Outsource accounts receivable, hire someone or automate it?

What does accounts receivable management involve?

Accounts receivable is everything between sending an invoice and the money arriving. Most of it is repetitive: keeping track of what's outstanding, sending reminders on time and matching payments. A smaller part calls for judgement.

• Tracking open items and matching them against payments.
• Sending reminders and final notices at the agreed moments.
• Handling replies: a promise to pay, a question about the invoice or a dispute.
• Agreeing payment plans and keeping an eye on them.
• Deciding which debt goes to a collection agency or a lawyer.

Two Dutch rules worth knowing. If no payment term was agreed, the term is 30 days. And if your customer is a consumer, you first send a free reminder before you charge collection costs.

Source: Ondernemersplein, ‘Betalingstermijn, incassokosten en wettelijke rente’ (checked 31 July 2025, consulted 27 October 2026)

Outsourcing, hiring or an AI employee: what's the difference?

When you outsource, another party does the work, such as a collection agency or an accounting firm. When you hire, someone joins your team, temporarily or permanently. An AI employee is software that does the repetitive work in your own accounting system and mailbox, within rules you set.

• Getting started

  Outsourcing

  The provider has to learn your customers and agreements

  Hiring someone

  Someone has to learn your systems, customers and habits

  AI employee

  Set up and tested on your own rules and systems, alongside your team at first

• Availability

  Outsourcing

  As agreed in the contract

  Hiring someone

  That person's working hours, holidays and sick days

  AI employee

  Keeps working outside office hours, within the limits you agree

• With more invoices

  Outsourcing

  Usually more cost per case or per hour

  Hiring someone

  At some point, an extra person

  AI employee

  Designed to do the same work more often; you test how much it handles up front

• Contact with your customer

  Outsourcing

  Goes through a third party, in their tone

  Hiring someone

  Goes through your own people

  AI employee

  Goes out in your name and tone, with a person for the conversations

• Visibility and control

  Outsourcing

  Through the provider's reports

  Hiring someone

  Direct: you see the work

  AI employee

  You set out up front what it may do; exceptions come to you

• What stays with a person

  Outsourcing

  You still decide which customer you hand over

  Hiring someone

  Everything, including the repetitive work

  AI employee

  Payment plans, disputes and the decision to go to collections

When is hiring someone the best choice?

• You have a small number of large customers and every payment runs through personal contact.
• Many invoices lead to discussion, for example about extra work or a handover. Then the work is in conversations, not reminders.
• Your administration isn't in order yet: payments aren't tracked or live in several places. You need someone to fix that first.
• You want the expertise in-house too, for example on credit control and assessing new customers.

Later on, an AI employee can take the repetitive work off that colleague's plate, leaving time for the conversations.

When is outsourcing accounts receivable the best choice?

• A debt has been reminded and chased and the customer doesn't respond. A collection agency or lawyer is then the logical next step.
• You send so few invoices that it isn't worth setting anything up or hiring anyone.
• Your bookkeeping is already with an accounting firm that also handles the follow-up, and that works.
• You deliberately want another party to chase payments, so your own relationship with the customer stays good.

When you outsource, check how contact with your customers is handled, and when you still have a say. A customer who has paid reliably for years is one you may prefer to call yourself.

What does an AI employee take over, and what not?

An AI employee for accounts receivable, which we call the Collections Assistant, pulls the open items from your accounting system, sends reminders in a tone that suits the customer and recognises what comes back. Anything that is a decision goes to someone in finance, with the reasoning attached.

So it doesn't replace your finance people; it takes repetitive work off them. And it doesn't fit everywhere: with a handful of large customers where contact is personal anyway, it adds little.

What does accounts receivable cost, outsourced or in-house?

What outsourcing or hiring costs depends on how many invoices you send, how often reminders are needed and how a provider charges: by the hour, per case or as a percentage of what's collected. We don't quote an average, because it says little about your situation.

What you can work out is what the current work costs you. That's the figure to set every other option against.

How do you start?

1. 1List how many invoices you send a month, how many are paid late and who chases them now.
2. 2Write down your rules: when the first reminder goes out, when the final notice, and who decides on a payment plan.
3. 3Choose per step: keep, hire, outsource or automate. It often ends up as a mix, such as automated reminders with collections outsourced.
4. 4Start small: one type of customer or one entity, alongside your team at first, and only then wider.

Frequently asked questions