Every trades business is owed money it's too busy — or too awkward — to chase. The invoices aren't disputed; they're just late, and chasing them is an uncomfortable job that always loses to a paying one. Sample numbers, small plumbing-and-heating archetype.
The situation
Fourteen invoices past due, oldest at 74 days. The owner had chased twice by text, felt like a nag, and stopped. The awkwardness is the whole problem: a polite, consistent chase from the business's system carries none of it.
One customer was in an active dispute — exactly the kind of name that must never get an automated nudge.
The instruction, verbatim
“Chase everything past due except the Hendersons. Polite, weekly, and stop the moment anyone pays or replies.”
One sentence, typed by the owner, with the rules already standing:
The plan it came back with
Each reminder attached the original invoice and a payment link, dated by how overdue it was — friendly at 14 days, firmer at 60. The plan showed every draft before anything sent.
What actually happened
£8,410 in, no phone calls, no awkwardness — and the two customers who replied with a genuine problem got a human, because a reply stops the sequence dead and hands the thread to the owner.
What changed
The chase never stops being current now: an invoice that goes overdue joins the next weekly plan automatically, so the outstanding column stops compounding while nobody's looking.
Sector story: the workflow above is the real product loop; the figures are representative sample numbers, not a named client's results.
One instruction, a plan read before it ran, and a ledger that never rounds up. £8,410 collected without a phone call — and the same loop runs again next month without being asked twice.