How to set an approver rule for the collections team

Split collections approvals by harm, not by amount alone. Collectors approve agent drafts and standard arrangements outside the policy grid. A team leader approves forbearance that changes what the customer owes. Referral to an outside agency or legal action needs two people. Any sign of vulnerability moves the case to a named person, whoever would normally approve.

What does a collections approver rule decide, and who owns it?

Collections agents help customers in arrears with contact, payment plans and paperwork. The agent can do a lot of this well: it reads the account, drafts messages within contact rules, and sets up standard arrangements. What it should not do alone is decide something that changes a customer's debt or escalates against them. The approver rule names who releases those held actions. Our guide to AI agent skills by role explains what collectors need to know to approve them well.

The head of collections owns the rule. Conduct risk or compliance signs it off. The agent owner configures it. Our explainer on what an agent approver is sets out the approver's duty: to decide on the held action in front of them, with the sources the agent used.

What are the steps?

1. Head of collections: lists the agent's actions by depth. Depth 1: reads the balance, payment history and contact log. Depth 2: drafts letters, texts and emails to customers. Depth 3: sends scheduled reminders within contact rules and sets up arrangements inside the policy grid. Depth 4: freezes interest, waives fees, writes off a balance, or refers to an external agency or legal action.
2. Head of collections: assigns depth 2 and grid exceptions to collectors. Arrangements outside the grid, such as a lower payment for longer, are held for a collector.
3. Head of collections: assigns forbearance to team leaders. Any change to the amount owed is held for a team leader.
4. Head of collections: requires two approvers for referrals. Passing a debt to an agency or starting legal action is hard to undo and affects the customer's credit and wellbeing.
5. Head of collections: writes the vulnerability rule. If the agent sees signs of vulnerability, it stops automated contact and routes the case to a trained collector.
6. Head of collections: ties each role to a current certificate. Agent owner configures and files.

How should vulnerability change the rule?

Vulnerability overrides the normal routing. A customer who mentions a bereavement, a health condition or losing their job may need a different conversation, a pause or support elsewhere. The agent's job is to notice and stop, not to judge. It flags the case, pauses scheduled contact, and passes the case to a collector who is trained for it.

That collector may then approve an arrangement or forbearance the grid would not allow. The rule should let them, within a set limit, because this is where person-level judgement matters most. What the rule should not allow is the agent resuming automated contact before a person has reviewed the case.

A customer's statement about their circumstances is declared, not verified. The rule should say that declared information is enough to pause contact; it is not always enough on its own to write off a balance.

Which controls make the rule work, and what evidence do they leave?

Contact within rules. The agent's bounds include time-of-day and frequency limits. Evidence: refused verdicts where the agent declined to send outside them.

Forbearance held for team leaders. Evidence: a named team leader on every change to the balance.

Two approvers on referrals. Evidence: two named approvers on every referral in the verdict record.

Vulnerability routing. Evidence: flagged cases, the time from flag to review, and the reviewing collector's name.

Rights lapse with certificates. Evidence: approver certificate status on the date of each release.

What should you measure?

• Time from vulnerability flag to human contact. Short and consistent.
• Referrals with one approver. The target is none.
• Off-grid arrangements that break within three months, which tests whether collectors are approving plans customers can afford.
• Complaints about contact, traced to the agent's drafts or the rules.

The approver authority matrix for collections lays out each role and limit in one grid.

Where does it usually go wrong?

Collection targets press on approvals. Team leaders under pressure approve referrals to hit numbers. Keep the second approver outside the target line.

The grid is too narrow. If most arrangements are held, collectors start approving without reading. Revisit the grid through the head of collections, not by ignoring holds.

Vulnerability flags are cleared to restart contact. A collector clears a flag to get the case moving. The rule should require a note on why.

Support or IT rules are copied over. Compare the approver rule for the support team and the approver rule for the IT team; neither deals with customers in financial difficulty, and neither should set your bands.

Where the Academy fits

Pryme Intelligence Academy's Operator track trains the collectors and team leaders who review held actions, with module tests set in their own industry and role. A business can make forbearance and referral approvals depend on a current Certified Pryme Operator certificate, renewed each year with an update module and a short quiz.