git:20261104.4860813 to git:20261104.da4984f

---

name: invoice-vendor-followup

description: Finds invoice and payment threads in the mailbox that have gone unanswered, ages them, and drafts the follow-up to each counterparty. Use when the user asks what invoices are outstanding, which vendors have not replied, to chase payment or payment queries, or to prepare the aged follow-up list before a finance review.

---

# Invoice & Vendor Follow-up

Finds the invoice threads that stopped, with age and amount, and drafts the nudge.

## Inputs

- Mailbox, through **Email**

- `references/config.md` for the ageing buckets, the chase ladder and who is never chased

## Procedure

1. **Find invoice threads** over the window: invoices sent or received, payment queries, disputes,

remittance advice.

2. **Determine the state of each thread** from the last message only: awaiting their reply,

awaiting ours, resolved, or ambiguous. Ambiguous is a valid answer and must not be guessed.

3. **Age** from the last message in the thread, not from the invoice date, and bucket by config.

4. **Extract** counterparty, invoice reference, amount as written, direction (we owe / they owe),

last contact date, who spoke last, and the source link.

5. **Rank** by age within direction. Money we owe sits above money owed to us, because a missed

payable costs a relationship and a late receivable costs interest.

6. **Draft one follow-up per counterparty**, at the ladder step matching the age bucket.

## Output

| Counterparty | Ref | Amount | Direction | Last contact | Age | Waiting on | Ladder step | Source |

Then: totals by direction and bucket, threads marked ambiguous and why, drafts prepared.

## Definition of done

Every open thread is aged and attributed to a side, ambiguous ones are named rather than forced,

and every counterparty due a chase has one draft.

**Nothing outstanding is a good week.** Say it in one line.

## When there is no data

- No invoice threads in the window: say so, state the window, stop.

- A thread with no amount anywhere: list it with amount UNKNOWN rather than dropping it.

- A thread where the last message is an automated receipt: treat as awaiting their reply and say

the attribution came from an automated message.

## Boundaries

- **Draft, never send.** Especially never send a chase to a counterparty on the config exclusion

list, which exists for relationships being handled by a person.

- Never state an amount as owed. The ledger is the source of truth.

- Never escalate a ladder step on your own. The user chooses the step.

## Self-check

- Is every age measured from the last message, not the invoice date?

- Is every ambiguous thread labelled rather than guessed?

- Did I keep exclusions out entirely?