Every overdue invoice should have one named person responsible for the next step. That's usually whoever runs credit control for small, recent debts, the person closest to the work for queries, and the owner or finance lead once a balance gets large or old. Owning a debt doesn't mean chasing it all personally. It means knowing what happens next, by when, and writing it down.
In this article
The short version
- Every overdue invoice needs one named person responsible for the next step.
- Credit control can own routine debts, the account manager owns queries, and the owner or finance lead takes large or old balances.
- Owning a debt means a written next action, a date and a short note of what's been said.
- Agree escalation rules in advance and pass the notes on with the debt.
- Let a consistent process do the routine chasing so the account manager stays the friendly face.
Why overdue invoices with no owner drift
You probably never decided to leave those invoices unpaid. It happens because everyone assumes someone else is on it. The account manager thinks finance is chasing, finance thinks the account manager has had a word, and you see the total on the aged debtor report once a month and wonder why it hasn't moved.
An invoice nobody owns tends to follow a familiar path. The reminders go out, the customer doesn't reply, and the invoice slides from one column to the next on the aged debtor report (some systems call it aged receivables) without anyone making a decision. By the time someone picks it up, your contact may have left, the work is half forgotten, and a query that could have been sorted in a five-minute call has hardened into a dispute.
Putting a name against each overdue balance changes the conversation in your weekly catch-up. "Where are we with the Hartley invoice?" has an answer, because one person is expected to have it.
Who should own which debts
It depends on your size. In a five-person firm you may hold everything yourself. Once you've got account managers and someone in finance, splitting by situation usually works better. As a starting point:
| Situation | Likely owner | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Recently overdue, routine amount | Whoever runs credit control | Usually admin: a missed payment run or a lost invoice |
| A query about the work or the price | The account manager or the person who did the work | They can answer it and finance can't |
| A large balance, or your biggest customer | The owner or finance lead | The decision may affect future work |
| Two months overdue with no reply | The owner or finance lead | It needs a decision about further work or recovery |
| A customer in genuine difficulty | The relationship holder, with finance agreeing terms | A workable plan keeps the customer and the money |
Whichever way you split it, write the rule down so new staff don't have to guess, and give each debt one owner. Debts shared between "sales and finance" tend to end up owned by neither.
The person who owns the customer relationship and the person who owns the debt don't have to be the same. An account manager may be the right person to ring, while finance owns the follow-through and makes sure the next step actually happens.
What owning a debt involves
Mostly it's three things written against the debt: the next action, the date it'll happen, and a short note of what's been said. "Spoke to Sam, invoice is with their MD for sign-off, their payment run is the 28th, check on the 29th" is plenty. Anyone on your team can see where things stand, and if the owner's off for a week, you won't come back to find the debt has stalled.
The owner also decides when the usual process should change. You might pause reminders while a query is sorted, send a statement to a customer who's lost track of several invoices, or agree an instalment plan with someone who can pay but not all at once. On business debts you're entitled to statutory interest at 8% above the Bank of England base rate, plus fixed compensation, and the owner is usually best placed to decide whether to claim it or let it go for a customer you'd like to keep.
Notes kept in a spreadsheet next to the report tend to go stale within weeks, because nobody updates two places. Adfin's aged debtors view gives you a live view of what each customer owes, broken down by age, and you can assign owners, add actions and track what needs to happen next on the same screen. From there you can change how a customer is chased, send a statement or set up an instalment plan without leaving it.
Handovers, escalation and keeping the customer
Escalation goes more smoothly when it's agreed in advance, so nobody has to feel like the bad guy. A simple rule such as "anything over a set amount, or two months overdue, moves to the finance lead" makes the handover routine and not personal. Let the customer know who they'll be hearing from, so a new name doesn't land out of the blue.
When a debt moves, the notes move with it. The new owner shouldn't ring a customer and ask a question they answered last week, and the customer will notice if they do.
Most overdue invoices belong to customers you'd like to keep, so tone matters as much as timing. If your account managers worry that chasing will damage the relationship, it can help to separate the two jobs. The account manager stays the friendly face, and the reminders come from a consistent process. Adfin's collection agents can handle that routine chasing over email, SMS or WhatsApp within rules you approve, leaving the named owner free for the conversations that need a person.
Common questions
Should salespeople chase their own customers' invoices? They're often best placed to sort out a query about the work, but chasing every overdue invoice tends to slip behind new sales. Many businesses let finance own the chasing and bring the salesperson in for queries or large balances.
What if nobody in my business has time to own debts? Automate the routine reminders so ownership only covers the exceptions. Even ten minutes a week is enough to review the few debts that need a decision.
When does a business invoice legally become late? When the agreed payment date passes. If no date was agreed, it's late 30 days after the customer receives the invoice or the goods or service, whichever is later.
Should one person own all of a customer's invoices? Usually, yes. Splitting one customer's invoices between owners can mean two people ringing the same contact about different invoices.
How often should debt owners update their notes? After every contact with the customer, and whenever the next action date passes. A note that's a month old isn't much better than no note.
Who should decide to write off a debt? Usually the business owner or finance lead, ideally with your accountant, since it affects your accounts and any VAT bad debt relief claim.
Sources
- GOV.UK - Late commercial payments: when a payment becomes late (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.gov.uk/late-commercial-payments-interest-debt-recovery/when-a-payment-becomes-late
- GOV.UK - Late commercial payments: charging interest on commercial debt (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.gov.uk/late-commercial-payments-interest-debt-recovery/charging-interest-commercial-debt
- Adfin - Changelog (accurate as of October 2026) https://adfin.com/resources/changelog
- Adfin - Credit control (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.adfin.com/credit-control
