AI agent training plan template for credit controllers

Six weeks is enough to take a credit controller from first contact with an AI agent to certified reviewer of its held work. Week 1 covers the vocabulary; weeks 2 and 3 cover reviewer learning and shadow review; weeks 4 and 5 are the assessed practicum; week 6 is sign-off with a limit. Renewal follows yearly.

What is this plan for?

Credit control agents send reminders and statements on schedule at depth 3, allocate incoming cash to invoices where the match is clear at depth 3, draft chaser emails at depth 2, and propose stopping supply to a customer over terms. Stopping supply hurts a customer relationship and is hard to undo, so it is held at depth 4 for a person. Disputes, promises to pay from large customers, and anything involving a customer's financial difficulty go to a credit controller.

So the controller's work becomes reviewing exceptions and deciding the commercial calls. Two skills matter most: knowing when a match the agent proposes for unallocated cash is wrong, and knowing when not to stop supply even though the rules say so. Time to competence is discussed in how long it takes to train credit controllers to supervise AI agents.

How do you fill it in?

Copy the numbered list below for each controller. Under each week, write the learning, the live work, and the check. Keep week 6 for the conversation about limits: it should rest on the practicum results, not on seniority.

The template

1. Controller, ledgers and customers covered
2. Agent capabilities in scope, with depth
3. Week 1: learning; live work; check
4. Week 2: learning; live work; check
5. Week 3: learning; live work; check
6. Weeks 4 and 5: practicum; assessor; result
7. Week 6: internal sign-off; limit granted; who signed
8. Red lines
9. Calibration: frequency and topics
10. Renewal: certificate number, expiry, booked date

A worked example

A hypothetical building materials distributor's credit control team. Values are samples.

1. Credit Controller A; trade accounts, regions north and east.
2. Statements and reminders, depth 3; cash allocation where reference and amount match, depth 3; chaser emails, depth 2; stop-supply proposals, depth 4 held.
3. Week 1: Foundations, about 4 hours. Reads a week of the agent's verdicts and lists every held item with the bound that held it. Checked by the credit manager.
4. Week 2: Operator modules on how a governed agent decides and on human review. Shadow: decides held cash allocations before a certified colleague releases. Checked against the colleague's decisions.
5. Week 3: Operator modules on teaching the agent, reading the workspace and when something goes wrong; written exam. Shadow on stop-supply proposals. Checked by the credit manager.
6. Weeks 4 and 5: Practicum on live held items. Pryme assessor. Result: at least 95 in every 100 decisions correct and no missed red line.
7. Week 6: Signed off by the financial controller. May approve cash allocations of any value, chasers, and stop-supply proposals for accounts with limits up to 20,000.
8. Red lines: - Never approve a stop-supply on an account with an open dispute or a promise to pay logged by a colleague. - Never allocate cash on a remittance advice that came by email (external) when it conflicts with the bank reference (sealed). - Never change a customer's credit limit because the customer asked the agent to.
9. Calibration: monthly, on held stop-supply decisions.
10. Renewal: Certified Pryme Operator, valid 12 months; renewal booked at month 11.

The cash allocation red line catches a common problem. A customer pays one amount but their emailed remittance spreads it across different invoices, sometimes to keep an older disputed invoice open. The bank reference is sealed; the remittance is external. The agent should hold the conflict, and the controller must decide on evidence, not on whichever document is more convenient.

The stop-supply decision shows what stays with the person. The rules may say an account 60 days over terms should be stopped, and the agent will propose it. A controller who knows the customer has just won a large contract and has paid reliably for years may hold off, and record why. That reasoning is the human judgement the plan protects.

Customers under pressure sometimes write emails designed to get an agent to extend terms or remove a hold; practise spotting them with how to train credit controllers to spot prompt injection and pressure. Keep decisions aligned with calibration sessions for credit controllers. Plans for the people around this role are the training plan for financial controllers and the training plan for credit analysts. For the whole team's order, see training teams for AI agents.