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The days of manually tracking every unpaid invoice and sending follow-up emails are behind us. Most B2B companies are now turning to AI invoice follow-up tools to handle collections automatically. These solutions monitor your outstanding invoices, send personalized reminders at the right time, and even respond to customer questions without your team lifting a finger. For companies dealing with Net 30 or Net 60 payment terms, this tech can cut your Days Sales Outstanding and free up your finance team to focus on strategic work instead of collections busywork.
TLDR:
- AI accounts receivable automation handles invoice follow-ups and payment reminders automatically
- Most tools only send emails, leaving your team to handle replies and portal submissions
- Invoice Butler acts as your outsourced AR team, managing the entire collections process for you
- Setup takes under 5 minutes with integrations to QuickBooks, Stripe, NetSuite, and other systems
- Invoice Butler combines AI with human AR specialists to handle collections across all channels
What Is AI-Powered Accounts Receivable Automation?
AI-powered accounts receivable automation uses AI to handle the repetitive work of chasing down unpaid invoices. Instead of your team manually tracking who owes what and sending follow-up emails, the software monitors outstanding invoices and automatically sends payment reminders at the right time.
The AI component goes beyond just scheduling emails. These tools analyze customer payment patterns, personalize communication tone, identify the best contacts to reach, and adapt follow-up strategies based on responses. Some services even handle back-and-forth conversations with customers, answer payment questions, and escalate to decision-makers when initial contacts go dark.
The goal is simple: get invoices paid faster without your finance team spending hours on collections busywork. For B2B companies dealing with Net 30 or Net 60 payment terms, this tech can dramatically reduce Days Sales Outstanding and improve cash flow while freeing up your team for strategic work.
How We Evaluated AI Accounts Receivable Automation Tools
We evaluated these tools based on publicly available information, including feature sets, customer reviews, integration capabilities, and company documentation. Our focus was on factors that matter most for B2B collections: automation depth, service model, and workflow coverage.
The most critical distinction we looked at was whether a solution requires your team to manage it daily or actually does the collections work for you. We also evaluated integration quality (real-time syncing versus batch updates), portal management capabilities for systems like Coupa and Ariba, and intelligent contact management that finds decision-makers when initial contacts don't respond.
For B2B companies, we prioritized tools that handle the complete collections cycle from first reminder through payment confirmation, including responding to customer questions and managing complex procurement processes.
Best Overall AI-Powered Accounts Receivable Automation: Invoice Butler
We handle collections as a service, not just software. Instead of giving you another tool to manage, Invoice Butler acts as your outsourced AR team. We combine AI with human expertise to chase down every invoice, respond to customer questions, and navigate complex payment processes across email, phone, text, LinkedIn, and Slack.
Setup takes under 5 minutes through one-click integrations with QuickBooks, Stripe, Bill.com, Xero, NetSuite, Sequence, and other billing systems. Once connected, we automatically send personalized follow-ups that match your brand voice, log into supplier portals like Coupa and Ariba to submit invoices and track approvals, and escalate to decision-makers when initial contacts go dark.
The AI handles routine work while our AR specialists review edge cases and provide strategic guidance based on what we've seen work across hundreds of collections scenarios. If a customer replies with questions, we handle the back-and-forth. When payment confirmation comes through a portal or email, we detect it, match it to the correct invoice, and stop follow-ups automatically.
You get the equivalent of a full AR team at a fraction of hiring cost, with collections work completely off your plate and customer relationships intact.
Billtrust
Billtrust is an enterprise-focused AR solution built for large organizations with dedicated AR departments and legacy ERP systems.
What they offer
- Cash application automation for matching payments to invoices
- Invoice delivery and presentment capabilities
- Collections workflows and dunning automation
- Payment acceptance through their proprietary payment network
Good for: Large enterprises with over $100M in revenue using legacy on-premises ERPs that have established AR teams to manage the software and are comfortable with overnight batch data processing via SFTP.
Limitations: Billtrust relies on legacy SFTP integration tech rather than real-time APIs, meaning data is batched overnight instead of updating in real-time, and it requires you to have AR staff to operate the dashboards rather than doing the collections work for you.
Bottom line: Billtrust provides visualization and workflow tools for existing AR teams at Fortune 1000 companies, but mid-market companies using tools like Stripe or QuickBooks need a solution that actually performs the collections work and integrates in real-time.
Tesorio
Tesorio is a cash flow performance dashboard designed for companies with dedicated collections teams to manage AR workflows.
What they offer
- Cash flow forecasting and analytics dashboards
- Collections workflow management and task assignment
- AI agent that checks invoice and portal statuses
- Integration with on-premises and legacy ERP systems via SFTP
Good for: Organizations with established AR departments that need better visibility and workflow tools for their existing staff to manage collections activities across older ERP systems.
Limitations: Tesorio provides dashboards for your team to work from but does not execute collections tasks like replying to customers, uploading to portals, or making phone calls, and lacks native integrations with newer billing systems like Orb, Metronome, Tabs, and Stripe.
Bottom line: Tesorio gives AR teams a workspace to manage collections, but if you lack dedicated AR headcount or use a contemporary billing stack, you need a solution that handles the execution and integrates with your systems.
Upflow
Upflow automates email reminders and provides workflow dashboards for teams that want to reduce manual tracking but still handle customer interactions themselves.
What they offer
- Scheduled email sequences for unpaid invoices
- Task assignment features to route follow-ups to sales or account teams
- Dashboard showing invoice status and collection metrics
- Accounting system integrations to pull invoice data
Good for: Smaller finance teams comfortable managing customer replies and follow-up tasks internally who primarily need help automating the initial reminder emails on a predictable schedule.
Limitations: Upflow stops at sending emails. Your team must manually respond to every customer reply, cannot access supplier portals like Coupa or Ariba, and lacks visibility into total customer balances across invoices, with only email support available instead of real-time collaboration channels.
Bottom line: Upflow reduces reminder scheduling busywork but requires your staff to handle replies, portal submissions, and relationship management, while we remove collections from your workload entirely.
Gaviti
Gaviti is an upmarket collections tool built for large AR teams with a focus on pushing customers to adopt Gaviti's proprietary payment rails.
What they offer
- Collections workflow dashboards for AR teams
- Zero-fee ACH payment processing through their payment network
- AI assistant that provides status insights and suggestions
- Dunning and reminder automation
Good for: Large companies over $200M in revenue with substantial AR departments willing to require customers to use Gaviti's payment portal for optimal functionality.
Limitations: Gaviti lacks integrations with contemporary billing tools including Stripe, Orb, Metronome, Sequence, Tabs, and Maple. Their AI assistant only provides insights rather than executing actions like handling replies, sending documents, or uploading to portals. They also require customers to adopt new payment methods for full effectiveness.
Bottom line: Gaviti is designed for massive enterprises using legacy systems and can force payment friction on your customers, while we work with your existing billing stack and payment methods without disrupting customer experience.
Growfin
Growfin focuses on cash flow prediction and analytics using AI to forecast when payments will arrive.
What they offer
- AI-powered payment date prediction based on historical data
- Cash flow forecasting dashboards for financial planning
- Message drafting assistance for controllers to personalize outreach
- Collections analytics and reporting
Good for: Finance teams that prioritize cash flow forecasting and want AI-driven predictions for board reporting but have staff available to send the actual collection messages and perform follow-ups.
Limitations: Growfin does not execute collections activities such as sending follow-ups, handling customer replies, or uploading invoices to supplier portals, and lacks integrations with newer ERP systems like Campfire and Rillet that many growth companies use.
Bottom line: Growfin predicts when you might get paid but does not do the work to ensure payment happens, while Invoice Butler actively handles outreach, replies, and portal uploads to bring cash in the door.
Monk
Monk is a broad contract-to-cash solution attempting to cover both contracting and collections with limited market presence.
What they offer
- Contract lifecycle management capabilities
- Automated collections email workflows
- Billing and invoicing features
- Integration with some contract management systems
Good for: Companies that need contract management and are willing to beta test an early-stage collections feature as a secondary function of a contracting tool.
Limitations: Monk has fewer than 15 customers making it extremely early stage, focuses primarily on contracts rather than collections expertise, and leaves the responsibility of replying to customer emails and ensuring cash is collected entirely to the user rather than handling it.
Bottom line: Monk is building many things simultaneously with minimal proven results in collections, whereas Invoice Butler specializes exclusively in getting you paid with a mature customer base and established workflows.
Levers
Levers is a fully autonomous AI collections tool that requires users to train the AI agent themselves.
What they offer
- Fully AI-driven invoice follow-up automation
- Automated reply generation for customer inquiries
- Collections workflow automation
- Email-based communication management
Good for: Teams comfortable managing and training AI systems that want a fully autonomous approach and have clean, accurate contact data that does not require ongoing maintenance or escalation.
Limitations: Levers is fully AI-driven without human oversight to catch errors or hallucinations, requires the customer to train the AI agent themselves, assumes contact data is accurate rather than managing and updating it, and does not integrate with sales systems like Salesforce or HubSpot to find alternate contacts when emails bounce.
Bottom line: Levers requires you to manage an AI bot for sensitive customer relationships, while we provide AI combined with human expertise that handles edge cases, maintains your contact database, and escalates appropriately.
Feature Comparison Table of AI Accounts Receivable Automation Tools
Here's how the top AI accounts receivable automation solutions compare across the capabilities that matter most for B2B collections:
Why Invoice Butler Is the Best AI Accounts Receivable Automation Solution
The AR automation market is projected to grow significantly as companies seek efficiency gains, but most solutions still require you to operate software or manage staff. We take a different approach: Invoice Butler removes collections from your plate entirely by acting as your outsourced AR team.
This matters because B2B payment delays cost businesses significant cash flow, yet traditional AR automation only addresses parts of the workflow. Dashboard tools still require your team to send messages and handle replies. Pure AI agents lack the judgment to manage sensitive customer situations appropriately.
We combine AI speed with human expertise to execute the complete collections process: logging into supplier portals, responding to customer questions across email and Slack, calling when necessary, and finding alternate contacts when emails bounce. Our specialists review edge cases to ensure nothing damages your customer relationships.
The result is measurable ROI through faster collections without adding headcount. You get the work of a full AR team at a fraction of hiring cost, with setup in minutes rather than months.
Final thoughts on selecting AI invoice follow-up solutions
Choosing AI invoice follow-up software comes down to whether you want tools to manage or work done for you. Invoice Butler acts as your outsourced AR team so collections happen automatically while you focus on growth. Your cash flow improves, your team stays productive, and your customer relationships stay intact.
FAQ
How do I choose the right AI accounts receivable automation tool for my business?
Start by determining whether you need software to manage yourself or a service that handles collections for you. If you have a dedicated AR team and use legacy systems, dashboard tools like Billtrust or Tesorio might fit. If you're a growing company without AR staff, look for solutions that execute the work (like Invoice Butler) rather than just providing visibility.
Which AR automation solution works best for small teams without dedicated collections staff?
Small teams benefit most from services that remove collections work entirely rather than adding another tool to manage. Look for solutions that handle customer replies, portal submissions, and escalations automatically. Software-only platforms require your team to respond to every customer message and manage follow-ups manually, which defeats the purpose if you're already stretched thin.
Can these tools handle complex B2B payment processes like supplier portals?
Most AR automation tools only send email reminders and stop there. Only a few solutions (like Invoice Butler) actually log into supplier portals like Coupa, Ariba, or Tipalti to upload invoices, fill out forms, and track approval statuses. If your customers require portal submissions, verify this capability before choosing a tool, as it's not standard.
What's the difference between AI-only collections tools and services with human oversight?
AI-only tools automate everything but can miss context, make errors, or handle sensitive situations poorly without human judgment. Services that combine AI with human specialists review edge cases, manage complex customer relationships, and provide strategic guidance based on experience. This matters most when dealing with large accounts or disputed invoices where relationship preservation is critical.
How quickly can I expect to see results after implementing AR automation?
Most modern AR tools integrate within hours through API connections to systems like QuickBooks or Stripe. You should see automated follow-ups begin immediately, but measurable cash flow improvement typically appears within 2-4 weeks as overdue invoices get collected. Solutions requiring SFTP batch processing or lengthy implementations will delay results by weeks or months.
