Credit controllers review a receivables agent against the ledger and against the customer. For each held or sampled decision, they read the record, find the deciding bound, reconcile figures to the sales ledger and bank, and approve, edit or decline with a reason. Weekly, they check what the agent did unattended.
What does the agent decide without a person?
Most receivables agents do three things at depth 3 once certified: send routine reminders on undisputed invoices, allocate cash where the remittance matches clearly, and update the dispute log from customer correspondence. Each is low-risk alone and consequential in bulk.
- A reminder sent on an invoice the customer has already paid irritates a good customer.
- A cash allocation made to the wrong invoice leaves a truly overdue invoice looking paid and a paid one looking overdue.
- A dispute logged as resolved when it was not leads to chasing an amount the customer will not pay.
Review of these allowed decisions matters as much as review of held ones.
What are the steps?
- Read the verdict and the deciding bound. A hold under the business's own limits points to a threshold; a source hold points to missing data, such as a bank feed that did not arrive.
- Reconcile to the ledger. The sales ledger is sealed. Confirm invoices, credit notes and allocations.
- Reconcile to the bank. Remittance advice is external; the bank statement confirms what actually arrived.
- Check disputes and delivery evidence. A signed proof of delivery from the transport system carries more weight than a customer email.
- Check the commercial context. Key account status, sales notes, payment history.
- Decide and record the reason.
- Flag patterns to the agent's owner.
What may the agent do, and what stays with the credit controller?
| Work | Agent | Credit controller |
|---|---|---|
| Send routine reminders on undisputed invoices | Depth 3 | Samples |
| Allocate cash with exact remittance match | Depth 3 | Samples |
| Allocate cash where remittance is unclear | Drafts, held | Decides |
| Log disputes from correspondence | Depth 2 or 3 | Samples |
| Stop an account or escalate | Drafts, held | Decides |
| Raise a credit limit or write off | Drafts, held | Decides within authority |
An example: allocations that looked right
Take a logistics company's credit control team. In the weekly sample of allocations the agent made at depth 3, a controller finds that for one large customer, payments were allocated to the oldest invoices, which is the default rule. But that customer's remittances always reference specific shipments, and the agent had matched on amount rather than reference whenever two invoices had the same value.
The ledger now showed some invoices paid that the customer considered unpaid, and the reverse. The controller edits the allocations, records the reason, and checks the past quarter for the same pattern. The agent's owner changes the rule so a reference mismatch holds the allocation rather than defaulting. The agent is re-certified on allocation before resuming. Market detail is in AI agent training for credit controllers in logistics in Spain and in Brazil.
Which controls make the review dependable?
- Allowed allocations and reminders are sampled weekly, with the method recorded.
- Bank confirmation, not remittance advice, clears a debt.
- Stops and escalations are always held.
- Reasons name the invoice, the evidence and the decision.
- A finance manager samples the controllers' own approvals.
Building the team's habits is covered in how to train the credit team to review AI agent decisions. Related roles review on similar lines; see how financial controllers review an AI agent's decisions and how credit analysts do. The role map is in AI agent skills by role.
Where the Academy fits
Pryme Intelligence Academy's Operator track covers how a governed agent decides, human review, reading the workspace and running the rhythm, which together describe this weekly routine. Module tests are set in the learner's own industry and role. A business can make approval of held stops and write-offs depend on a current Certified Pryme Operator certificate.
Questions people ask
How large should the allocation sample be?
Large enough to include the customers with the most complex remittances every week. Unusual payers deserve more attention than simple ones.
Should the agent ever contact a customer about a dispute?
It can draft a response at depth 2. Sending it should be held where the dispute involves a claim, a key account or a commercial concession.
Who owns errors the agent introduced into the ledger?
The credit control team corrects them; the agent's owner fixes the cause. The record shows which allocation was made by whom and why.