This page works through a scenario. It describes no client and reports no client results. It shows how MatruOS runs collections for a business of this type and size. The figures are arithmetic you can check, with the assumptions stated.
01The business
A ceramic and vitrified tile manufacturer in Morbi sells through about 400 dealers across several states, on credit terms of 30 to 60 days. It has one plant, a sales team that visits dealers, and an accounts team of four. Credit sales, including GST, are about ₹120 crore a year, and money owed by dealers stands at about ₹30 crore on an average day.
02What the money owed costs
Money owed in the ledger includes GST, so the sales figure must include GST as well.
Days sales outstanding
Money owed ÷ credit sales including GST × 365 = 30 ÷ 120 × 365, or about 91 days. If the ₹120 crore were before 18 percent GST, the same balance would mean 30 ÷ 141.6 × 365, or about 77 days. Use one basis for both figures.
What a day is worth
One day of credit sales is ₹120 crore ÷ 365, or about ₹33 lakh. If dealers paid 10 days sooner on average, the business would carry about ₹3.3 crore less in receivables.
What that is worth in interest
If that ₹3.3 crore reduced a working capital limit drawn at an assumed 10 percent a year, interest would fall by about ₹33 lakh a year.
The 10 days and the 10 percent are assumptions chosen to show the arithmetic. They are not industry averages and not a forecast of what any business will achieve. Use your own figures and your own bank's rate.
03How collections usually run
- A spreadsheet list
- Accounts exports a dealer-wise outstanding list once a week and shares it with sales.
- Calls for large amounts only
- Sales managers call dealers with large overdue amounts between visits. Smaller balances wait.
- Orders past the limit
- Salespeople book orders without seeing the dealer's ledger, and goods go to dealers already over their limit.
- Cash discount for early payment
- Many tile makers offer dealers a cash discount for paying early, given later as a credit.
- Claims held against the whole balance
- A dealer claims breakage in one consignment, or a scheme or rate-difference credit not yet given, and holds back the whole payment. Unsettled scheme and rate-difference credits are a common reason for a disputed dealer balance.
- Payments that cannot be placed
- Dealers pay round amounts by NEFT, RTGS or cheque with no invoice reference. Until someone places them, the dealer still appears overdue.
04How MatruOS runs it
Credit checked when the order is booked
Each dealer carries a credit limit and payment terms. The sales settings decide what happens when an order would take a dealer past the limit: allow it, warn the person booking it, or block it. A dealer can be put on hold. The dealer's page shows the credit left, so sales and accounts see the same figure.
Automatic reminders
Once the business connects its SMS sender or email, MatruOS sends a reminder 2 days before an invoice is due and again 2 and 10 days after, using wording the business approves (WhatsApp sending is being connected; once it is live, WhatsApp reminders use an approved message template). The business can change the timing or switch any reminder off. Each message carries a link where the dealer sees the invoice with the business's bank details, or pays by UPI.
Reminders ready to send by hand
The Payment reminders screen lists overdue invoices, one message per invoice, each matched to how late the invoice is. A person can send any of them from their own WhatsApp or email, for example before a sales visit.
Round-amount payments settled oldest first
The accounts team uploads the bank statement. Lines that match payments already recorded are reconciled automatically. For an unreferenced round amount, a person picks the dealer, and MatruOS settles the dealer's invoices oldest due first. If the amount is more than the dealer owes, MatruOS stops and asks for the extra to be recorded as an advance.
Claims settled by credit note
A breakage claim is settled with a credit note against the invoice for the boxes broken. MatruOS brings those boxes back into stock, so a person writes the broken ones off as wastage. The rest of the invoice stays due, and the reminders continue on it.
Money collected after a reminder, counted
The Home screen shows the money paid this month on invoices where an automatic reminder went out before the payment. Messages sent by hand from a person's own phone are not part of this figure, and it does not claim that the reminder caused the payment.
05Who does what each day
| Who | What they do |
|---|---|
| Sales team | Book orders and see the credit check at once; send a hand reminder before a visit where useful |
| Accounts team | Upload the bank statement, place round-amount payments, raise credit notes for claims |
| Finance head | Reviews money over 90 days and dealers on hold each week |
| Collections officer, AI team | Tracks money owed, flags dealers whose payments are slipping, and records payments people report |
| Finance controller, AI team | Explains cash, receivables and their trend in plain words when asked |
06One order, start to finish (sample data)
- A salesperson books an order for ₹4,80,000 from a dealer in Jaipur with a limit of ₹15,00,000 and ₹11,20,000 owed. The order would take the dealer to ₹16,00,000. The business has chosen "warn", so the salesperson sees the warning and calls accounts before confirming.
- Accounts records ₹3,00,000 received that morning against the dealer's older invoices, and the order goes ahead within the limit.
- The invoice is raised on dispatch with 45-day terms. Two days before the due date the dealer receives the automatic reminder with the invoice link.
- The dealer reports 40 boxes broken in transit. Accounts raises a credit note for those boxes against the invoice.
- The dealer pays ₹4,00,000 by NEFT with no reference. Accounts picks the dealer, and MatruOS settles the oldest invoices first. ₹4,20,000 of the older balance and the new invoice stay due, and reminders continue on them.
The dealer, amounts and dates are sample data.
07Set up in 7 days
- Dealers and balances
- loaded from a Tally or Busy export, with GSTINs and opening balances.
- Credit limits and terms
- set per dealer, then adjusted.
- Open invoices
- loaded with their due dates, so reminders start on the right day.
- Channels
- the SMS sender or email connected (WhatsApp once sending is live), and the reminder wording approved.
08What to measure
| Measure | How | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Days sales outstanding | Money owed ÷ credit sales including GST × days in the period | Monthly, against the same month last year |
| Share of invoices paid by the due date | Invoices paid on or before the due date ÷ invoices due | Monthly |
| Money over 90 days | Ageing report | Weekly |
| Money collected after a reminder | Home screen | Monthly |
09Not covered yet
- Holding orders by days overdue. The credit check uses the credit limit and on-hold status.
- A dispute flag on a customer invoice that pauses reminders on that invoice alone.
- Grouping hand reminders by dealer. The Payment reminders screen lists up to 50 overdue invoices at a time, one message per invoice.
- Credit notes for a value only, such as scheme, rate-difference or cash-discount credits, without goods coming back into stock.
- Post-dated cheque tracking.
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AI can make mistakes. Reminders use wording the business approves. Set collections and bookkeeping to Ask me, and keep the getting-paid loop on Ask, if every reminder, payment and bank posting the AI team prepares should wait for a person.