--- title: "AR automation: collect faster and clear unapplied cash — Empty Spaces" description: "AI agents that match unapplied payments, investigate disputes and short payments, and give AR the account context to move every balance toward cash." url: https://emptyspaces.ai/solutions/accelerate-collections language: en --- Accounts receivable # Turn AR exceptions into action. Our AI agents find overdue balances, investigate disputes and unapplied payments, and give your AR team the context to move each account forward. [Book a working session](https://emptyspaces.ai/contact-us) [See Accounts Receivable](https://emptyspaces.ai/product/accounts-receivable) An illustration of a customer's receivables: $184,200.00 outstanding across five invoices, $42,800.00 overdue, two disputes, and an $18,400.00 payment the AR Agent has traced to the oldest overdue invoice through the customer's PO number. ## Collections stalls when the answer lives somewhere else. AR teams spend their time reconstructing an account's story before they can act on it. Each question means another system. Did they already pay? The bank feed Why was the invoice disputed? An email thread Who owns the customer relationship? The CRM Was the credit memo applied? The ERP Which invoice does this payment belong to? The remittance, if anyone kept it One account, seven places to look - ERP - CRM - Bank - Email - Contracts - Billing - Spreadsheets The call to the customer waits until someone has been to all of them. ## The whole account, before the first call. Our AR Agent watches receivables continuously, and when something needs attention it builds the account's full picture from every system before recommending what to do. 1. Monitor receivables 2. Detect the issue 3. Investigate the account's context 4. Match payments to invoices 5. Understand the dispute 6. Recommend the next action 7. Review, then send or update An illustration of the AR Agent assembling Calder Freight's account from Odoo, Plaid, Salesforce, Gmail and a contract, and recommending the next action. ## Investigation and resolution, not more reminder emails. Six kinds of AR work where the answer has to be found before anything can be sent. Open one to see what the agent does. - Unapplied cash — Match incoming payments to open invoices. What our agent does Reads the bank line, the remittance and the customer's own references — PO numbers, voucher numbers — to find the invoice a payment was meant for. $18,400.00 · ref CF-PO-5531 → INV-10377 · amount ✓ · customer ✓ · PO ✓ - Payment discrepancies — Investigate underpayments, overpayments and deductions. What our agent does Works out why a payment doesn't equal the invoice: a deduction, a credit taken early, a fee, a partial payment, and what evidence supports it. INV-10299 · paid $11,160.00 of $12,400.00 · 10% deducted · no credit agreed - Invoice disputes — Pull together invoices, emails, contracts and account history. What our agent does Assembles the invoice, the customer's objection, the contract terms and what was shipped, and says whether the customer has a point. INV-10391 · billed at 2025 rate · rate card 2026 signed 12 Jan · customer is right - Collections prioritisation — Surface the accounts that need attention, and explain why. What our agent does Ranks accounts by money at risk and by what has changed — slower payment, a new dispute, a missed promise — with the reason written next to each. Calder Freight · $42,800.00 overdue · paying 6 days slower than last quarter - Customer account investigation — Answer questions across billing, payments, credits and communications. What our agent does Answers the question someone just asked about an account — what they owe, what they've paid, what they were promised — from the systems that hold the answer. “What does Calder actually owe us?” → $165,800.00 once the $18,400.00 payment is applied - Credit and adjustment support — Prepare supported recommendations for credits or adjustments. What our agent does When a customer is owed something, drafts the credit note with the evidence behind it and routes it to the person who approves credits. CN-204 · $1,550.00 · short shipment on INV-10402 · proof of delivery attached Worked example ## The overdue invoice that was already paid. An invoice is 38 days late and heading for a reminder. Our AR Agent checks before anyone sends one. **25 March.** Halden Foods' invoice INV-10482 for $24,800.00 is 38 days overdue and next in the reminder queue. 1. Picks up INV-10482 as overdue and checks the account before any reminder goes out. Agent 2. Finds a $24,800.00 payment from Halden Foods received on 23 February. Agent 3. Sees why it was missed: the payment quoted HF-55127, Halden's voucher number, not the invoice number. Agent 4. Finds Halden's remittance email in the AR inbox: voucher HF-55127 pays INV-10482. Agent 5. Proposes matching the payment to the invoice and taking it out of the reminder queue. Agent 6. The AR lead reviews the evidence and approves the match. AR lead An illustration of the AR Agent proposing to match a $24,800.00 payment to an overdue invoice of the same amount: the amount and the customer agree, the reference differs, and the customer's remittance email links the two. ## Every account, understood before anyone picks up the phone. The agent keeps the whole account in view: what's owed and how old it is, how the customer pays, what they dispute, what they're owed, what was said, and what to do next. An illustration of Calder Freight's account: $184,200.00 outstanding with $42,800.00 more than 30 days old, an average of 38 days to pay on net 30 terms, two disputes, a proposed $1,550.00 credit, recent emails, and three recommended next steps. [ The product — Accounts Receivable — Invoices, payments and credits brought together, differences investigated, and the next step for each account prepared for your team to approve. Explore Accounts Receivable ](https://emptyspaces.ai/product/accounts-receivable) Other solutions [Reconcile accounts](https://emptyspaces.ai/solutions/account-reconciliation) [Resolve close exceptions](https://emptyspaces.ai/solutions/close-exceptions) [Prepare accruals](https://emptyspaces.ai/solutions/accruals-and-adjustments) [Manage prepaids](https://emptyspaces.ai/solutions/prepaid-amortization) [Explain performance](https://emptyspaces.ai/solutions/explain-performance) [Management reporting](https://emptyspaces.ai/solutions/management-reporting) [Keep forecasts current](https://emptyspaces.ai/solutions/forecast-updates) [Model business decisions](https://emptyspaces.ai/solutions/scenario-analysis) [Reduce AP exceptions](https://emptyspaces.ai/solutions/reduce-ap-exceptions) ## See how our AR Agent investigates your receivables. Bring an aging report and your oldest unapplied cash. We'll show you what the agent would find behind them. [Book a working session](https://emptyspaces.ai/contact-us)