Enterprise: ERP, CRM and SAP · Enterprise scenario · Proposed architecture
Debt collection and dispute resolution (Collections & Disputes)
Overdue invoices are ranked by approved priority rules, existing disputes and payment promises are taken into account, and a contact task is prepared for the collector. The customer reply goes down the payment, promise or dispute path, and the result is updated in the ERP and the CRM.
Who it is for: Companies that sell B2B on credit
Systems: SAP S/4HANA (accounts receivable), CRM, Bank data, Helpdesk
Problem
Overdue receivables are tracked in the ERP, customer correspondence in email, disputes in the helpdesk and payments at the bank. A collector may send a reminder for an invoice the customer has already paid or disputed, and promised payment dates get forgotten.
How it works today
Every day an accountant exports the open invoice list from the ERP to Excel and matches it against the bank statement by hand. The collector calls the customer, keeps the promise in a notebook, and forwards disputes to sales or logistics by email.
What this scenario changes
A daily job collects open invoices, recent payments and existing cases in parallel. Priority is calculated with approved rules, AI prepares a correspondence summary and a draft message, and the collector reviews and sends it. Depending on the reply, a payment is matched with bank data, a promise date is tracked with a timer, or a dispute is routed to the responsible department. Receivable and CRM status are updated with an idempotent write.
The integration method is chosen based on the SAP version and the available interfaces.
Process stages
- Open receivables and existing cases: Collect invoices, payments and active cases at the same time. Result: Overdue invoice, recent payments, dispute and promise status
- Priority and contact task: Use approved rules to decide whom to contact and when. Result: Contact task and draft message for the collector
- Customer reply: Route the reply to one of three paths. Result: Payment, promise or dispute path
- Payment promise tracking: Check for payment on the promised date. Result: Promise kept or broken. Approval: Finance manager (for write-off or legal action)
- Payment matching: Link the payment to invoices using bank data. Result: Full, partial or allocated payment
- Dispute resolution: Investigate the dispute in the responsible department. Result: Approved adjustment or justified refusal. Approval: Finance manager
- Receivable status in the ERP: Write the result to the receivable exactly once. Result: Updated invoice status in the ERP
- CRM status: Let sales and the collector see the same status. Result: Contact task closed with the result
Participants
- Accounts receivable specialist
- CRM / Helpdesk
- Integration layer
- ERP / SAP
- Finance manager
- Customer
- Bank
The role of AI
Summarizes customer correspondence, prepares draft messages and replies, and helps classify the customer reply as a payment, a promise or a dispute. It does not decide on write-offs, adjustments or legal action.
Rule-based automation
Days overdue and priority are calculated with approved rules, payments are matched with bank data, and promise dates are tracked with a timer. ERP and CRM writes are idempotent with an operation ID, and on a timeout the target is checked first.
Human approval and exceptions
The collector reviews and sends the AI draft. If a payment is not found at the bank, the accounts receivable specialist investigates. A dispute adjustment (Credit Memo), a write-off and legal action happen only by decision of the finance manager. When the retry limit is reached, the integration operator recovers.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have a ready-made SAP integration?
This page shows a proposed architecture and a synthetic demo. How receivables and bank data are read and how status is written is decided in the project based on the SAP version, active modules and available interfaces.
Does AI decide to write off a debt or take it to court?
No. AI only summarizes correspondence and prepares draft replies. Write-offs, adjustment documents and legal action are decisions of the finance manager.
What happens if one payment covers several invoices?
The payment is split across invoices with an approved allocation rule. If there is an amount difference or a partial payment, the balance stays open and the collector sees it in the CRM.