Plan and review weekly customer collections

AR Cash Predictability helps your team build a weekly forecast of customer payments, review which invoices are included, and focus collection work on payments that may be at risk.

The playbook combines open invoice information with customer payment history and recent follow-up activity. Your team reviews the result as a draft, adjusts it when business knowledge is better than the system suggestion, and locks it when it is ready to use for cash planning.

Why use AR Cash Predictability?

An aged-receivables list shows what customers owe. AR Cash Predictability answers a different question: Which invoice payments are we planning to receive in each week?

It gives finance and collections teams a repeatable way to:

• Plan expected customer cash by week.
• Review the invoices and assumptions behind each weekly total.
• Identify expected collections that need follow-up.
• Use team knowledge to adjust an amount or move an invoice to another week.
• Compare the locked forecast with payment receipts recorded in Versa.
• Improve future forecasts using customer payment and prior forecast history.

Who can use it?

• Your company must have the Ops Agents feature enabled.
• Accounts Receivable Read Only or Accounts Receivable Full Access is required to view AR Cash Predictability.
• Accounts Receivable Full Access is required to create a forecast, edit a draft, record outcomes, or close a locked forecast.
• Ops Center Admin is required to add, configure, pause, or activate the Agent and to lock a forecast. Firm Admin access does not automatically include this permission.

Forecasts belong to the selected entity. Always confirm the entity shown at the top of the screen before reviewing or changing a forecast.

Set up the Agent

1. Select the entity where you want to use the playbook.
2. Open Ops Engine > Agents.
3. Find AR Cash Predictability. If it is not installed, select Start from template and add it.
4. Select Edit.
5. Under Forecast generation, turn on Auto-generate weekly AR cash forecast drafts.
6. Set the Forecast horizon from 1 to 12 weeks. The default is 8 weeks.
7. Save the Agent. Complete a whole-playbook dry run if the activation-readiness section requires one.
8. Activate the Agent or confirm that its status is Approved.

A dry run is a safe preview. It does not create a forecast, change an invoice, place an item in Ops Center, or send email.

Where to find forecasts

AR Cash Predictability Insight

1. Select the correct entity.
2. Open Ops Engine > Insights > AR Cash Predictability.
3. Select Open for the week you want to review.

The list shows the week, status, forecasted amount, actual amount, and predictability result. Up to 52 recent weekly forecasts are shown.

Ops Center

Open Ops Engine > Ops Center and select the Accounts Receivable area.

• A future or current draft can appear as an AR cash forecast review item so it is not forgotten before approval.
• After a forecast is locked, urgent invoice-level risks can appear as At-risk forecasted collection items.

Ops Center intentionally shows an action list, not every forecast line. Open the AR Cash Predictability Insight to review the complete forecast.

How weekly drafts are created

When automatic generation is enabled, Versa creates missing weekly drafts and refreshes existing drafts within the selected forecast horizon. Draft generation normally runs on a daily schedule.

You can also select New Forecast from the AR Cash Predictability page when you need to create a specific week immediately. Selecting Run agent evaluates the Agent's matching and follow-up behavior; it is not the same as creating a new forecast draft.

Versa does not simply place every open invoice into every week. It chooses one best qualifying week for an invoice using available information such as:

• The invoice due date.
• How early or late that customer has historically paid.
• A stable customer payment rhythm, when enough history exists.
• Recent collection follow-up.
• How overdue invoices for that customer have converted to cash in the past.

An invoice is not forecast before it is due solely because a customer normally makes batch payments. Older overdue invoices need a stronger timing signal before they are included. Very small statistical predictions may be omitted so the workbench stays focused.

When customer history is limited, Versa uses conservative standard overdue estimates as review context. A standard estimate is not a customer promise.

Understand the forecast columns

• Customer and Invoice identify the customer invoice. Select the invoice number to open it in a new window.
• Due is the invoice due date.
• Balance is the open invoice balance captured for the forecast line. It becomes part of the locked snapshot.
• Forecast amount is the amount included in the weekly forecast total. A system-selected line normally starts with the full qualifying open invoice balance.
• Expected is the date on which the payment is assigned to the forecast week. It may be based on the due date or supported customer payment history.
• Risk shows Green, Yellow, or Red and lists the reasons behind the status.
• Outcome / Notes records what happened after the forecast is locked.

For an overdue invoice, Versa may show a separate Customer overdue estimate, Standard overdue estimate, or Customer/standard overdue estimate under the forecast amount. This is statistical context for the reviewer. It does not mean the customer promised that amount.

Review and adjust a draft

A draft is the working version. While it remains in Draft status, an AR Full Access user can:

• Enter a forecast override amount.
• Change the expected collection date.
• Add notes.
• Remove an invoice from the week.
• Save review notes for the forecast as a whole.

Override a forecast amount

Enter the amount your team expects to collect and select Save. The manual override becomes the amount used in the weekly total. The system amount remains visible for comparison.

Automatic draft refreshes preserve the override. Select Use System Forecast to remove it and allow the system amount to apply again.

Move an invoice to another week

Change the expected collection date to a date outside the current week and select Save. Versa moves the line to the draft for the new week and creates that weekly draft when needed.

The move is preserved during later draft refreshes. A line cannot be moved into a locked or closed forecast, and locked lines cannot be moved.

Lock the forecast

Locking is the approval step. An Ops Center Admin should lock the forecast only after the team has reviewed the invoice list, amounts, dates, and overrides.

1. Open the draft forecast.
2. Review the weekly total and all invoice lines.
3. Select Lock Forecast.
4. Confirm the warning.

After locking, the invoice, forecast amount, and expected collection date cannot be changed. Automatic generation does not refresh locked or closed forecasts.

Locking also evaluates collection risk, makes urgent at-risk lines available to the Agent, and allows the locked amounts to be used by the Cashflow Projection.

Understand collection risk

• Green means the current rules have not identified an immediate risk.
• Yellow means the line needs attention, such as an overdue invoice or no recent follow-up.
• Red means a stronger issue exists, such as a passed expected collection date or a forecast amount greater than the invoice balance.

Ops Center surfaces the urgent subset: Red lines and high-value Yellow lines. A Yellow line below the current high-value threshold may remain visible only in the forecast workbench.

If the Agent uses an AI judgment step, the judgment can further decide whether a candidate should be shown for human review or ignored. A line that continues to review may display a Review label with the reason available as hover text.

Follow up and record outcomes

After a forecast is locked, select Edit on a line to record:

• The current outcome, such as On track, Follow-up sent, Promised, Disputed, Delayed, Partially collected, Collected, Missed, Removed from forecast, or Escalated.
• A customer promise date.
• The next follow-up date.
• Whether the invoice is disputed.
• A miss reason and team notes.

Recording Follow-up sent updates the latest follow-up date and rechecks the line's risk. Versa also recognizes sent AR payment reminders and qualifying invoice or customer Notes as follow-up activity. An unsent email draft does not count as completed follow-up.

For an at-risk line, select Email to open the normal invoice email composer. Review the recipient, subject, and message before sending. The AR Cash Predictability playbook does not automatically email customers.

Close the week and measure predictability

Close a forecast after the week has ended and the week's customer payments have been entered and applied to invoices in Versa.

1. Confirm that payment receipts for the forecast week have been recorded and applied to the correct invoices.
2. Open the locked forecast.
3. Select Close Forecast.
4. Confirm the action.

Versa uses the payment receipt's effective date to count collections within the forecast week. Only payments applied to invoices in the locked forecast are included. For each invoice, counted cash is limited to the forecast amount, so an overpayment does not give extra credit above the forecast.

Closing calculates:

• Actual — counted collections on forecasted invoices during the week.
• Variance — actual counted cash minus the locked forecast.
• Predictability — actual counted cash divided by the locked forecast.
• Outcome — Collected, Partially collected, or Missed based on the recorded payment.

The normal target is 95%. Green means the result met the forecast target, Yellow means it was at least 90% but below the target, and Red means it was below 90%.

Important: do not close the week while receipts are still being entered. Closing captures the actual result at that time and does not automatically reopen the forecast for late data entry.

How it affects Cashflow Projection

When a locked AR Cash Predictability forecast exists for a cashflow week, Versa uses its invoice-level forecast amounts as AR inflow for that week.

Those amounts replace the standard invoice-due and overdue AR estimates for the same week so cash is not counted twice. The Cashflow Projection displays a notice when AR Cash Predictability is being used and provides a link back to the forecast.

Draft forecasts are not used in Cashflow Projection. Locking is what makes the forecast an approved cash-planning input.

What the playbook does not change

• It does not post or apply customer payments.
• It does not change invoice balances, due dates, payment terms, or credit settings.
• It does not write off an invoice or resolve a dispute.
• It does not automatically send customer email.
• It does not replace the aged-receivables or normal collections workflow.

If you do not see a forecast or expected invoice

• Confirm the entity. Forecasts and Agent settings are entity-specific.
• Check access. Ask an administrator to confirm the Ops Agents feature and your AR permission.
• Check the Agent. In Ops Engine > Agents, confirm AR Cash Predictability is installed, Approved, and set to auto-generate drafts.
• Check the horizon. The week may fall outside the Agent's 1-to-12-week forecast horizon.
• Create the week manually. An AR Full Access user can select New Forecast when a draft is needed before the next scheduled generation.
• Review qualification. An invoice may be assigned to a different week based on its due date or supported customer history. It may also be omitted when it lacks a reliable timing signal or has only an immaterial predicted amount.
• Check the invoice. The invoice must have a positive open balance and belong to the selected entity.
• Check Ops Center and the Insight separately. Ops Center shows draft reviews and urgent risks; the Insight shows the full weekly forecast.

Tips for a dependable weekly process

• Review and lock the current week at the beginning of the week.
• Use overrides only when your team has specific information that the system does not have.
• Record promise dates, disputes, follow-up dates, and miss reasons consistently.
• Open the underlying invoice before contacting a customer to confirm the live balance and recent activity.
• Wait for payment-entry lag before closing the week.
• Review several closed weeks before judging forecast quality; customer payment patterns improve with more history.

Related topics

• Ops Agents: tailor operational follow-up for your entity
• Customize default Ops Agents
• Ops Center: work your daily priorities in one place
• Pulse: your AI-powered daily briefing