Collections escalation ladder
Aging receivables climb a defined ladder: reminder at 15 days, call at 30, formal notice at 60, human at the end. Every step logged, every account treated the same.
Trigger
An invoice ages past each threshold you define.
Built from
Why teams set this up
Collections by mood means some accounts get chased weekly and others never. Inconsistency costs money and, with the wrong customer, goodwill.
Every account worked identically
Promises recorded and followed up
Staff touch only accounts that need judgment
How the automation runs
Forty-currency-units becomes the same ladder for every account: most clear at the 15-day text, the 30-day calls capture promise dates that get their own follow-ups, and the controller reviews a short list of genuine problems instead of an aging report.
- 1CRM update
Aging buckets tracked as fields on the account
- 2Outbound SMS
15 days: a reminder with the invoice attached
- 3Outbound call
30 days: a call that records a promised payment date
- 4Email
60 days: a formal notice on your letterhead
- 5Team notification
Beyond that, the account lands on a human list with full history
The same workflow in different businesses
Construction
Progress-billing receivables climb the same ladder on every project, with promises tracked.
Accounting firms
The firm that bills for discipline finally collects with some.
Built from standard Frontdesk blocks
No custom development. Each step is a building block you can rearrange, retime, or extend, so this workflow can grow into the next one.
Retention journeys that include this workflow
This workflow is one step inside larger retention journeys that run the full customer lifecycle.
Customer retention
Combine behavior, sentiment, service history, and conversation data into proactive retention workflows.
See the journey →Churn risk intervention
Route each at-risk customer into a playbook based on value, issue, urgency, and preferred channel.
See the journey →Renewal journey automation
Coordinate education, value review, objections, approvals, offers, and signatures before the deadline.
See the journey →Common questions
How does the collections escalation ladder workflow start?
An invoice ages past each threshold you define.
Which channels does this use?
This workflow runs over sms, outbound voice, email. Each step can use the channel that fits the customer and the urgency.
Can my team stay in control of when it fires?
Yes. The trigger can be a field a person flips on a ticket or contact, so a human makes the decision and Frontdesk does the follow-through. Any step can also route to a teammate with the transcript and collected data.
Does it keep our records up to date?
Every call, text, and email in the workflow is logged against the contact and ticket, with transcripts attached. Frontdesk can also sync contacts and fields to your CRM.
What happens when a customer needs a human?
The workflow hands off with context: the right teammate gets the full history, the transcript, and the collected answers, so the customer never repeats themselves.
Thinking bigger than one workflow?
The customer journey library maps full lifecycle automations across activation, onboarding, retention, and growth.
Explore customer journeys →More from billing and collections
Polite, persistent money conversations that run themselves until a human needs to decide.
Payment reminder outreach
Invoices coming due get a friendly text. Invoices past due get a call. Your team gets involved only when a conversation needs judgment.
Failed payment recovery
A failed card kicks off a recovery cadence measured in hours: a text with the update link, an email, then a call before the next billing cycle.
Invoice question hotline
Callers asking about a balance, a charge, or a due date get the real answer from your billing data, on the first call, with no hold music.