Loopfour
Finance playbooks

Follow up on overdue invoices

Set up a workflow that emails customers about overdue invoices, with firmer reminders as an invoice ages and a weekly aging summary for your controller.

The job

Each week AR pulls the aging report, picks the overdue invoices and writes to each customer. The tone gets firmer the longer an invoice is unpaid. It is easy to miss an invoice or send the wrong stage of reminder.

By hand

AR filters the aging report, copies reminder text into emails one customer at a time, and keeps track of who got which reminder.

With Loopfour

The workflow checks open invoices each morning, picks the reminder stage from how overdue each one is, and sends the email. Final notices can wait for an AR lead's approval.

Developer setup needed before you run this

The templates need changes before they can send accurate reminders or totals. Their Transform steps contain calculations that do not run. Ask your developer to replace them with Code, check the invoice data passed between steps, and test using your own email address.

How the workflow runs

  1. TriggerEach morning
    The template runs daily on a schedule.
  2. StepList open Stripe invoices
  3. DecisionHow overdue is it?
    Up to 3 days: friendly reminder. Up to 14 days: firm follow-up. Later: final notice.
  4. ApprovalAR lead approves final notices
    You add this step. A rejection stops the run before the notice is sent.
  5. OutputReminder email sent
    From the address you choose, with the invoice number and amount.

What you need

  • Templates: Dunning automation for the reminders, and Invoice aging analysis for a weekly summary. Both are in the AR area of Workflows > Templates.
  • Systems to connect: Stripe for the reminders. NetSuite and Slack for the weekly summary.
  • A from address: the email address reminders come from, such as your AR inbox.
  • Who approves: optional. For example, an AR lead for final notices.

Set it up

Open the template

Go to Workflows, open the Templates tab and choose AR. Select Dunning automation, check the steps under its details, then select Run workflow.

Give it your from address

Studio opens chat, checks your Stripe connection and asks for the From address. Chat then creates your workflow.

Work out days overdue and skip invoices not yet due

The template lists all open invoices. Ask your developer to calculate days overdue and choose the reminder stage in a Code step. It must use the customer's billing email from the invoice and skip invoices that are not yet due. Without this, customers can get the wrong reminder.

Add approval for final notices, if you want it

Ask chat to add an Approval step before final notices are sent, with your AR lead as approver. See Add an approval step.

Deploy, then test

Ask chat to send to your address instead of the customer. Select Deploy, then Run, and read each test email. Check the customer recipients before changing them back and deploying the change. See Deploy, test and change a workflow.

Add the weekly summary

Go back to Templates and set up Invoice aging analysis the same way. Ask your developer to replace its calculation step with Code and check the totals. The intended weekly summary groups open NetSuite invoices by days overdue (current, up to 30, up to 60, and over 60) and posts the totals to the Slack channel you give it. The message labels the last group "90d+", so ask chat to split it if you report 61 to 90 days separately.

Run works only when the workflow is Active. Deploying also switches on its trigger; choose a safe schedule or test source before deploying. Runs make real changes in connected systems.

What you review

  • Each run: under Runs, each run lists the invoices it looked at and the email sent for each, with its stage. See Read a run.
  • Approvals: final notices wait under Approvals if you added the step.
  • The weekly summary: compare the totals with your aging report in NetSuite on the first few weeks.
  • Who did what: the Audit trail tab under Runs records workflow changes and decisions made in Studio. Decisions from email or Slack are kept on the run.

Adapt it

  • Change the stages: ask chat to use your own day limits and wording for each reminder.
  • Leave out disputed invoices: skip invoices for customers you list in a table. See Tables.
  • Copy the account owner: use Gmail or Outlook, or ask your developer to configure a copy recipient. The CC box on Send Email currently fails the step.

Match payments to invoices

Set up cash application: match incoming payments to open invoices, post the matches to your ledger, and send unmatched payments to a person.

Approve vendor bills before they post

Build a workflow that reads each vendor bill from email, applies your approval limits, and creates the bill in QuickBooks only after it is approved.

On this page

The jobHow the workflow runsWhat you needSet it upOpen the templateGive it your from addressWork out days overdue and skip invoices not yet dueAdd approval for final notices, if you want itDeploy, then testAdd the weekly summaryWhat you reviewAdapt it