FS-DOC-02Finance
ROI and Business Case
Receivables & Invoice Chasing | [YourCompany.com] | [Today's Date]
01What the current process is costing you
Every week a bookkeeper manually pulls the aged receivables report, decides who to chase, writes individual reminder emails, logs them in a spreadsheet, and then hand-matches incoming payments to open invoices. At roughly 120 invoices per month and an average of 9 hours of manual effort every week, the hidden cost is significant and grows every time the team gets busy and the chase slips.
9 hrs/week
Time lost to manual chasing
Equivalent to 39 hrs every 30 days
$17,800/year
Annual staff cost of the process
At $38/hr for a bookkeeper
47 days
Average days to payment
62% of reminders sent on time
Three steps account for the majority of wasted time and are the first to slip under pressure:
Decide who to chase
None
25 min/session
Relies on memory and judgment; no system enforces consistency
Write reminder emails
Gmail
60 min/session
Each message drafted individually, one client at a time
Match incoming payments
Xero
45 min/session
Manual comparison of bank deposits to open invoices; error-prone
These three bottleneck steps alone account for 130 minutes per session. When the team is busy they are the first tasks dropped, which pushes average days to payment even higher and delays cash directly.
ROI and Business CasePage 1 of 4
FS-DOC-02Finance
02What changes after automation
After the build, three agents handle the entire chase cycle without manual input. The Chase Scheduler Agent watches every open invoice and stages reminders based on how overdue each one is. The Reminder Sender Agent fires those reminders on schedule with a pay link attached. The Payment Reconciliation Agent matches incoming payments to the right invoice, handles partials, marks the record reconciled, and notifies the team. A person only steps in when a client replies or an account requires a real conversation.
2 hrs/week
Time remaining after automation
Down from 9 hrs; replies and disputes only
$13,800/year
Annual saving returned to the business
Net of all tool and build costs
31 days
Average days to payment (target)
100% of reminders sent on schedule
Disputed accounts, sensitive client relationships, and any invoice flagged as contested remain with a person by design. Nothing about that is changed by this automation.
03Before and after comparison
Time on chasing per week
9 hrs/week
2 hrs/week
Annual staff cost of process
$17,800
$4,000
Average days to payment
47 days
31 days
Reminders sent on time
62%
100%
Reminder drafting method
Manual, one at a time
Automated, staged by overdue age
Payment matching method
Hand-matched in Xero
Auto-reconciled; partials handled
Chase consistency when busy
Drops when team is stretched
Runs on schedule regardless
ROI and Business CasePage 2 of 4
FS-DOC-02Finance
04Tool costs
The Standard build is the recommended option. It covers all three agents, a 4-week delivery timeline, and full integration with Xero, Stripe, and Gmail. The one-off build cost is $3,800. Ongoing tooling costs are $1,740 per year, driven entirely by the FullSpec Automation orchestration platform. The other tools listed below are already part of a typical accounting firm stack.
Tool
Purpose
Monthly cost
Annual cost
Already paying?
FullSpec Automation
Orchestration and monitoring
$145
$1,740
No, new
Xero
Invoicing and reconciliation
$0
$0
Yes, existing
Stripe
Pay links and card payments
$0
$0
Yes, existing
Gmail
Reminder delivery
$0
$0
Yes, existing
One-off build cost (Standard)
Design, build, and QA
n/a
$3,800 once
Not applicable
Year 2 onward the one-off build cost does not recur. The only ongoing outlay is $1,740/year for FullSpec Automation, assuming Xero, Stripe, and Gmail subscriptions continue unchanged.
05Net ROI summary
$12,060
Net saving in Year 1
$13,800 saved minus $1,740 tooling cost. Build cost excluded from annual figure; shown in payback below.
3 months
Payback period
$3,800 build cost recovered in approx. 3 months at $13,800/year gross saving
Gross annual saving
$13,800
$13,800
FullSpec Automation (annual)
-$1,740
-$1,740
One-off build cost
-$3,800
$0
Cumulative saving (2 years)
$20,320
Cumulative saving (3 years)
$28,380
The three-year gross saving is $41,400. Subtract the one-off build cost of $3,800 and three years of tooling at $1,740/year ($5,220) to arrive at a three-year net benefit of $32,380.
ROI and Business CasePage 3 of 4
FS-DOC-02Finance
06Assumptions log
All figures in this document are derived from the assumptions below. Where an assumption differs from actual conditions at [YourCompany.com], the relevant saving or cost figures should be recalculated before sign-off.
Assumption
Value used
Source
Bookkeeper hourly rate
$38/hr
Role benchmark supplied in process template
Manual hours spent on chasing per week
9 hrs/week
Process step audit: 20+25+60+30+35+45 min across 6 steps
Hours saved per week after automation
7 hrs/week
Steps 1-4 and 6 automated; Step 5 (watch for replies) retained
Annual hours saved
350 hrs/year
7 hrs/week x 50 working weeks
Annual gross staff cost saving
$13,800/year
350 hrs x $38/hr, rounded to nearest $100
Average days to payment (before)
47 days
Before/after table in process template
Average days to payment (after)
31 days
Before/after table in process template
Reminders sent on time (before)
62%
KPI benchmark in process template
Reminders sent on time (after)
100%
Automated scheduling; no human dependency
Invoice volume
~120 invoices/month
Problem section of process template
Build cost (Standard)
$3,800 one-off
Standard build option in process template
FullSpec Automation monthly cost
$145/month ($1,740/year)
Tooling list in process template
All other tools (Xero, Stripe, Gmail)
$0 incremental cost
Assumed already subscribed; no new licence required
Payback period
3 months
Build cost / (gross annual saving / 12) = $3,800 / $1,150
Three-year gross saving
$41,400
Snapshot figure in process template
Saving estimates are based on internal benchmarking and cross-checked against third-party benchmarking tools. Actual results depend on invoice volume, client payment behaviour, and the hourly rate applied. Disputed or sensitive accounts are excluded from automation scope and do not affect these figures.
ROI and Business CasePage 4 of 4