Outsourced accounts receivable management for small businesses.

What is outsourced accounts receivable management?

Outsourced accounts receivable (AR) management means handing the day-to-day work of getting invoices paid to a specialist team outside your company. That work includes checking that invoices reached the right person, following up before and after due dates, resolving billing disputes, matching payments to invoices and reporting on what is outstanding.

It is different from two things it is often confused with:

• A collection agency usually steps in after an account has gone into default, contacts the customer under the agency’s own name and is typically paid a percentage of what it recovers. We work earlier, in your name, on current and recently overdue invoices, and we are paid a flat fee.
• Bookkeeping records what happened. AR management makes things happen: it is the persistent, human follow-up that turns open invoices into cash, plus the reporting that shows you where cash is stuck.

For a small or mid-sized B2B company, outsourcing AR is a way to get a disciplined receivables process, the kind larger companies have in a dedicated credit and collections team, without hiring, training and managing someone full time.

What we take off your plate

Every engagement is scoped in writing, but most clients rely on us for the following:

• Pre-due-date confirmation. We confirm that large invoices were received, approved and scheduled, the single best way to prevent late payment.
• Invoice follow-up. A clear cadence of emails and calls after the due date, sent as your company, with every payment promise recorded and checked.
• Dispute resolution and billing inquiries. Missing purchase orders, pricing questions, short-payments, proof-of-delivery requests: we investigate, involve the right person on your side and get a corrected or confirmed invoice back into the payment cycle.
• Cash application. Matching incoming payments and remittances to the right invoices so your aging report is accurate.
• Customer account maintenance. Up-to-date AP contacts, portal registrations, statements and W-9 or vendor-form requests.
• AR reporting and cash-flow forecasting. A weekly aging report, DSO trend, promised payments and a rolling 13-week cash forecast.
• Credit policy setup. Payment terms, credit limits and an escalation path your sales and finance teams can apply consistently.

How an engagement works

1. Free AR review

We start with a conversation about your receivables: how much is open, how old it is, who your largest customers are and what tends to delay payment. You leave with a clear view of where cash is stuck and what we would do first.

2. Playbook and access

Together we write a short playbook: the tone of our messages, the follow-up cadence by customer type, which accounts are sensitive, what we may agree to (for example, a short payment plan) and what must come back to you. You then give us a user login to your accounting system with the permissions you choose.

3. Weekly rhythm

Each week we work the aging report from the most valuable and most overdue invoices down, follow up by email and phone, log every conversation and chase every promise. Disputes are routed to the right person in your team with everything they need to decide quickly.

4. Reporting and monthly review

You receive a weekly report and, each month, we review the trend with you: DSO, the share of receivables that is current, recurring dispute causes and process fixes, such as invoice formats, missing PO numbers or terms that do not match how a customer actually pays.

What you keep control of

Outsourcing the work does not mean outsourcing the decisions. You always decide:

• which customers we contact, and which ones stay with you;
• credit limits, payment terms, discounts and any write-off;
• whether and when an account goes to a collection agency or an attorney;
• the wording of templates and how we introduce ourselves.

Outsource, hire or automate?

Most small businesses weigh four options. Here is how they compare in practice:

For reference, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median wage of $24.36 per hour for bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks (BLS, May 2025), before payroll taxes, benefits, recruiting and the time it takes you to manage the role.

AR software and outsourcing are not mutually exclusive. Many clients keep the automatic reminders in QuickBooks or Xero for routine invoices and let us handle everything that needs a human: the calls, the disputes and the large or sensitive accounts.

Signs it is time to outsource your receivables

• More than a fifth of your receivables are over 30 days past due.
• Follow-up happens in bursts, when cash is tight, rather than every week.
• You, a founder or a project manager are personally chasing payments.
• You use a line of credit or credit cards to cover payroll while customers owe you money.
• Disputes sit unresolved because nobody owns them.
• Your AR person is leaving, on leave, or overwhelmed by volume.
• You cannot say, with confidence, how much cash will come in over the next four weeks.

The KPIs we track

You will see these numbers in every weekly report:

• DSO (days sales outstanding): accounts receivable ÷ credit sales for the period × number of days. It tells you how long, on average, it takes to turn a sale into cash. Try our DSO calculator.
• Percentage current: the share of receivables not yet past due.
• Aging buckets: current, 1–30, 31–60, 61–90 and 90+ days past due.
• Collection effectiveness index (CEI): how much of what was collectible in a period was actually collected.
• Promises kept: how many payment commitments arrived on time.
• Dispute cycle time: how long it takes to resolve a billing issue, and the most common root causes.

Scope and compliance

We are deliberate about what we do and do not do:

• We work only on business-to-business invoices. We do not handle consumer debts or medical billing.
• We act on your behalf and in your name, as an extension of your finance team, under a written service agreement.
• We do not buy debts, report to credit bureaus, threaten or take legal action. Formal collection or legal steps are your decision, with the professionals you choose.
• Requirements vary by state and province. We review jurisdiction-specific rules before taking on any activity that could require a license or registration.

Read more about how we protect your data.