Decide once what happens when an invoice hits 30, 60, and 90 days, then follow it. A written ladder with a defined step at each stage, an owner, and a clear point where you pause work or hand the debt on. Improvising this in the moment is how good businesses end up carrying bad debt for a year.
The Invoice Tracker is a live Taskade Genesis app you can branch through on this page. A ladder escalates from what this app already knows, which is how overdue each invoice is and what was last done about it, so start here rather than from an empty map. Explore it, then click "Use this app" to clone and own a copy in about ten seconds and map the decision paths described below onto it.
The build gives you a branching map rather than a flat list, because collections is a set of decisions, not a queue. Value branches one way, relationship value branches another, and a client who is genuinely struggling deserves a different path from one who is stalling. The agent builds the map from your inputs, drafts the message and the internal action at each node, and names the trigger that moves a case down the ladder. It also produces the part most teams never write down: the criteria for pausing work, and the criteria for writing something off rather than spending more chasing it.
Workspace DNA is what keeps the ladder consistent under pressure. Memory holds every case that has walked it before, what was tried, and what worked, so decisions improve rather than repeat. Intelligence, running on 15+ frontier models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and open-weight providers, weighs value, relationship, and history to recommend the branch. Execution advances cases on age, assigns owners, and waits for approval before anything consequential happens.
The AI agents in the app carry 34 built-in tools, and persistent memory plus web search are the useful pair: the agent recalls how this client behaved during their last late run, and can check publicly available signals when an account has gone quiet in a way that feels different from ordinary slowness.
The uncomfortable truth about collections is that most of the money is lost by hesitating. Businesses wait, hope, wait longer, and act at 120 days when the cost of acting has already exceeded the value of acting. A written ladder removes the hesitation by making the next step something that was decided calmly, in advance, by you rather than by the situation.
Use the view that makes the decision clear:
- Mind Map view for the branching ladder itself
- Board view to track live cases by rung
- Table view for amounts, ages, and next actions
- List view for the written policy your team follows
- Plus the rest of the 7 project views
Automations move cases along. A Taskade automation advances a case when it crosses an age threshold, assigns the right owner, and requires an explicit approval before anything serious happens. Across 100+ bidirectional integrations, Gmail and Slack carry the messages and internal notifications while Google Sheets keeps the register readable. See automation triggers.
Clone it, share it with everyone who touches client relationships, and the ladder becomes a policy rather than a mood. Consistency is most of what makes collections work.
An important boundary: this is a commercial process. Formal demand letters, statutory interest, debt collection agencies, and small claims all carry legal requirements that vary by jurisdiction. Have a lawyer review the wording and the process before the lower rungs are ever used.
See operational playbooks in the Community Gallery, start yours at Taskade Genesis, or read finance apps. It takes over from Write an Overdue Invoice Reminder Sequence, and it is prioritized by Build a Receivables Aging Dashboard.
Frequently Asked Questions
At what point should I pause work for a client?
Write the rule before you need it, for example when an invoice passes 45 days with no agreed plan. Deciding in the moment leads to either pausing too late or threatening something you will not follow through on, both of which cost more than the rule.
Should the ladder be the same for every client?
The stages can be, the pace should not. A ten-year client with one late invoice and a new client with three are different situations, and the branching map handles that explicitly rather than leaving it to whoever is having the conversation.
When is it worth using a collection agency?
When the value clearly exceeds the cost and time of the alternative, and after your own process has genuinely run. The app tracks age, value, and contact history so the decision uses facts. The legal and contractual side is a question for your lawyer.
How do I keep the relationship intact?
By being predictable. Clients respond far better to a process that was explained in advance than to a sudden change in tone. The ladder makes the next step something they already know is coming.
What should I write off?
Set a threshold where chasing costs more than recovering. The agent will calculate the effort against the value, and having that number written down makes the decision much easier than agonizing over each one.
Does it track what actually worked?
Yes. Outcomes at each rung are recorded, so you can see which step recovers the most and stop doing the ones that never move anything.
Can it stop a case going too far by accident?
Every serious step requires an explicit approval, so nothing automated ever sends a formal notice. Automation handles timing and preparation, humans handle consequence.
