outstanding that's getting harder to collect the older it gets. Done by hand, chasing it means scrolling a spreadsheet wondering who to email. This is the collections loop you run every month: age every open invoice into buckets, rank who to chase by what's actually recoverable, draft the right-toned reminder for each, and track whether your collection is getting faster or slower — so earned revenue becomes cash instead of a number that ages off.

gather this first
  • Your open invoices — invoices-open.csv with invoice number, customer, amount, issue date, due date, and paid/unpaid status — ideally already reconciled via Reconcile two files, line by line so 'unpaid' is real, not a missed payment.
  • Today's date and your payment terms (net-30, net-60) so 'overdue' is computed against the right baseline.
  • Any context per customer — who's a strategic account to handle gently, who's chronically late, who's already promised a date — so the chase is informed, not robotic.
the workflow

  1. Age every open invoice into buckets

    Collections starts with knowing how old the money is — older receivables are harder to collect, so age drives priority. In Claude Desktop, open the folder with your open-invoices file and ask in the chat — no terminal needed. Have Claude bucket everything by days overdue first.

    you ask
    Read invoices-open.csv. Using today's date and net-30 terms, age every unpaid invoice into four buckets: current (not yet due), 0–30 days overdue, 31–60, 61–90, and 90+. For each bucket give me the count, the total amount, and the list of invoices with customer, amount, and exact days overdue. Don't draft any emails yet — I just want the aging picture.

    what you get back An aging report: "Current: 18 invoices / 48,000. 0–30 overdue: 6 / 12,400. 31–60: 3 / 9,200. 61–90: 1 / 6,000. 90+: 2 / 4,800 (Acme 47 days, Northwind 96 days)." The total outstanding and its age are now clear at a glance.

    Age is the single best predictor of whether you'll ever collect. A 90+ invoice is worth chasing differently — and more urgently — than one that's a week late, which is why bucketing comes before anything else.

  2. Rank who to chase by what's recoverable

    Don't chase alphabetically. Have Claude prioritize by a blend of amount and age — the biggest, oldest balances first — and fold in the context only you know about each account.

    you ask
    Now rank the overdue invoices by collection priority: weight by both amount and days overdue, so big-and-old comes first. Here's my context — Acme is a strategic account that always pays by day 60, Northwind has gone quiet and is the real risk, and Tool Co already promised payment this Friday. Re-rank with that in mind and tell me the top 5 to chase this week and why each.

    what you get back A prioritized worklist: "1. Northwind 6,000 / 96 days — gone quiet, escalate. 2. Bigco 9,200 / 45 days — large, no contact yet. 3. Acme 6,000 / 47 days — strategic, gentle nudge. Tool Co — skip, payment promised Friday, just confirm." Your week's chase, ordered by what'll actually move cash.

  3. Draft the right reminder for each bucket

    A week-late nudge and a 90-day escalation are different emails. Have Claude draft each in the right tone, personalized per invoice — and review every one before it goes, since these reach customers.

    you ask
    Draft reminder emails matched to each bucket's tone: a friendly nudge for 0–30 ("just a heads-up"), a firmer follow-up for 31–60, and a clear escalation for 90+ that references prior contact and asks for a payment date. Personalize each with the customer, invoice number, amount, and days overdue. Show them to me as drafts — I'll review and send each myself, nothing goes automatically.

    what you get back A set of ready-to-review drafts, one per priority invoice, each in the right register — warm for the recent ones, direct for the old ones — with the specifics filled in. You read, adjust the tone where you know the relationship, and send.

    These emails go to real customers and affect real relationships. Claude drafts the right starting tone per bucket; you make the final call on register — especially for strategic accounts where the relationship is worth more than the invoice.

  4. Track DSO and keep it re-runnable

    End with the one metric that tells you if collections is working — Days Sales Outstanding — and save the worklist so next month is a re-run, not a rebuild.

    you ask
    Calculate this month's DSO (days sales outstanding) and show the formula so I can verify it. Compare it to last month's if I give you the figure, and tell me in one line whether we're collecting faster or slower. Then save the aging report, the priority list, and the DSO as ar-aging-may.md so I can re-run this next month.

    what you get back A DSO with its math shown — "DSO 42 days (up from 38 last month — collection is slowing, driven by the two 90+ accounts)" — plus a saved ar-aging-may.md. You now have a trend, not just a snapshot, and a template for next month.

make it your own
  • Feeds the cash-flow model: the aging buckets and expected collection timing are a real input to Build a cash-flow model you understand — model inflows from what's actually collectible by bucket, not from invoices you've sent but may not collect.
  • Bilingual reminders: for customers who correspond in Arabic, have Claude draft the reminder in Arabic — written natively for the right level of formality, not translated from the English. A collection email that reads stiff or overly blunt in Arabic can cost you the relationship and the payment.
  • Bad-debt review: for anything 90+ and unresponsive, ask Claude to summarize the contact history and flag candidates for a write-off or a collections-agency conversation — a human decides, but the case is assembled for you.
  • Run it on a schedule (Power Track): once stable, a scheduled agent (see the Features tab) can produce the aging report and draft the bucket reminders when the invoice export lands — but every email is reviewed and sent by a human, never auto-sent.
watch out for
  • Never auto-send a collection email. These reach customers and shape relationships — Claude drafts the right tone per bucket, but a human reads, adjusts, and sends each one. An auto-sent dunning email to an account that already paid is how you lose a customer.
  • Reconcile before you chase. An invoice that looks unpaid may have a payment you didn't match — chasing a customer who already paid is worse than not chasing at all. Run the reconciliation first so 'overdue' is real.
  • Tone is relationship-specific. A strategic account and a chronic late-payer get different emails even at the same age. Claude sets the bucket's default tone; you override it where you know the relationship is worth more than the speed.
  • Customer names, balances, and payment history are sensitive financial data. Keep them in your approved workspace, swap any account detail for a [placeholder] if sharing, and never let an aging flag become an accusation before the facts are checked.

you'll end up with A monthly AR aging and collections loop — receivables bucketed by age, a chase list ranked by what's recoverable, right-toned reminders drafted per bucket, and a DSO trend you can watch — so earned revenue turns into cash instead of aging off the books.

Questions people ask

Why bucket receivables by age before anything else?
Because age is the single best predictor of whether you'll collect — money gets harder to recover the older it gets, so a 90+ invoice needs a different, more urgent approach than one a week late. Bucketing into 0–30 / 31–60 / 61–90 / 90+ first means your chase is driven by what's actually at risk, not by whoever's at the top of the spreadsheet.
Will Claude email my customers automatically?
No, and it shouldn't. Claude drafts the right-toned reminder for each bucket — friendly for recent, firm for old — personalized with the invoice details, but every email is reviewed and sent by a human. These reach real customers and shape real relationships; an auto-sent dunning notice to someone who already paid is exactly the mistake to design out.
What's DSO and why track it?
DSO — days sales outstanding — is roughly how many days it takes you to collect after invoicing. Tracking it month over month tells you whether collections is getting faster or slower in one number: rising DSO means cash is taking longer to land, usually because a few old accounts are dragging. It turns a pile of invoices into a trend you can act on.
Should I chase the oldest invoices or the biggest ones first?
Both — the priority ranking weights amount *and* age so big-and-old rises to the top, then folds in what you know about each account. A large 45-day balance with no contact may outrank a small 90-day one that's already promised to pay Friday. The point is to spend your collection effort where it'll actually move the most cash.