Invoices — raised, chased, reconciled
The role that issues invoices the day a job is marked done, chases the ones that go quiet, matches the payments that arrive, and tells you what is still outstanding and for how long.
It never moves money. It reads the account and writes documents; the payment button stays yours, and no configuration changes that.
Monday to Friday,
in specifics rather than verbs.
Invented and generic on purpose — there are no clients yet, so nothing below describes a real business. What it does describe accurately is what the role would do and where it would stop.
Two jobs were marked done on Friday. Both invoices are raised with the right reference and payment terms and are in your drafts by the time you sit down.
The weekend's bank movements are read. Three payments match open invoices and are marked paid; one does not match anything and is listed for you.
An invoice reaches your first reminder threshold. The reminder is drafted in the tone you picked — firm or gentle, you chose which at setup.
One customer is on your never-chase list. Nothing is drafted, and it says so.
You get the outstanding list, oldest first, with how long each has been out and which have had a reminder.
A payment arrives for slightly the wrong amount. It is not silently matched — it is flagged with both numbers side by side.
What you actually do,
and how long each part takes.
"Easy onboarding" is not a claim anybody believes. This is the list, with a duration on every line, and the longest line is the fortnight where it does nothing.
Read-only access to the account the money arrives in. Read-only is not a courtesy, it is the only access the role is built to take.
Your payment terms, your reminder schedule and the tone you want them in.
Your never-chase list, if you have one. Most businesses do, informally.
Two weeks of watching: it matches and drafts, and shows you what it would have sent.
It drafts from then on. Whether reminders send themselves is a separate decision you make out loud.
Three ways this role fails,
and what happens then.
It will be wrong. The design assumption is not that it will not be — it is that when it is, the item stops, says so and waits, and that you find out from the system rather than from a customer.
It matches a payment to the wrong invoice.
Amounts that do not match exactly are never auto-matched — they are flagged with both numbers. The failure it is designed against is the silent wrong match, because that is the one nobody finds until the year end.
It chases somebody it should not have.
In the first month nothing sends without you, which is when that list gets built properly. Afterwards, one sentence moves anybody onto it permanently.
The bank feed breaks.
It stops and tells you rather than reporting an outstanding list built from stale data. A wrong debtors list is worse than no debtors list.
It never moves money. It reads the account and writes documents; the payment button stays yours.
What this role does not touch.
A role that claims to take everything is a role nobody with a real business believes. Naming what stays with you is what makes the rest of the page worth reading.
Three questions
this one gets and the others do not.
Does this replace my accountant?
No, and it is not trying to. It raises documents and reconciles what arrives. Your accountant does the part that requires being accountable, and they will generally like the fact that the paperwork now arrives on time and in order.
Which banks does it work with?
Anything that offers a read-only feed or a regular statement export, which covers the Swiss banks a small business actually uses. If yours does not, this role is not sellable to you and we will say so on the call.
Can it send the reminders itself?
Once you have decided it should, and that decision is deliberately separate from switching the role on. Most people leave the first reminder automatic and keep the second one manual, which is a sensible place to land.
Watches the inbox so you can stop refreshing it.
Turns an enquiry into a priced offer, ready to send.
Reads what arrives as a PDF and files it where it belongs.
Bookings, reminders, cancellations, and who did not turn up.
One message a week: what came in, what went out, what needs you.