When receivables have been left for a while, the first job is not more chasing. It is working out what is genuinely unpaid. Steinfin reviews your ledger, finds the old balances, unmatched payments, forgotten promises and open queries, and gives every account a clear status and a next step.
AR cleanup is a review of your outstanding receivables to clear up the confusion: what is genuinely unpaid, what has already been settled, what is blocked, and what needs doing next.
The point is not to make the report look tidy. It is to make your receivables picture something you can use again.
It is usually a focused piece of work on an existing ledger. Once it is clear, the accounts can move into ongoing accounts receivable management so it stays that way.
A messy ledger is usually lots of small, different problems. Choose an invoice to see why it is unclear, what we check and where it ends up.
No follow-up has been recorded for months, so nobody knows whether the customer was ever contacted or what they said.
Payment history, emails and notes, and the customer contact on file.
Follow up today, with the history attached.
A payment arrived weeks ago but was never matched to the invoice, so it still looks overdue.
Payments received, references and the customer's remittance advice.
The customer asked for a PO number. The request sat in one inbox and nobody picked it up.
The customer's emails and who, if anyone, replied.
The customer promised to pay, but the promise is buried in an email thread and was never recorded.
The thread, whether any payment arrived, and the agreed date.
Confirm the date with the customer and track it.
Before anyone picks up the phone, every open item is sorted into what it really is. Each group then gets the right next step, instead of one generic reminder for everything.
An old ledger is usually a mix of real unpaid invoices, payments that were never matched, disputes, credits nobody processed and records that simply went stale. The first job is working out which is which.
Illustrative figures. The value is in the clarity, not the numbers.
We do not assume an old balance is simply unpaid. We check its history first.
Whether an old invoice is still valid, or should be written off, is your decision. We give you the facts to make it.
Money that arrived but was never matched makes receivables look bigger than they really are. We find those payments and sort out where they belong. For the ongoing version of this work, see cash application.
Sometimes the problem is not the customer. It is the records around them: duplicate notes, different statuses in different places, outdated contacts, missing references and no clear owner. We bring the follow-up records for each account into one clear view.
We tidy the receivables follow-up records. Any change to your accounting records is made by your team, or by us only with your approval.
The customer promised to pay two weeks ago. Nobody checked. The promise is still sitting in an email. Cleanup finds it and turns it into action.
"We will pay invoice 4055 by the 10th."
They are not simply overdue. They are blocked. Cleanup finds the blocker and routes it to whoever can clear it. After that, invoice dispute management keeps it moving.
A clear, working picture of your receivables, and a plan for what happens next. Not a formal audit report, but something far more useful day to day.
Cleanup tells you what each balance really is. What to do about it stays with you and your own accounting process.
Ledgers rarely get messy overnight. It tends to happen when something shifts and follow-up slips for a while.
Thinking about handing AR over? See outsourcing accounts receivable.
Cleanup is the start, not the end. Each account moves into the ongoing process that suits it.
We work from the receivables records in your accounting system, plus any supporting records you share, such as remittances and correspondence. Access is scoped to receivables work and you can revoke it at any time.
Common in construction, where old applications, stale queries and deductions build up, and in wholesale and distribution, where high volume leaves unmatched payments and undecided deductions. See all industries.
Every ledger is different, so the amount of work varies. The order does not.
Where the ledger stands today.
Stale, unexplained or blocked items.
Every item into its real group.
What needs your input or decision.
Matching, routing and follow-up.
Every account gets a status and a step.
Where you want us to carry on.
See the full Steinfin process.
Start with the free AR health check. We look at your overdue invoices, show where cash is being held up and point out where records, payments, queries or follow-up need attention, plus a few practical things you can act on. No cost, no obligation.
It is a review of an existing receivables ledger that has become unclear or out of date. We work out what is genuinely still owed, what has already been paid, what is disputed, what is waiting on someone and what needs action, then organise it so every account has a clear status and a next step.
Common signs are old invoices that stay open for months, paid invoices still showing as outstanding, balances nobody can explain, promises and queries buried in email, and an aged debt report nobody fully trusts. If different people give different answers about the same account, it is usually time.
Yes. We look at each one: whether it has been paid, whether there was a query or an expected credit, who last spoke to the customer and what happens next. Genuinely unpaid invoices go back into follow-up. Anything that needs a decision comes to you.
We find the payment, confirm it belongs to that invoice and flag it for matching, so the invoice stops showing as overdue and the customer is not chased by mistake.
Yes. Payments that have arrived but have not been matched to invoices are one of the most common reasons a ledger looks worse than it is. We identify them and work out where they belong, or flag them for review if that is not clear.
We identify what the dispute is about and who needs to act, whether that is the customer, your team or you, and record it with a next action. From there it can move into our invoice dispute management process.
No. Write-offs are always your decision, made through your own accounting process. We can show you which balances look unlikely to be paid and why, so you can decide with the facts in front of you.
No. If a credit note or adjustment looks necessary, we flag it with the reasons. Your team decides and issues it, and we then track the account until it reflects the agreed outcome.
We confirm what was paid, match it to the right invoice and confirm the balance still owed, so the invoice is neither wrongly closed nor shown as fully unpaid.
Yes, and it is often the best way to start. We get the existing ledger into a clear state first, then move the cleaned accounts into ongoing accounts receivable management so it stays that way.
It depends on the size and condition of the ledger: how many invoices, how old they are and how much history needs checking. We give you a realistic view once we have looked at it, rather than guessing.
Aged debt cleanup is part of Steinfin's Scale plan. Because every backlog is different, we scope and quote it once we understand your ledger, and the price is agreed before we start.
Yes. We work from the receivables records in your accounting system, plus any supporting records you share such as remittances and correspondence. Changes to your accounting records are made by your team, or by us only with your approval.
Start with a free AR health check. We will show you where your ledger is unclear, and what it would take to get it back under control.
Get a free AR health check