Late payments are rarely a small problem — especially in industries with complex billing, high invoice volumes, and decentralized payors.
For one large automotive services organization, delinquent accounts receivable had quietly become a major drag on cash flow, forecasting accuracy, and finance team productivity.
Despite having strong underlying revenue, too much capital was sitting idle — locked in overdue invoices that required constant manual follow-up.
That’s when they turned to Chargezoom.
Note: Chargezoom was enabled only for late and delinquent invoices, not for all billing. The results below reflect delinquency management alone.
The Challenge: Chronic Delinquency at Scale
Operating in the automotive sector, this organization manages thousands of invoices across a broad customer base. Over time, overdue balances accumulated and manual collections became the default solution.
Key challenges included:
- Long payment delays on overdue invoices
- Inconsistent follow-up across accounts
- Heavy reliance on staff time for collections
- Limited visibility into which outreach actually worked
The finance team needed a way to systematically accelerate late payments — without hiring more staff or damaging customer relationships.
The Solution: Automated Dunning with Chargezoom
Chargezoom was deployed specifically to handle late and delinquent invoices, automating:
- Timed dunning emails
- Payment reminders aligned to customer behavior
- Consistent follow-up across all overdue accounts
- Embedded payment options to reduce friction
The automation launched on October 14th and immediately replaced manual collection efforts with a predictable, data-driven workflow.
The Results (First 85 Days)
The impact was immediate — and measurable.
⏱ Faster Collections
- Late invoices paid in 21.5 days, down from 40.5 days
- 46.9% faster collection on overdue accounts
💵 Accelerated Cash Flow
- $2.7M collected in the first 85 days post-launch
- $11.6M in projected annual revenue collected 19 days earlier
- ~$604,000 in working capital freed up
(Average invoice value: $2,015)
Proof It Was the Dunning
The data made it clear that automation — not seasonality — drove the improvement.
- Monday payments doubled, increasing from 21% to 41%
- 51% of customers paid within one week of the first dunning email
- Median response time: 7 days
Consistent timing, clear messaging, and frictionless payment links changed customer behavior at scale.
Scale Without More Headcount
Over the quarter:
- 1,342 late invoices were processed through automation
- 111.8 hours of manual work eliminated
- Equivalent to 14 full business days of staff time freed up
Instead of chasing payments, the finance team refocused on higher-value work — forecasting, analysis, and strategic initiatives.
Why This Matters
These results came from delinquent invoices only.
If Chargezoom had been enabled across all invoices, the organization could have:
- Accelerated even more revenue
- Reduced DSO further
- Eliminated additional manual work
Even so, the impact on delinquency alone fundamentally changed their cash flow dynamics.
The Takeaway
Late payments don’t require more emails, more spreadsheets, or more staff.
They require better systems.
By automating delinquent AR with Chargezoom, this automotive services organization:
- Cut late payment time in half
- Unlocked hundreds of thousands in working capital
- Turned collections into a predictable, scalable process
That’s what autonomous AR looks like in practice.
