Invoice follow-up automation
Invoice follow-up automation
Invoice follow-up automation drafts the reminder for each overdue invoice, but checks the account first, so a customer who already paid, disputed a charge or promised a date doesn’t get the wrong message. Kestrel’s agent is designed to gather those facts from your accounting system and email, draft the right next step, and leave anything that needs judgment to a person.
Why invoice follow-up takes so long
Writing a payment reminder takes seconds. Deciding whether to send it takes longer. Someone checks the invoice in the accounting system, looks for a payment that came in, searches email for a dispute or a delivery problem, and remembers what the customer promised last time. Scheduled reminders in accounting software follow the due date and the balance, so someone still has to check each account first.
- Payments in transit, or applied to the wrong invoice
- Disputes and short shipments mentioned only in email
- Promises to pay by a certain date
- Key accounts that deserve a personal note
How Kestrel’s agent is designed to automate invoice follow-up
- Connect
You authorize the accounting system, the inbox where customers reply about invoices, and any notes your team keeps. Nothing else.
- Learn
It maps how your team decides what to send, when and to whom.
- Find
It sorts overdue invoices into the ones that need a standard reminder and the ones that need judgment.
- Automate
It drafts reminders and statements for the clear cases and routes the rest to a person. Nothing is sent until your team switches the automation on, and every message is logged.
What stays with a person
Anything that needs a relationship or a judgment call goes to your team, with the context attached:
- Disputed charges and short shipments
- Partial payments and payment plans
- Accounts your team flags as key relationships
- Anything outside the rules you set
An example with fictional data
- Overdue invoice in QuickBooks
- Agent checks payments and email
- Reminder drafted
- Disputes to a person
About 60 invoices are past due at month end. Today one person spends most of a day checking each account before writing reminders. With the automation on, 45 standard reminders are drafted and sent, 10 accounts with a payment in transit or a dispute in email go to that person with the context attached, and 5 key accounts are left to their account owners.
Illustrative numbers, not a customer result.
Where this work usually lives
Invoice follow-up usually moves through an accounting or ERP system such as QuickBooks, NetSuite or Xero, and email such as Outlook or Gmail. Those names are examples of tools companies use, not a list of integrations. The agent is in development.
In St. Louis
Kestrel is based in St. Louis, and early access is open to companies across Greater St. Louis, from Clayton and Earth City to the Metro East. We can meet your team in person to agree what the agent may access and which steps stay with people. More about Kestrel in St. Louis.
Questions
Common questions
Early access
Start with one workflow.
Tell us which software your team uses and where the repetitive work is. Our agent is in development, and the founders read every request.