AGENT-RUN BACK OFFICE — SETTLEMENT RECONCILIATION
Customers pay less than the invoice and nobody notices.
Somebody paid you less than the invoice and nobody noticed. It surfaces at year end, if it surfaces at all, by which point arguing costs more than the money and it gets written off as the price of doing business.
Free · 20 minutes · no commitment
WHO THIS IS FOR
Owners who discover at quarter end that a customer has been paying something other than the invoice.
THE PROBLEM
Businesses running manual or spreadsheet billing commonly find between three and eight per cent of jobs unbilled or under-billed. On a million dollars of revenue that is thirty to eighty thousand a year, and it never arrives as one obvious loss — it arrives as a hundred small ones nobody had time to chase.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE
Back office · Weekly report
EXAMPLE DOCUMENTSettlements, week ending Friday, October 2
QUICKBOOKS EXPORT AND REMITTANCE ADVICES, FRIDAY 5:00 PM · NO BANK ACCESS
Short this week
$2,118
All 41 payments matched to their invoices; 6 came in short. $186,420 received against $188,538 invoiced.
Each short payment, beside its invoice
Grocery chain · INV-20871 · late-delivery fine
The signed POD shows the trailer in at 6:52 am for a 7:00 appointment
−$450
Worth raisingRegional distributor · INV-20880 · promotional allowance
The promotion ended August 31; this invoice is dated September 14
−$1,050
Worth raisingGrocery chain · INV-20874 · shortage, 12 cases
The bill of lading is signed for all 240 cases, with no exceptions noted
−$384
Worth raisingFoodservice distributor · INV-20877 · price difference
Our invoice used the new price list a week before it took effect
−$96
Our errorGrocery chain · INV-20869 · damaged, 3 cases
No photo from the dock either way · under your $100 line
−$72
Not worth chasingIndependent grocer · INV-20883 · no code given
No remittance detail · under your $100 line
−$66
Not worth chasing
3 WORTH RAISING, $1,884 · 1 OUR OWN ERROR, $96 · 2 NOT WORTH CHASING, $138
Who settles in full · last 13 weeks
Grocery chain
- Invoices
- 118
- Paid in full
- 93
- Trimmed
- 25
- Short in total
- $7,412
Regional distributor
- Invoices
- 64
- Paid in full
- 61
- Trimmed
- 3
- Short in total
- $2,940
Foodservice distributor
- Invoices
- 52
- Paid in full
- 51
- Trimmed
- 1
- Short in total
- $96
Independent grocers, 9 stores
- Invoices
- 77
- Paid in full
- 75
- Trimmed
- 2
- Short in total
- $148
| Customer | Invoices | Paid in full | Trimmed | Short in total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grocery chain | 118 | 93 | 25 | $7,412 |
| Regional distributor | 64 | 61 | 3 | $2,940 |
| Foodservice distributor | 52 | 51 | 1 | $96 |
| Independent grocers, 9 stores | 77 | 75 | 2 | $148 |
Built from the records you export, with no access to your bank. Each gap comes to you with its evidence; whether to raise it, and the conversation, stay yours.
What you get.
- Every payment matched to the invoice it was meant to settle.
- Deductions and short payments flagged in the week they land, with the original invoice beside them.
- A per-customer view of who settles in full, who trims, and by how much.
- The disputes worth raising separated from the ones that would cost more to chase than they return.
How it works.
Priced against the scope, after a Diagnostic that is small on purpose. The shape of the work we can tell you now.
- THE SHAPE
- Ongoing, reported weekly. It tends to pay for the tier on its own in the first quarter or it does not, and you will see which.
- WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU
- Access to what you invoiced and what was received. Nothing about how you pay anybody.
- WHAT YOU KEEP
- The full ledger of billed against received, per job, exportable to your accountant.
What this does not include.
Published because you should know before the call, not after the invoice.
- Any access to your bank. We reconcile against records you export to us, not against your account.
- Chasing the money. We surface the gap and evidence it; the conversation stays yours.
QUESTIONS
Our bookkeeper already checks this.
Then you are ahead of most, and the answer may be that you do not need this piece. What a bookkeeper rarely has time for is the per-customer pattern across a year, which is where the commercial decision lives.
What if the gaps turn out to be our own invoicing errors?
That happens, and we report it the same way. Finding that you have been under-billing yourself is a better outcome than finding a customer short-paying you, because you can fix it on Monday without a phone call.
MORE UNDER AGENT-RUN BACK OFFICE
WHERE THIS APPLIES
The industries whose page names Agent-Run Back Office as one of the places we would start. Each one is written for that trade, with its own numbers.
Bring us one bad week.
Book a pilot call. Tell us where the week goes wrong, and we’ll tell you what an Operations Diagnostic would map and measure.
The first paid step has a clear scope and an end date, and the pilot after it is one workflow — not a platform, and not an open-ended retainer.
Free · 20 minutes · no commitment