AR Collections helps accounts receivable (AR) teams automate and standardize customer dunning while keeping full visibility and control over communication, balances, and customer context. It works with your ERP (for example, Workday) and a dedicated AR mailbox to send scheduled reminder emails, present consolidated statements, and track activity in one place.
This overview explains what AR Collections is, who uses it, and how it fits into your AR process. It reflects the behavior documented in your existing implementation (including Workday and SmartCustomer/AI Agent flows).
What is AR Collections?
AR Collections is a SmartCustomer module that:
Connects to your system of record (ERP) for customer, invoice, payment, and credit memo data.
Connects to a shared AR email mailbox, which is the sender and reply address for dunning emails.
Uses configurable Smart Flows to:
Decide when to send a dunning email.
Decide which invoices to reference (customer-level, invoice-level, and hierarchy rules).
Generate email content, including:
Customer-specific templates.
Tables of open invoices, credits, and payments.
Optional statement and invoice PDF/CSV attachments.
Maintains an AR Collections workspace for users to:
View customers, open balances, and aging.
See invoice details, payments, and credit memos.
Review notes and email history for each customer.
Monitor high-level metrics (open AR, amount collected, number of dunning emails sent).
AR Collections does not replace your ERP. The ERP remains the system of record for invoices, payments, credit memos, and customer master data. AR Collections consumes that data and automates dunning based on the configuration you define.
Who uses AR Collections?
AR Collections is designed for:
AR Collectors / AR Analysts
Review dunning emails sent to customers.
Monitor customer balances and aging.
Use customer and invoice views to resolve questions.
Add notes about out-of-band actions (for example, phone calls, offline agreements).
AR Managers / AR Leadership
Configure which customers are enrolled in dunning and how they are grouped.
Decide which classifications (for example, regular accounts, key accounts, troubled accounts) exist and what dunning cadences to use for each.
Review dashboard metrics:
Open AR per entity.
Amount collected in a period.
Count of dunning emails and related notes.
Super Admins
Maintain system settings:
ERP connection (for example, Workday).
AR mailbox connection.
Create and maintain Smart Flows for AR Collections:
Dunning preferences (customer-level vs invoice-level).
Hierarchy behavior (parent/child treatment).
Classification source (Auditoria vs ERP).
Dunning cadences and templates.
Depending on your internal controls, AR helpdesk–related roles may also work inside the same SmartCustomer tenant to manage AR inquiries, but AR Collections (dunning) configuration remains a super admin responsibility.
How AR Collections fits into your AR process
AR Collections sits between your ERP and your customers’ inboxes:
Data ingestion from ERP
AR Collections pulls:
Customers (including Dunning-related fields and optional classifications).
Invoices (open and, for a defined lookback period, recently closed).
Payments (applied and unapplied).
Credit memos / adjustments.
It also ingests customer hierarchy information (parent/child relationships), where supported.
Configuration of dunning logic
Super Admins define:
How dunning should run:
At the customer level (one Dunning contact per customer).
At the invoice level (Dunning contacts from invoice-level fields).
With or without hierarchy consolidation (for example, management groups).
How customers are classified (for example, regular vs key account).
For each classification:
Cadences (for example, 10, 27, 40, 56, 60 days after due date).
Whether to use due date, invoice date, or consolidated month-end scheduling.
Email templates, including tables and attachments.
Customer enrollment
AR teams:
Enroll or unenroll customers in AR Collections.
For hierarchical groups:
Enroll the parent.
Enroll all relevant child customers that should be included in dunning.
If classifications come from the ERP, enrollment can be driven automatically from a classification field, depending on configuration.
Automated dunning runs
On a scheduled basis (for example, early morning):
AR Collections evaluates each enrolled customer or invoice against the configured cadences.
If a cadence is met, the system:
Selects the invoice that will trigger the dunning event (based on the chosen customer-level option).
Builds the email body, including:
A primary invoice reference.
Tables of open invoices, unapplied credits, and payments where configured.
Attaches any configured PDFs or CSV statements.
Sends the email from the shared AR mailbox to the configured Dunning contact(s).
Review, monitoring, and follow-up
AR users can:
See which dunning emails were sent for a customer (notes and email history).
View:
Customer-level summary.
Open invoices and remaining balances.
Payments and credit memos.
Use dashboard and exports to:
Track open AR and collections trends.
Review volumes of dunning communications.
The ERP remains the source of truth for whether an invoice is open, partially paid, or closed. AR Collections reflects those changes after each sync.
What problems AR Collections addresses
AR Collections is intended to solve several recurring issues in manual dunning:
Inconsistent timing
Without automation, follow-up depends on individual collectors checking aging reports and inboxes.
AR Collections enforces consistent cadences by classification and hierarchy.
Scattered records
Emails, notes, and invoice context are often spread across:
Personal inboxes.
Spreadsheets.
ERP screens.
AR Collections centralizes:
Dunning logic.
Email templates and tables.
Customer-level notes and history.
Complex hierarchies
Management groups and parent/child relationships can be difficult to manage manually.
AR Collections supports:
Consolidated dunning to a parent with all child invoices.
Or independent dunning by child customer, depending on configuration.
Visibility for leadership
Leadership may lack a single view of:
How much open AR is under active dunning.
How many dunning emails have been sent.
How collections activity trends over time.
AR Collections provides dashboards and exports to support this monitoring.