Year-End Collections: An 8-Week Plan to Collect Before December 31

December is when many B2B invoices go quiet. Customer AP teams take time off, approvals wait for managers who are out, and payment runs move or get skipped around the holidays. Your own collectors want time off too. If your AR team waits until mid-December to push, the cash you were counting on often lands in January instead.

The backlog is usually there before the holidays start. In the 2025 QuickBooks Small Business Late Payments Report, 56% of small businesses said they were owed money from unpaid invoices, averaging about $17,500 per business. Balances like that do not get easier to collect in the last two weeks of the year.

This guide gives a 3 to 5 person AR team a week-by-week plan from early November to December 31: what to pull, who to call first, how to work around holiday payment runs, and how to keep follow-up going while people are out.

What Is a Year-End Collections Plan?

A year-end collections plan is a short, dated schedule that tells your AR team which accounts to work, in what order, and by when, so that past-due and soon-due invoices are paid before the year closes. It starts in early November, not December, because most customer AP teams finish their last payment runs of the year well before December 31.

The plan has three jobs: find every dollar that can still be collected this year, remove whatever would stop it from being paid, and keep follow-up running through the holidays. Everything else in this guide supports one of those three.

Why Should AR Teams Start Year-End Collections in November?

Start in November because the real deadline is the customer's last payment run, not December 31. If a customer's AP team pays on Thursdays and closes for the last week of the year, your invoice has to be approved and in their queue by mid-December. Anything raised after that waits until January.

Customer AP teams close early

Many AP departments run on reduced staff in late December. Approvals that need a manager can stall for a week or more when that manager is out. Asking each key account for its holiday schedule in November turns that unknown into a date you can plan around.

Bank holidays shift payment dates

The Federal Reserve Banks close on federal holidays, and ACH payments do not settle on those days. The Federal Reserve's holiday schedule lists Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 26, 2026, Christmas Day on Friday, December 25, 2026, and New Year's Day on Friday, January 1, 2027. A payment the customer schedules for one of those days settles later, so ask for dates that fall before them.

Disputes take time to clear

A disputed invoice will not be paid in the last week of the year. A missing proof of delivery, a pricing question or a credit memo that was never issued can take two or three weeks to resolve. Starting in November leaves time to fix the issue and still make the customer's last payment run.

What Should You Pull Before You Start?

Before anyone picks up the phone, build one list the whole team works from. Pull it in the first week of November and refresh it every Monday.

Every open invoice that can still be paid this year

Start from your aging report. Include everything past due plus everything due before December 31. Our guide to AR aging report analysis covers the checks that make that report reliable.

Disputes, deductions and unapplied cash

Flag every invoice with an open dispute or short payment, and every unapplied payment or credit sitting on the account. Unapplied cash makes the aging look worse than it is, so clear it first. Our guide to clearing unapplied cash explains how.

Open promises to pay

List every promise to pay with a date in November or December. Each one becomes a check on the day after the promised date. Our guide to promise-to-pay tracking shows how to log them so nothing is missed.

Customer payment calendars

For your top accounts by balance, note the AP contact, the payment run day, any portal submission deadline, and the last payment run of the year once you have it.

How Do You Decide Which Accounts to Work First?

Work the accounts where the most money can still be collected this year, then the accounts where something has to be fixed before they can pay. Do not work the list in alphabetical order or by age alone.

A simple ranking works for most small teams:

• Large past-due balances with no dispute: call these first, in the first two weeks.

• Invoices with a fixable problem: a missing PO, missing paperwork, a pricing question or a portal rejection. Give each one an owner and a fix date.

• Invoices due in December: confirm they are approved and scheduled before the customer's last run.

• Small past-due balances: keep them on a steady email and statement cadence.

• Accounts in serious trouble: decide with the controller in November whether to escalate, offer a plan or hold new orders.

Our guide to how to prioritize collections accounts goes deeper on building a simple score.

What Does an 8-Week Year-End Collections Plan Look Like?

The table below assumes you start on Monday, November 9, 2026. Shift the dates if you start earlier or later, but keep the order.

What Should Happen in Each Phase?

Weeks 1 and 2: set up and make the big calls

Send each key account a short email asking for three things: their last payment run of the year, any holiday closure dates, and the right contact if the usual one is out. Then call the largest past-due balances. Every call ends with a payment date, a named dispute or a reason to escalate.

A call that ends with "we'll look into it" is not finished until you have a date.

Weeks 3 and 4: clear the blockers

Thanksgiving week is short, so use it for work that does not need the customer to answer the phone: send customer statements, resubmit rejected invoices through supplier portal invoicing, and document open disputes. Then spend week 4 resolving disputes. Our guide to resolving invoice disputes walks through the steps.

Weeks 5 and 6: lock in payment dates

By the second week of December, most invoices that will be paid this year are already in the customer's approval queue. Confirm each one: is it approved, which payment run is it on, and how will it be paid? Customers who still pay by check need extra lead time for the mail. If you want fewer checks next year, our guide to moving customers from checks to ACH shows how to start.

Weeks 7 and 8: cover the holidays and close clean

The last two weeks are about coverage. Every promised payment gets checked the next business day, and cash gets applied as it arrives so the year-end aging is accurate. On December 31, list every account that carries into January with its next step and owner, so the first week of January starts with a plan instead of a backlog.

How Do You Keep Collections Running When Your Team Takes Time Off?

Plan coverage before anyone leaves. On a 3 to 5 person team, one collector out for a week leaves a whole book of accounts with no one checking promises or replies.

Write a short handoff for every book

Before a collector leaves, they list open promises, disputes in progress and any account that needs a call while they are out. Our collector handoff checklist gives a template.

Stagger time off around the payment runs

Keep at least one person working the week before Christmas, when many AP teams make their last runs. The week between Christmas and New Year's is usually quieter and easier to cover.

Agree on the rules in writing

Decide in November who can approve a payment plan, a credit or a hold while the AR manager is out. If you do not have a written policy yet, our guide to writing a collections policy covers the decisions to make.

For the team setup that makes coverage easier all year, see how to structure a 3 to 5 person collections team.

How Do You Measure Whether the Year-End Push Worked?

Measure it with a few numbers you can pull from your aging report and bank deposits, and compare them with the same period last year.

• Past-due balance on December 31 compared with November 1.

• Cash collected in November and December compared with your forecast. Our guide to forecasting cash collections shows how to build one.

• Promise kept rate: promised dollars that arrived on or before the promised date.

• Disputes opened in November that were resolved by December 31.

• Accounts carried into January with a dated next step.

Your year-end DSO will reflect all of this. For the levers that keep DSO down the rest of the year, see how to lower DSO without hiring.

Where Does Abivo Fit in a Year-End Push?

A year-end push adds calls, emails and checks to a team that is already busy, right when people want time off. Abivo gives the routine follow-up to Kate, an AI collections agent that calls, emails and texts customers about overdue invoices, works from your ERP data, and logs every reply and promised payment date back to the account.

That keeps every account followed up through the holidays, even when a collector is out, and frees your team to spend December on disputes, key accounts and the conversations that need a person. Abivo connects with systems including NetSuite and QuickBooks, and our OFS Group case study shows how one team put it to work.

Practical Takeaways for AR Managers Planning Year-End Collections

• Start in early November. The real deadline is each customer's last payment run, not December 31.

• Ask every key account for its holiday schedule and last payment run in the first week.

• Work large past-due balances first, then the invoices with fixable problems.

• Use Thanksgiving week for statements, portal resubmissions and dispute paperwork.

• Check every promised payment the next business day, including Christmas week.

• Plan coverage before anyone takes time off, with a written handoff for every book.

• Close the year with a dated January list for every account that carries over.

For the cleanup side of year end, such as reconciling the ledger and reviewing old balances, see our year-end AR cleanup checklist.

Frequently Asked Questions

When should you start year-end collections?

Start in the first or second week of November. Many customer AP teams make their last payment run of the year in mid-December, so an invoice has to be approved and scheduled before then to be paid this year.

Do customers pay invoices in the last week of December?

Some do, but many AP teams run on reduced staff or close between Christmas and New Year's. Ask each key account for its last payment run of the year and plan your follow-up around that date.

How do bank holidays affect year-end payments?

ACH payments do not settle on federal holidays. In 2026, Christmas Day falls on Friday, December 25, and New Year's Day on Friday, January 1, 2027, so payments scheduled for those days settle on a later business day.

Which accounts should get attention first at year end?

Large past-due balances with no dispute come first, then invoices with a fixable problem such as a missing PO or a pricing question. Small balances can stay on a steady email and statement cadence.

Can an AI collections agent help over the holidays?

Yes. An AI collections agent like Kate keeps routine follow-up running when collectors are out, checks promised payments, and logs replies to the account, so your team comes back in January to an up-to-date book.

Ready to keep follow-up running through year end and beyond? Get Started with Abivo.