Credit controllers need one page every 90 days that says what the agent now chases, allocates and stops. The agent is recertified on your own ledger each cycle, and its rights over reminders, cash matching and account holds can change. Brief the delta, practise on real-looking accounts and agree who covers if the agent falls back to depth 1.
What changes for credit controllers?
A receivables agent typically does four jobs. It reads the sales ledger, customer terms and contact history at depth 1. It drafts statements and personal chasing emails at depth 2. It sends scheduled reminders and allocates cash receipts to invoices at depth 3 within the business's own rules. And it proposes account stops and credit limit changes, which are held for a named person.
Recertification re-runs the agent's cases on recent ledger activity. Cash allocation is where change usually shows. If the agent misallocated part-payments or matched receipts on weak evidence during the replay, the agent's depth drops and unmatched cash lands back with controllers. A remittance advice emailed by a customer is external provenance; the bank statement line is sealed. The agent may use the remittance to suggest a match, but the receipt itself is what moves the ledger.
If a run clears no depth, the agent drops to depth 1 the same day. Reminders stop and cash sits unallocated. At quarter-end that affects the debtor figures the finance team reports. The general mechanism is in what recertification is.
Who owns the cycle?
The credit control manager owns controller readiness and cover. The builder owns recertification. The financial controller owns the business's own limits, such as which customers may be put on stop without a person. They should agree the change note together before the effective date.
Steps for each 90-day cycle
- Person (credit control manager): set the date clear of month-end and quarter-end.
- Agent, depth 1: report the cycle. Reminders sent, cash allocated and left unmatched, stops proposed, disputes flagged and refusals, with the deciding bound for each.
- Person (senior controller): check a sample of allocations against bank lines and invoices.
- Person (builder): recertify on recent activity, including allocations the sample questioned.
- Person (manager and builder): write the change note: reminder schedule changes, allocation rules, stop rules, any new dispute triggers.
- Agent, depth 2: draft practice accounts showing each change, checked by the senior controller.
- Person (manager): brief controllers; each works the practice accounts and explains their action.
- Person (senior controller): sample the first fortnight of allocations and stops.
| Step | The agent does | Depth | Stays with a person |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ledger review | Reads balances, terms, contact log | 1 | Judging relationships |
| Statements and personal emails | Drafts | 2 | Sending to key accounts |
| Scheduled reminders | Sends within the schedule | 3 | Pausing for disputes |
| Cash allocation | Allocates clear matches | 3 | Unclear and part-payments |
| Account stop | Proposes and holds | held | Approving |
| Credit limit change | Drafts and holds | held | Approving |
What should controllers retrain on?
Unmatched cash. If allocation depth changed, controllers get more unmatched receipts. Practise reading the agent's suggested match and the evidence behind it, and check the remittance against the bank line before accepting.
Disputes. A customer who disputes an invoice should not receive automated reminders on it. If the dispute triggers changed, controllers need to know which phrases now pause chasing, and check the pause took effect.
Stops. Putting a customer on stop is a commercial decision. Controllers clearing a held stop should read the deciding bound first: "held: key account" means a conversation with sales, not a click.
Refusals. If the agent refused to send a reminder because the account is in dispute, leave it. That refusal is the control working.
Controls and the evidence they leave
- Allocation sample each cycle. Evidence: the sample and any reallocations.
- Change note agreed with the financial controller. Evidence: dated, signed note.
- Controller briefing. Evidence: attendance and practice answers.
- Named approval on stops and limits. Evidence: each approval in the append-only record.
- Practicum for new approvers. Evidence: the practicum log template for credit controllers.
What to measure
Track unallocated cash at each week-end, the number of reminders sent on disputed invoices (should be zero), and the time held stops wait for a decision. Debtor days matter too, but they move slowly and reflect many things; use them as context, not as the signal that a cycle went well.
Where does it slip?
Controllers learn about an allocation change at month-end, when unallocated cash is suddenly high. The fix is a change note before the effective date, not a reconciliation after it.
Key-account rules live in someone's head. The agent can only respect the stop rules written into the business's own limits. If sales has an unwritten exception, the agent will propose stops that controllers then reject, and the record fills with noise.
A controller assumes the agent's allocation was right because it was automated. Responsibility for the ledger stays with the team, as are credit controllers accountable for an AI agent's mistakes explains. Finance leads face a related cycle; compare keeping financial controllers ready for recertification.
Where the Academy fits
Pryme Intelligence Academy's Operator track is for the people who run a live workspace every day. Its modules on human review, teaching the agent and keeping knowledge current match what a controller does each cycle. Lessons can be read or heard as audio, which suits a busy finance team, and the Certified Pryme Operator certificate is valid 12 months and checkable at source. More in the guide to AI literacy and certification for people who work with agents.
Questions people ask
Can the agent agree a payment arrangement with a business customer?
Only if the agent is certified to the depth it needs and within the business's own limits. Most finance teams keep arrangements with key accounts with a person.
What happens to scheduled reminders if the agent drops to depth 1?
They stop. Controllers send priority reminders manually from the existing templates until the next successful certification.
Should sales see the change note?
A short version, yes. Sales needs to know when stop rules change for the customers they manage.