In this article
- Why December is decided in November
- Build one list of every open invoice
- Sort by the reason the invoice is unpaid
- A four-week follow-up calendar
- What to write, and when to pick up the phone
- Part payments, promises and simple payment plans
- When to escalate, and how far to go
- Closing the year in your books
- Keep every invoice and payment in one record
- Frequently asked questions
Every business in Saudi Arabia reaches November with a list of invoices that were supposed to be paid by now. A disciplined accounts receivable follow-up over the next few weeks is the difference between starting January with money in the bank and starting it chasing last year's sales. This is a practical plan you can run with the team you already have.
Why December is decided in November
Collections slow down at the end of the year for reasons that have little to do with whether your customer wants to pay. Approval chains thin out as people take annual leave, finance departments stop issuing new payment runs while they close their own books, and the budget for the new year gets the attention that your old invoice needs.
That is why the useful window is now, not the last week of December. An invoice you follow up in the second week of November can still reach a payment run in late November or in the middle of December. The same invoice chased for the first time on 28 December waits for January, and sometimes for February.
Build one list of every open invoice
Before any reminder goes out, put every unpaid invoice in one place. Not three spreadsheets, not the sales team's memory, and not one person's inbox. One list that the owner, the accountant and the salesperson all read the same way.
For each open invoice you want these columns:
- customer name and the person who actually approves payment;
- invoice number, date and due date;
- amount in riyals, including VAT, and how much is still outstanding after part payments;
- days past due, counted from the due date and not from the invoice date;
- the last contact: date, channel and what was promised;
- the next action and the date it is due.
If this list takes you two days to build, that is the real finding. It means the information lives in people rather than in a system, and it will take the same two days again next quarter.
Sort by the reason the invoice is unpaid
Age alone is a weak way to plan calls. A 90 day invoice that is stuck because the delivery note was never signed needs a different action from a 90 day invoice sitting with a customer who has no cash. Put each open invoice in one of these buckets and you will know who does what.
| Reason the invoice is unpaid | Who should act | First action this week |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice never reached the right person | Accounts | Resend to the approver, confirm receipt by phone |
| Details wrong: name, VAT number, purchase order, address | Accounts | Correct the document, reissue, restart the clock in writing |
| Delivery or work not signed off | Sales or operations | Get the sign off, then ask for a payment date |
| Dispute on quantity, scope or price | Sales | Agree the undisputed part and ask for it to be paid now |
| Customer waiting on their own collections | Owner or finance | Agree a written payment plan with dates |
| Silence, no response for weeks | Owner | Formal notice, pause further supply |
Most of the money usually sits in the first three rows, and those are administrative problems rather than credit problems. They are also the fastest to fix, which is why they are worth doing first.
A four-week follow-up calendar
Give the next four weeks a shape so nothing depends on who remembers what. One owner, one hour a day, and a short review at the end of each week.
- Week 1: build the list, fix every document error, resend every invoice that may not have arrived, and confirm the approver for your 20 largest balances.
- Week 2: call every balance over 60 days past due. Ask for a date, not for a reply. Record the date on the list.
- Week 3: chase the promises that were missed in week 2, and write to anyone still silent with a clear final date before escalation.
- Week 4: escalate the small number of accounts that have ignored three contacts, confirm the December payment runs of your biggest customers, and send statements of what remains open.
Keep a simple rule for the whole month: every call ends with a date and an amount, written down the same day. A call that ends with "they will look into it" has not moved anything.
What to write, and when to pick up the phone
Reminders work when they are short, specific and easy to act on. Attach the invoice again, state the number and the amount in riyals, and ask one question: on which date will this be paid. Keep the tone normal. The customer you are chasing in December is the customer you want to sell to in January.
A simple ladder that most Saudi SMEs can run in Arabic and English:
- Due date plus 3 days: a polite written reminder with the invoice attached.
- Plus 10 days: a phone call to the approver, then a written note of what was agreed.
- Plus 30 days: a statement of all open invoices for that customer, sent to the person who signs payments.
- Plus 45 days: a note from the owner or finance manager, with a date after which supply is paused.
Write to people in the language they work in, and send the document in the same language as the original invoice so the numbers can be matched line by line. Verbal agreements get forgotten in a busy December, so every step that matters ends in writing.
Part payments, promises and simple payment plans
A customer who cannot pay 100,000 riyals this month can often pay 25,000 riyals a week. Take it. Part payment keeps the relationship open, proves the debt is accepted, and turns a dead balance into a schedule you can track.
Write the plan down in two or three lines: the total outstanding, the dates, the amount on each date, and what happens if a date is missed. Record every payment against the invoice it belongs to on the day it arrives, so the next reminder shows the correct remaining balance. Nothing damages a collection call faster than asking for money that was already paid.
When to escalate, and how far to go
A small number of accounts will not respond to any of this. Decide the line in advance so the decision is not emotional in the last week of the year. For most businesses the line looks like this: three documented contacts, no payment and no agreed date, a balance large enough to matter, and supply already paused.
After that, escalation usually starts with a formal written demand that sets out the invoices, the amounts and a deadline. If that fails, legal action in Saudi Arabia goes through the courts and their digital services, and the Ministry of Justice publishes those services on the Najiz portal. Before you file anything, get advice on the specific case, and make sure your file is complete: the signed quotation or contract, the tax invoice, the delivery evidence and the written reminders. The quality of that file is usually what decides how quickly a claim moves.
Closing the year in your books
Collections and the year-end close are the same project. What you collect in the next few weeks is what your closing numbers show, and what you fail to collect has to be explained.
Three things to get right before the books close:
- Match payments to invoices. An unallocated bank transfer is an invoice that looks unpaid, and it will be chased by someone, which costs you goodwill.
- Handle cancellations properly. If an invoice was wrong or the sale was reversed, issue the correct document instead of deleting the invoice, and keep the trail.
- Do not write off a balance quietly. VAT on a bad debt is not simply removed because you gave up on it. The conditions for adjusting tax are set out in the ZATCA VAT Implementing Regulations, so read them or ask your tax adviser before you touch the figure.
It also helps to line the collections push up with your filing calendar, because the same documents are used twice. Our VAT return filing checklist covers the document side of a clean period close.
Keep every invoice and payment in one record
None of this survives on memory. It works when quotations, tax invoices in riyals with 15% VAT, part payments and the customer's full history sit in one place that sales and accounts both use. Daftarix does exactly that: our accounting and VAT software for Saudi businesses records full or part payments, shows what each customer still owes, and reports outstanding balances without a spreadsheet rebuild every month.
If you want to see what your receivables list would look like inside one system before the year closes, book a demo and we will walk through it with your own numbers.
Frequently asked questions
How often should we follow up on an overdue invoice?
Weekly for anything past due, and more often once a promised date is missed. The pattern that works is a written reminder a few days after the due date, a call at about 10 days, a customer statement at 30 days, and a formal notice at about 45 days.
Should reminders be in Arabic or English?
Use the language the person who approves payment works in, and send the document in the same language as the original invoice. Many Saudi finance teams work in Arabic while procurement correspondence runs in English, so ask once and record the preference on the customer record.
Can we stop supplying a customer who has not paid?
That depends on your contract, so check what it says about payment terms and suspension before you act. Where you do have the right, give written notice with a date rather than stopping without warning, because an unexpected stop usually turns a payment conversation into a dispute.
What do we do with invoices we will never collect?
Keep them visible rather than deleting them, decide on the accounting treatment with your accountant, and check the VAT position against the ZATCA regulations. Then fix the cause: in most cases the balance went bad because nobody chased it in the first 30 days.
How do we make next year easier?
Agree payment terms in writing before delivery, issue the invoice the same day the work is accepted, and give one person responsibility for the open invoice list every week. Collections is a habit, not a December campaign.
