In short
- The Payment Reminders and Invoices agent, now in preparation, will track your due dates, prepare reminders in the tone you have chosen and suggest matching each payment received to its invoice.
- A person in your team will keep control of issuing invoices, formal notices, credit notes, promises of extra time and any client in dispute.
- The result will be measured with one simple figure: the average payment time, before and after.
Take a typical scenario. An SME of 30 employees invoices its clients at 30 or 60 days. The person in charge of accounting chases when they find the time, with emails written one by one. Some invoices wait for weeks without anyone noticing. The business owner does not want a robot that harasses clients. They want every late payment to be seen and chased at the right time, in the right tone.
That is the job of the Payment Reminders and Invoices agent, one of the typical agents we are preparing. Here is what it will do, what it will not do, and how we will measure its effect.
What the law says about payment terms
The rules set the dates the agent will work to. Here they apply to invoices between businesses.
In France, Article L441-10 of the French Commercial Code provides for:
- without a specific agreement, a period of 30 days after receipt of the goods or performance of the service;
- an agreed period of 60 days at most from the invoice date. According to the official Entreprendre.Service-Public.fr page, the contract may also provide for 45 days end of month, if this period is stated in it and is not an abuse towards the supplier;
- late payment penalties due without any reminder being needed. Your terms of sale set the rate, at least three times the legal interest rate. Failing that, it is the European Central Bank refinancing rate plus 10 points;
- a fixed recovery-cost allowance of €40, set by Article D441-5. According to the official Entreprendre.Service-Public.fr page, it applies once to each invoice paid late. If your actual costs are higher, you can claim the difference on supporting documents.
The invoice must also state the payment date, the penalty rate and the amount of this allowance (Article L441-9). Some industries, such as transport, have their own terms.
In the European Union, Directive 2011/7/EU sets the common base. A directive is a European text that each country transposes into its own law. This one provides for:
- with no term set in the contract, late-payment interest due 30 calendar days after receipt of the invoice;
- a contractual term of 60 days at most, unless expressly agreed otherwise and not grossly unfair to the creditor, the one waiting for their money;
- interest at the European Central Bank reference rate plus at least 8 points;
- at least €40 for recovery costs.
Each country may go further in favour of the creditor.
In Spain, Ley 3/2004 sets, without agreement, 30 calendar days after receipt of the goods or provision of the services. It forbids agreeing more than 60 calendar days. It automatically adds a fixed sum of €40 for recovery costs, without the need to claim it.
In Belgium, the law of 2 August 2002 on late payment in commercial transactions was strengthened by a law of 14 August 2021, in force since 1 February 2022. Between businesses, it provides for:
- with no term set in the contract, 30 calendar days after receipt of the invoice;
- an agreed period of 60 calendar days at most. A longer clause is “réputée non écrite” (“deemed unwritten”), that is, without effect. The King may, however, by decree, authorise a longer period for certain industries;
- unless otherwise agreed, interest at the European Central Bank rate plus 8 points, due without formal notice;
- a fixed allowance of €40 for recovery costs, also due automatically.
For the agent, this will mean one thing: for each invoice, it will know the due date and the day when penalties and allowance become due. Whether to mention them in a reminder remains your commercial choice. This article does not replace the advice of a lawyer.
What the agent does
The agent will start work every working day, at each payment received and each quote accepted. It will read three sources, through their official interfaces (APIs) where they allow it:
- your invoicing software or your ERP (the management software that holds your invoices, due dates and clients);
- your bank, to see payments received;
- your mailbox, to read clients' replies.
Each access will be limited to what is strictly necessary, read-only where possible. The agent will run where you choose: your cloud account in a European region, your servers or a dedicated server with us. Only indicators and alerts will go up to our supervision tool. The AI model will be called, where possible, through your own cloud account; depending on the provider, it may be operated outside the EU, under GDPR safeguards.
From there, it will prepare:
- reminder drafts, by email, and by letter for the last level;
- matches: it will suggest linking each transfer received to the invoice it pays. A partial payment or one without a clear reference will be flagged, never guessed;
- invoice drafts for recurring invoices or those from an accepted quote;
- a risk list, every week: partial payments, disputes, clients to watch.
Every action will go into a log: what the agent read, what it proposed, who approved and when.
What stays with a person
Some decisions affect your client relationship or your rights. The agent can prepare them, but never makes them. A person in your team always approves:
- issuing an invoice;
- the formal notice, the formal letter in which you demand payment;
- cancellation or the credit note, the document that cancels all or part of an invoice;
- any promise of extra time: if a client asks for two more weeks, you are the one who answers.
And a client in dispute leaves the agent's circuit: the file goes back to your team.
In our method, autonomy is set by levels, action by action: from 0 (the agent proposes, you act) to 3 (it acts alone under supervision). At level 1, it prepares and you approve each action. At level 2, it acts alone on the cases covered by written rules and leaves the others to you. The client chased is told that the message comes from an AI system. The four decisions above never go beyond level 1. Another action moves up a level only if the measurements justify it and with your written agreement. After a serious alert, the agent will go back down a level.
Choosing the tone and timing of reminders
The tone is decided with you, when we write the agent's rulebook. You approve a message template for each step. It can vary by client: you do not chase a client of ten years the way you chase a new one.
Here is an example schedule, to adapt to your business:
- a few days before the due date, a friendly reminder with the invoice attached;
- shortly after the due date, a courteous reminder asking whether everything is in order;
- two weeks later, a firmer reminder, which may mention the penalties provided for in your terms of sale;
- then, a draft formal notice, which the agent prepares and which only you decide to send.
At the start, every reminder will go through approval: you will read it, correct it if needed, then approve it. We will support your team in getting started.
When the agent stops and hands over
An agent that guesses is a dangerous agent. This one will have stopping cases written in its rulebook. It will stop and hand over to you when:
- the client is in dispute, or in collective proceedings (safeguard, receivership or liquidation);
- the amount or the client falls outside the written rules, for example above a threshold you have set;
- the client replies by disputing the invoice;
- data is missing: no due date, contact not found, payment impossible to match.
If the agent itself runs into a problem, such as an error that keeps repeating, it will report it to our support, now in preparation. A ticket will open and we will be alerted. You will see it in your future client area.
Measuring the result: the average payment time
One figure sums up the agent's effect: the average payment time. For each invoice paid over a period, we count the days between its issue and its payment, then take the average.
- Before: we will calculate it on your invoice history, from the start.
- During the shadow trial, a trial period of a few weeks, of a length set with you: the agent will propose, your team will work as usual, and we will compare.
- After: we will recalculate it over a comparable period, allowing for the seasons of your business.
Other indicators will complete the picture: amount chased and collected, share of drafts accepted by your team, matching errors. They will go up to the supervision dashboard and the monthly report, now in preparation. We do not promise a figure in advance: we measure, then decide together what comes next.
Going further
- Our AI agents: the typical agents and their pages.
- The method: audit, shadow trial, autonomy levels.
- Supervision: dashboard, alerts, automatic reporting.
- Data and security: where your agents run.
- Request an audit: €490 excl. VAT; its price is deducted from the quote if you sign it within 30 days.