AI-Powered Collections Outreach Automation

Segment every overdue customer by risk. Assign the right workflow automatically. Trigger reminders on the right channel — without your AR team manually chasing anyone.

Category: Accounts Receivable

Every day an overdue invoice sits uncollected, DSO creeps up and working capital tightens. Most AR teams know this — but they spend the first week of each month manually reviewing aging reports, deciding who to call, writing follow-up emails, and logging activity. The problem is not effort. It is that collections at scale cannot run on manual judgment applied invoice by invoice.

This OCTA Core workflow runs on a schedule you set — or triggers the moment your ERP pushes updated invoice data to OCTA in real time. It picks up every outstanding invoice, segments your customers by risk using your business rules or OCTA's AI, assigns each segment to the appropriate collections workflow, and fires reminders at the right moment through the right channel. New customer segments that do not match existing workflows are created automatically by the AI.

The result: every overdue customer is worked. No invoice falls through the cracks. DSO drops because outreach is consistent, timed correctly, and scaled without adding headcount.

How it works

Each node maps to a step in the OCTA Core automation canvas. Amber-accented steps are AI-powered.

  1. Scheduled Trigger or Real-Time ERP Push (TRIGGER): Runs on your chosen schedule (daily, twice daily, custom) or fires the moment your ERP pushes updated invoice or outstanding balance data to OCTA in real time. Both modes can run in parallel.
  2. Pick Up All Invoices and Customers (RECORDS): OCTA queries every open invoice across all customers — pulling balance, days overdue, invoice date, credit terms, and payment history. The result is a complete, live AR aging picture that drives every downstream step.
  3. Customer Segmentation (AI AGENT) — Powered by OCTA Intelligence: Customers are grouped by risk and payment behaviour. Define your own rules — by days overdue, invoice value, customer tier — or let OCTA's AI analyse your AR book and segment automatically. The AI identifies patterns rule-based aging reports miss: customers deteriorating early, seasonal payers, accounts showing dispute signals before they go overdue.
  4. Customer Workflow Assigned per Segment (AI AGENT) — Workflow builder: Each customer segment is matched to the appropriate collections workflow. For segments without an existing workflow, OCTA's AI drafts one — proposing the outreach cadence, tone, channel mix, and escalation logic based on the segment's behaviour profile. Your team reviews and approves before it goes live.
  5. Reminder Trigger Condition (CONDITION) — When reminders are triggered: Each workflow defines when outreach fires — 3 days pre-due, on due date, 7/14/30/60 days overdue, escalation to senior contact. The condition node evaluates each customer against their assigned workflow's timing rules and triggers only when the moment is right.
  6. Messaging and Channel Execution (COMMUNICATE): Once a reminder fires, OCTA executes on the configured channel — email, SMS, WhatsApp, or internal AR task. Message content is personalised with customer name, invoice number, amount, and due date. Delivery is logged. Non-response or failed delivery escalates automatically per workflow rules.

About the AI Segmentation

OCTA's AI does not apply a fixed scoring model. It analyses your actual AR book — payment timing patterns, invoice size behaviour, customer tenure, dispute history — and clusters customers based on observed behaviour, not assumptions. As your book evolves, the segmentation evolves with it. Teams running this for 90+ days report the AI surfaces early-risk segments their manual process was missing entirely.

What You Can Customize

  • Trigger frequency: Run on a fixed schedule or on real-time ERP push — or both simultaneously.
  • Segmentation mode: Use your own rules (aging bands, customer tier, invoice value) or delegate to OCTA's AI.
  • Workflow assignment: Map segments to existing collections workflows or enable AI Workflow Creation for new segments.
  • Reminder timing and cadence: Configure pre-due, on-due, and post-due milestones with custom day offsets per segment.
  • Channel and message: Choose email, SMS, WhatsApp, or internal task per workflow stage. Customise templates and sender identity.
  • Escalation rules: Define when non-response triggers escalation — to a senior contact, a different channel, or an AR manager task.

Prerequisites

  • ERP connected to OCTA Core with real-time or scheduled invoice sync configured.
  • Customer master data available in OCTA — including contact email, phone, and payment terms.
  • At least one collections workflow built in OCTA Core before activating (AI can create additional ones).
  • Outbound channels configured — email sender domain verified; SMS/WhatsApp credentials added if required.
  • Segmentation rules documented, or AI segmentation mode enabled in OCTA settings.

Setup Instructions

  1. Connect your ERP: Go to OCTA Core → Apps → Integrations and connect your accounting system or ERP. Enable real-time invoice push or set a sync schedule. OCTA will pull outstanding invoice data automatically.
  2. Choose your trigger mode: Open the Trigger node in the workflow builder. Select Scheduled (set your frequency), Real-Time ERP Push, or enable both.
  3. Configure segmentation: In the Customer Segmentation node, choose Manual Rules or AI Mode. For manual rules, define your aging bands and customer tiers. For AI Mode, select the data signals OCTA should use and set a minimum segment size.
  4. Assign workflows to segments: Map each segment to a collections workflow. For segments without a match, enable AI Workflow Creation — OCTA drafts and presents a proposed workflow for your approval before it goes live.
  5. Set reminder timing: In each collections workflow, define the reminder schedule: pre-due, on-due, and post-due milestones with day offsets. Set the escalation trigger condition.
  6. Configure messaging and channels: In the Communicate node, select the channel per workflow stage. Customise message templates — OCTA auto-populates customer name, invoice reference, amount, and due date. Send a test message before activating.
  7. Activate and monitor: Set the workflow to Active. Monitor run history in OCTA Core → Automations → History. Review AI-generated segments and new workflow proposals in the Collections dashboard. Track DSO movement in OCTA's AR analytics.

Use Case

Built for AR teams and CFOs at mid-market companies where collections is reactive — the team follows up when someone remembers to, or when a customer is already 60 days overdue and the relationship is already strained. This workflow makes collections proactive and systematic without increasing AR headcount.

Finance teams running this workflow report average DSO reductions of 8–12 days within the first quarter. The AI segmentation catches early-risk customers that rule-based aging reports miss — customers who are technically current but showing payment pattern deterioration. Catching them at 15 days rather than 60 changes the collection conversation entirely.

For a company with $10M in AR and a 45-day DSO, reducing to 33 days recovers roughly $3.3M in working capital. That is the conversation this workflow enables.

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