AI collections

What it is

The collections agent (sidebar › Revenue › Collections › AI agent) reviews your overdue receivables every day, drafts an email for each account with the real balance, days overdue, and payment link, and, from the days overdue you set, can propose an installment payment plan that only the customer can accept. It starts off: it doesn’t email anyone until you turn it on.

Requirements

Turn it on

Settings

On top of these settings, Cord applies a fixed cap you can’t raise: a customer gets at most 2 collection messages every 7 days, counting the agent’s emails and the ones you write yourself from the thread. See One-click opt-out and message cap.

How it decides whom to email

Every day, the agent takes receivables from the unified accounts receivable view, quotes and invoices, that are more days overdue than your grace days, from most to least overdue. From that list it skips:

Recurring retainers never enter: they charge themselves every month.

The email

• The agent writes it with the real balance, days overdue, and chosen tone, in the language of the document it collects (English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, or German): the one the invoice or quote took when issued or sent or, if it has none, the client record’s or your account’s. There’s no language to choose in the settings: under Tone, the note “Each email goes out in the client’s document language.” says so. See Document language.
• It always includes the payment link: the invoice’s or the quote’s. If you collect online, the button says “Pay [amount] online” with the amount due today (the overdue installment or milestone, if there’s a plan); otherwise “View quote and payment options”.
• It goes out in your business’s name, with its legal name, and replies go to your contact email.
• The footer includes your legal name, your tax ID, the notice “This message about an outstanding balance is sent to you by [your business].”, and the link Don’t contact me through this channel again. It closes with the line “Sent with Cord”.
• Below the text, a visible line says the message was drafted with artificial intelligence on your behalf and that the customer can reply to the email to talk to a person at your business. If you have no contact email, it asks them instead to use the contact details you already gave them, because their reply wouldn’t reach you. The email also carries a technical marker that identifies it as AI-drafted. What you write yourself from the thread doesn’t carry that line.
• The AI model doesn’t receive your customer’s name or email address.
• It never offers discounts on the principal.

Approval mode and automatic mode

In both modes, an installment plan only activates when your customer accepts it from the link in the email: neither approving the draft nor automatic mode activates it.

In the inbox you can:

• Approve and send. If the draft proposes installments, the email goes out with the proposal; the quote’s pending charges don’t change until your customer accepts the plan.
• Edit the text and Save changes.
• Regenerate, optionally with an instruction (“shorter and less formal”).
• Discard: the email doesn’t go out and its proposed plan is canceled. The agent may write again on the next run.
• Don’t email them: adds the account to Never email.

If you approve several emails without changing a word, Cord suggests switching to automatic. Your call.

Installment payment plans

When an overdue quote reaches the Propose a plan after days, the agent can propose 2 up to your maximum monthly installments (up to 6) that add up to exactly the balance, with no discounts. Cord validates the numbers and calculates the amounts; the agent can’t invent them. Plans are only proposed on quote balances, not on invoices.

The proposal arrives in the email with a link. There your customer sees each installment, its amount, and its date, and clicks Accept plan if it works for them. Only then is the plan created, and its installments replace the quote’s pending charges: neither you nor the agent can accept it for them. When they accept, Cord notifies you with a high-priority task and records it on the quote’s timeline. If they don’t accept within 14 days, the proposal expires. Full details in Installment payment plans.

Conversations, exclusions, and promises

• Conversations: one thread per account, with each message labeled Agent, Customer, or You. You can take over and write yourself from the thread.
• Never email: customers, quotes, or invoices the agent ignores entirely. They don’t get automatic reminders either: it’s the same list as the per-customer pause. Click Remove from list to bring them back.
• Payment promises: recorded from receivables. A promise doesn’t stop the agent; to pause an account while you wait for an agreed payment, add it to Never email.

One-click opt-out and message cap

• Don’t contact me through this channel again: every email sent from AI collections, by the agent or by you from the thread, carries this link. If your customer clicks it, they’re excluded from email collections right away: the agent stops writing to them and they don’t get automatic reminders either. Cord notifies you with a high-priority task. The opt-out goes on Never email and, since your customer asked for it, it can’t be removed from the list. Automatic reminders carry this link too.
• Fixed cap: a customer gets at most 2 collection messages every 7 days, counting the agent’s emails (in the run, when you approve them, or when it replies) and the ones you write yourself from the thread. It’s a Cord limit and can’t be raised from the settings. Automatic reminders don’t count toward this cap.

Run now

Run now runs the agent at that moment with the same logic as the daily run. Use it to test your settings; it still respects cadence, exclusions, and the message cap.

Indicators

The indicators and the page’s sections (Approval inbox, Conversations, Payment plans, Up next, and Never email) are widgets: with Customize you reorder, resize, or hide them with the same icon buttons (Library, Reset, and Done), the same floating library, and the same keyboard support as Home. From the library you can add Email delivery failures: collection emails that couldn’t be delivered in the last 30 days, next to those sent. The layout is personal and doesn’t change what the agent does.

Limits

• Pro, Scale, and Developer only.
• One daily run plus the ones you trigger with Run now.
• Plans on quotes only, 2 to 6 monthly installments, and only if the customer accepts them. A proposal expires after 14 days. Never on a quote with a milestone plan: there the agent only collects the payments that are due.
• At most 2 collection messages per customer every 7 days; the cap can’t be raised.
• Each email uses AI quota from the plan.
• The agent doesn’t send via WhatsApp or SMS.

Common problems

The agent doesn’t email an overdue account. Check its reason in Up next: grace, cadence, exclusion, minimum amount, plan on track, or run cap. It also doesn’t write if your customer clicked Don’t contact me through this channel again or already got 2 collection messages in the last 7 days.

A customer’s plan doesn’t show as active. A plan only activates when your customer clicks Accept plan from the link in the email. If they don’t within 14 days, the proposal expires.

I don’t see Configure. You need the Settings permission.

An email shows as “not sent”. The customer has no email or the send failed. Fix the record and try again from the inbox.

Emails fail because of AI quota. The period’s AI usage cap was reached and the agent couldn’t draft. Check your usage in Subscription.

Related

• Installment payment plans
• Receivables and operating collections
• Automatic payment reminders
• Credit terms