Paraglide

Debt collection in B2B often requires a delicate balance. Handle it poorly, and invoices sit unpaid for weeks or months. Push too hard, and customer relationships suffer, potentially affecting future revenue. The reality is that manual processes in fragmented inboxes, spreadsheets, and inconsistent follow-ups make it difficult for finance teams to strike the right balance. AI agents are changing the game. By managing high-volume billing and payment conversations autonomously, they help businesses recover payments faster, resolve disputes efficiently, and maintain professional, consistent communication with customers.

The cash conversion cycle (CCC) is a key measure of working capital efficiency, capturing how long cash remains tied up in operations from paying suppliers to collecting from customers. Even profitable organisations can face liquidity stress if CCC is not actively managed. This article explains how to calculate CCC, explores the factors that influence it, and highlights common pitfalls to avoid. It also examines international complexities, including currency risk, local payment norms, and regulatory considerations. One of the most effective levers for shortening CCC is reducing Days Sales Outstanding (DSO). AR automation tool, such as Paraglide help finance teams accelerate collections, manage disputes proactively, and track outstanding payments, freeing working capital and enabling finance teams to focus on higher-value tasks. By combining operational improvements with intelligent automation, businesses can improve liquidity, reduce reliance on external financing, and achieve a more predictable and resilient cash conversion cycle.

Working capital is the cash a business has available to fund day-to-day operations and support growth. Challenges like delayed customer payments, excess or mismanaged inventory, and suboptimal payables tie up cash, reduce financial agility, and make it harder to fund strategic initiatives. AI Agents are transforming how finance teams manage working capital by automating repetitive tasks, providing predictive insights, and enabling proactive cash decisions. They help reduce Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), optimise inventory, improve payables timing, and accelerate cash conversion. Organisations using AI consistently report improved efficiency, better cash visibility, and faster decision-making. Solutions such as Paraglide integrate seamlessly into finance workflows, allowing teams to focus on high-value activities while ensuring cash is managed more effectively.

Trade receivables are amounts customers owe a business for goods or services sold on credit. They are recorded as current assets on the balance sheet and play a vital role in managing working capital and cash flow. Keeping track of the money customers owe helps finance teams understand whether the business is getting paid on time and spot any potential cash shortages before they become a problem. While traditional processes focus on invoicing and reminders, AI agents can take this further by handling customer communications, resolving disputes, and managing collections automatically. This reduces the burden on finance teams, speeds up payments, and improves financial predictability.

Finance shared services, particularly order-to-cash (O2C) teams, face constant pressure to scale, reduce cost-to-serve, and maintain high-quality operational control. Even with standardised O2C processes, teams spend a disproportionate amount of time managing invoice disputes, payment follow-ups, claims, deductions, and credit workflows. In 2026, AI agents for O2C and finance operations are emerging as a practical extension of shared services teams. They automate high-volume operational work, handling account queries, following up on commitments, escalating exceptions, and maintaining workflow continuity, allowing finance professionals to focus on decision-making, exceptions, and strategic initiatives.

Credit management breaks at scale when inbound communication overtakes outbound control: Once AR teams manage hundreds or thousands of invoices per month, delays are driven less by invoicing or reminders and more by unanswered customer emails related to disputes, documentation, and payment confirmation. Most credit management solutions automate reminders, scoring, and reporting, but rely on manual inbox work to resolve inbound queries. In 2026, the most valuable credit management software reduces manual work by automating follow-ups, capturing responses, and updating the ERP without adding AR workload. Paraglide is one of the best credit management platforms for high‑volume AR. It automates two-way customer communication inside the finance inbox, handles over 100 languages, captures promises-to-pay in real-time, and moves commitments into the ERP, targeting the bottleneck that delays payments.

Automating B2B collections isn't just about sending reminders faster — it's about creating intelligent, context-aware workflows that mirror what great collectors already do. AI agents now make that possible: they handle routine outreach, track commitments, resolve issues early, and keep humans focused on exceptions. The result is improved cash flow, happier customers, and a finance team that finally scales with the business.

The accounts receivable turnover ratio is a simple but powerful measure of how efficiently a company turns sales into cash. It is directly connected to DSO and free cash flow, making it a key KPI for finance teams. By improving collections processes, monitoring turnover closely, and reducing DSO, companies can unlock cash, strengthen working capital, and reduce financial risk.

Net Working Capital is a simple formula, but it reveals a lot about a company’s liquidity and financial flexibility. Positive NWC gives room to invest and grow, while negative NWC signals stress. The biggest challenge for most companies is managing accounts receivable. When customers pay late, DSO rises, AR balloons, and free cash flow suffers. By reducing DSO and modernizing collections with automation, companies can strengthen their working capital position and unlock millions in cash.

The formula for DSO is simple, but the insights it provides are powerful. By tracking DSO consistently, comparing it with benchmarks, and applying best practices, finance teams can improve collections and unlock cash. If your DSO is climbing, it may be time to modernize your accounts receivable process. AI powered AR automation can help you collect faster, reduce disputes, and free your team from manual chasing.

AI agents are redefining the order-to-cash process. They can interpret contracts, create invoices, manage finance inbox queries, automate dunning and collections workflows, resolve disputes, and streamline cash application and reconciliation. Where shared services reduce cost by moving manual work offshore, AI eliminates the manual work altogether. The result is faster collections, fewer disputes, stronger cash flow, and finance teams that can focus on strategy instead of repetition.

Debt collection is no longer confined to manual chasing, expensive outsourcing, or rigid dunning software. AI agents are redefining the process by handling contextual outreach, managing two-way conversations, tracking promises to pay, escalating intelligently, and even using voice channels to reach customers. For CFOs, the benefits are clear: faster collections, lower DSO, reduced bad debt, and less reliance on costly collection agencies. For AR teams, AI takes on the heavy lifting, allowing humans to focus on disputes, escalations, and strategy.

AI agents are reshaping credit control by automating the conversational, repetitive work that has long dominated the role. They can respond to inbound queries, run outbound dunning and collection workflows, and hold two-way conversations that drive faster payments. For CFOs, the benefits are clear: lower dso, stronger cash flow, fewer overdue invoices, and finance teams freed from repetitive tasks. for credit controllers, the job evolves from manual chasing to managing intelligent agents and focusing on the disputes and decisions where humans add the most value.

Debt collection agencies cost anywhere from 10% to 50% of recovered amounts, with most B2B companies paying around 15–20%. But the bigger cost comes from letting invoices age, then outsourcing the work to humans who do the same manual chasing at a premium. AI agents provide a smarter alternative. They automate dunning workflows, handle two-way conversations, track promises to pay, resolve issues early, and even leverage voice channels. The result is lower DSO, stronger cash flow, and far less reliance on expensive agencies.

Accounts Receivable Days is a powerful liquidity metric that shows how efficiently your company turns credit sales into cash. It is closely connected to DSO, AR turnover, and net working capital. If your A/R Days are trending higher, it is a signal that cash is trapped in receivables and collections need attention. By modernizing your AR processes, leveraging automation, and reducing DSO, you can strengthen working capital and unlock millions in free cash flow.

The best finance teams are moving from static, rule-based reminders to dynamic, conversational workflows powered by AI. AI agents now handle thousands of customers simultaneously, personalise outreach, find the right contacts, track promises to pay, involve account owners when needed, and escalate intelligently at the customer level. The result: faster collections, lower DSO, fewer disputes, and better customer experiences — without adding headcount or outsourcing collections.

Accounts receivable aging is a foundational tool in working capital management. By structuring invoices into clear time buckets, AR teams gain visibility into payment risk, collections priorities, and cash flow impacts. When combined with metrics like DSO and AR turnover, AR aging helps finance teams act decisively: reducing late payments, improving liquidity, and protecting against bad debt. Want to see how AI-powered AR automation can streamline aging reports and collections? Book a demo with our team.

Getting customers to pay on time isn't about sending more reminders — it's about creating a system that makes payment easy, clear, and consistent. With AI agents handling the repetitive, conversational, and time-sensitive parts of collections, finance teams can focus on strategy and relationships. The result: fewer overdue invoices, healthier cash flow, and customers who pay on time — every time.