Automated billing and payment oversight

The problem

Billing relied on a lengthy, manual handover between the operations and finance teams. Once work was complete, operations had to notify finance that it could be billed. Finance then needed to review the engagement letter, check the work performed, create the invoice and send it back to operations for checking before issuing it to the client. Payments also had to be monitored, with further follow-up when invoices became overdue.

The business owner lacked clear visibility of outstanding invoices, payment due dates and when payments were expected. This made it difficult to anticipate cash flow issues and identify clients who needed attention.

The invoice was never the bottleneck. The handovers around it were.

What we did

1. Trigger on completed workThe workflow starts when the system identifies that a piece of work is complete. No one has to remember to tell finance.
2. Review the source documentsThe process reads the client's engagement letter, proposal and the completed work to determine what should be billed.
3. Generate the invoiceAn invoice is created in the billing system with the supporting information attached.
4. Operations checkThe draft invoice goes straight to the operations person for checking, keeping a human review while removing the manual preparation.
5. AI payments agentAn agent monitors invoices, due dates and potential late payers, and sends the owner a daily or weekly report of payment risks, invoices needing follow-up and accounts to watch.

How it addresses the problem

The automated workflow reduces the time between completing work and getting an invoice ready to send, while retaining an operations review to check accuracy. It removes repetitive invoice preparation and unnecessary handovers, freeing up the finance and operations teams.

The AI agent gives the business owner visibility of outstanding payments and emerging risks without having to chase updates or review individual invoices. Together, these changes streamline billing and payment oversight.

Outcome

• Invoices go out sooner after work is completed
• Payments come in faster and overdue accounts get earlier attention
• Improved cash flow visibility and reduced bad debt risk for the owner