The invoice went out weeks ago. The reminders went out after it. And the dispensary still hasn't paid, not because they're refusing, but because an email in a busy buyer's inbox is easy to put off. A phone call is not. Somebody picks up, hears the amount, and says when they'll pay. The trouble is that calling every store that owes you, every week, is a full-time job nobody on your team has time for.
So ShelfCollect makes the call for you.
How you turn it on
When you send a store its invoices in Review & send, each store's card has a box: Call this account too. Tick it, pick the number to call (up to three per store, starting from the one on the store's record), and send. That's the whole setup. It's never on by default, and it resets every time, so a store only gets called when you decide it should.
What happens on the call
- It says who it is. The first sentence is always the same: an automated assistant calling for your business's accounts team, and the call is recorded.
- It finds the right person. It checks it's talking to someone who handles the bills: the owner, the buyer, or accounts payable.
- It walks through what's owed. Which invoices are past due, how late they are, and the total.
- It fixes the easy excuses. "I never got that one" gets the invoices and the pay link re-sent to the billing email on file, while they're still on the line.
- It asks for a date and a way to pay. A promise needs an exact date, and the assistant asks how they'll pay: check, ACH, wire, cash on delivery, or the pay link.
If the store disputes an invoice, gives a better contact, or asks not to be called again, the assistant writes it down and passes it to you, and a stop-calling request takes effect right away.
What you get back
Minutes after the call, the result is in your account. A promise shows up as a notification with the date they gave and how they'll pay. Picture an example store that owes three past-due invoices: $7,200.00, $3,150.00 and $1,875.50. On the call, the buyer promised the full $12,225.50 by Friday, by check. You'd see that, click Confirm, and the store's card reads Promised $12,225.50 by 10/16/2026 · check. Reminder emails then pause until that date, so you're not nagging a store that just told you when it's paying.
Nothing is put on hold until you confirm it. The call brings you the promise; you decide whether to take it. The call also shows on each invoice's activity, so anyone on your team can see what was said and when.
Hear it before any store does
Next to Preview email on each store's card there's a Preview call button. Enter your own phone number and it calls you right away, with that store's real invoices, in the same voice and from the same number the store would hear. It opens with "This is a preview of" your business's automated accounts call, so nobody mistakes it for the real thing. Nothing gets saved: no promise, no note, nothing changes for the store. When you hang up, you see the transcript and what each step would have done.
Not ready to pick a store? Try a sample call under Get Paid → Settings → AI phone calls does the same thing with two made-up invoices for a made-up store.
Built to be polite
- Always upfront. Automated and recorded, in the first sentence, every call.
- Never asks for payment details. No bank numbers, no card numbers over the phone. Payment goes through the pay link, by email.
- Calls at reasonable times. Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm in the store's local time, skipping holidays, and at most one round of calls per store a week.
- Stops when asked. The moment a store says stop calling, it stops, and invoices keep coming by email.
How this fits with the rest of ShelfCollect
Calls are one more step on top of what ShelfCollect already does: a branded email with a Pay Now button, and reminders that keep going until the invoice is paid. See collect on overdue cannabis invoices without chasing for how the email side works, and Promise to Pay for how promises are tracked and kept. The full setup is in the ShelfCollect guide.
You made the sale. A polite, persistent phone call is often the difference between "we'll get to it" and a date on the calendar.
