Start with a clearly defined invoice-follow-up process.

Describe the interruption before choosing the automation

Start with the part of follow-up that consumes attention: finding the right balance, preparing consistent wording, remembering the next date or getting a reply to its owner. Explain who currently checks the ledger and what happens after a customer raises a question. A narrow, well-defined job is easier to evaluate than a promise to automate every part of the finance function.

Agree the business, invoice types, currencies, languages and approximate workload to include. Identify excluded customers, sensitive relationships and invoices already handled elsewhere. Invoice creation, supplier payments, tax work, legal collection and payment processing are separate activities. Accounts Assistant may describe a future bundle, but the scope should still name the specific invoice-follow-up jobs involved.

Check sources and contacts before drafting messages

Identify which accounting system owns invoices, credits and allocated payments. Establish whether a proposed connection or agreed snapshot can provide the required fields, stable references and update times. Invoice access is not currently verified for this planned Procora service, so development and validation must be part of the discussion. A contact connection alone is not enough to determine a balance.

Check recipient authority, shared mailboxes, duplicate customer records and invoice-copy permissions. Define a secure route for any later access setup; do not put credentials or customer documents in the public enquiry. The business should approve the minimum required access and nominate the person responsible for correcting source or contact errors. Missing information should stop a dependent action, not be guessed.

Decide which system is responsible for each reminder

List reminders already sent by accounting software, a payment provider or your team. For a possible pilot, choose one approved owner of each sequence and record which existing reminders remain active. Do not allow a second process to contact the same customer independently. Turning off an existing sequence is the business’s decision and should happen only after the replacement’s limits and readiness are agreed.

Set the proposed wording, sender identity, reply route, time window and attempt limit. Define stop conditions for disputes, wrong contacts, payment claims, source failures and owner takeover. Email is not a commitment to SMS, WhatsApp or telephone automation; those channels need separate checks. No schedule on this website establishes a legal timetable or an optimum for every customer.

Give every exception a person who can decide

The business approves contacts, wording, access and commercial decisions. Its accounting or payment system remains responsible for the underlying invoice and payment record. Procora’s agreed role in a future pilot would be limited to the implemented assistance described in that pilot. The responsibility table should identify a named owner for questions, verification, rejected drafts and source failures, with a practical backup.

Draft-only work and approval-controlled sending are different proposed modes. Neither is available merely because an example shows it. Before any real sending could be authorised, the exact recipient, current invoice position, wording and intended time would need review. A changed balance or contact requires a fresh check. An unresolved dispute, stale source or removed permission should prevent dispatch even after an earlier approval.

Test difficult cases as well as the normal path

A future pilot should begin with sample records and no customer messaging. Test a part payment, a credit, a settled invoice, a disputed amount, an incorrect contact and an update failure. Check that totals reconcile and that repeated imports do not create duplicates. Review messages with the business owner, including translated wording and the route a real reply would take.

The public fictional example provides a useful check: £2,350 outstanding, including £1,550 overdue and £800 not yet due. EX-102’s £650 dispute is already included. EX-103’s £200 credit is not cash. Saying EX-101 is paid should leave its £900 balance awaiting verification. Only the simulated verified payment closes it. These checks demonstrate the intended handling; they do not prove a live backend exists.

Agree handover, support and cost before a pilot

Before any controlled activation, agree who reviews failures, how the workflow is paused and how open tasks are handed back. Record the pilot boundary, review dates and stopping criteria. Software setup assistance is distinct from a managed receivables service. Procora does not promise dedicated credit-control specialists, round-the-clock support, reconciliation staff or a service-level agreement for this planned section.

Pricing has not been published for invoice follow-up. A possible scope depends on source access, implementation work, invoice volume, languages, approval workload and the support agreed. Existing chatbot-plan prices do not price this service. Use the short enquiry to describe your accounting system and main difficulty. No bank credentials, customer-sensitive documents or marketing consent are required to discuss your needs.

Explore the example