The Setup
A small farm. The people who grow it also sell it, deliver it and send the invoices. There is no AR department. There's whoever has a minute on Friday.
When it came to us, $22,099 was past due across 10 invoices, and most of it wasn't new. The typical invoice was more than a month late. For a farm this size, that's payroll.
The stores weren't refusing to pay. Nobody had asked them twice.
What We Did
We loaded the farm's open invoices, matched each one to the store that owed it, and started following up.
Send every open invoice with a Pay Now link
One link per balance, in the brand's own name. No login. The store pays from its own bank.
Follow up on a steady schedule
Reminders go out on a set cadence until each invoice is paid, so no balance sits unasked.
Stop the moment it's paid
When the payment lands, the reminders stop and QuickBooks is updated.
Every message went out under the farm's name. For a small grower that matters: the relationship with each store is the business. That's ShelfCollect.
What Came In
Two days after the first reminders went out, four invoices were paid. More followed over the next two weeks.
Within 30 days, 9 of the 10 past-due invoices were paid: $19,531, or 88% of the balance. The median invoice was paid 16 days in. It took 12 reminders across all of them. That's it.
Where the money came from
Past-due balance at the start vs. what was paid in the first 30 days, by how late the invoice was.
Every invoice under 60 days late was paid in full. The stores had the money. They needed a clear amount, a link to pay it, and a reminder that showed up on time.
What This Doesn't Prove
Ten invoices is a small sample. A farm with a hundred stores will see a different mix, and some of these stores might have paid on their own eventually.
One invoice, more than 90 days late, is still open. Balances that old usually need more than a reminder: a final notice letter, a phone call, or a payment plan.
The Result
$19,531 back in a small farm's bank account in a month, from invoices that had been sitting for weeks. Nobody at the farm stopped growing to chase it.
Most stores aren't dodging you. They just haven't been asked clearly, on time, with a way to pay in one click.