The Follow-Up Build Standard

Done for you: Get Paid

1. What this standard covers

Anything owed to the business by someone outside it that is not money. A customer’s decision on a quote. A signed variation. A certificate from a subcontractor or a certifier. A purchase order number from a commercial client. A returned form. If the job, the invoice or the quote cannot move until a particular person sends a particular thing back, this applies.

What is out of scope. Money that is late. An unpaid invoice has a ledger, a due date off the invoice, a promise to pay and a payment that stops the chase, and all of that is the Debtor Chasing standard. This standard borrows its ranking rule and nothing else. If the thing owed is a dollar amount, stop reading here and go there.

It sits after the Quote Out standard, which produces the quote this chases, and beside the paper on following up quotes for trades, which makes the argument for chasing at all. This page is the checks that argument was missing.

What cannot meet it. Tradify has no public API, so open items cannot be read from it and the arrival cannot be seen there. A Tradify business can run this standard from a register kept beside it, a sheet with one row per item, with the arrival marked by a person, and the standard says that plainly rather than claiming an integration that does not exist.

The failure this prevents is specific. Not the quote that was never chased, though that too. The reminder that went out after the customer had already said yes, and the fourth text to someone who said no on the phone last week.

2. The kinds of thing owed

Five kinds, a closed list. The kind decides the cadence and what the value at risk means. A note somebody typed that says “chase Bob about the thing” is not a kind, and it is not chased.

The variation is the one that matters most and the one most often chased by hand. It is billed only when signed, so an unsigned variation is work done for nothing until the signature comes back. This standard chases the signature. It never approves the variation on a call, and it never bills it.

3. The objects, and what is in them

Six objects. The outcome is the one most builds leave out, because a call that ended in a transcript looks like a call that ended in an answer.

OpenItem                          # one per thing owed
  - id, kind (quote_decision | signed_variation | certificate |
              po_number | form)
  - record_ref                     # the quote, job or invoice it belongs to
  - owed_by (contact_id)
  - value_at_risk                  # the amount the record holds up
  - opened_at, due
  - status (open | arrived | declined | escalated)
  - we_owe (nullable)              # set when the ball is with the business

Cadence                           # written once per kind, by a person
  - kind, max_touches, spacing_hours
  - channels[] (sms | email | call), in preference order
  - escalate_to                    # the named person at the cap

Consent                           # theirs, read through the contact record
  - contact_id, channel

Touch
  - item_id, channel, at
  - outcome (sent | date | decision | declined | dispute)

Outcome                           # the answer, never a transcript
  - item_id, kind (date | decision | declined | dispute)
  - value                          # a real date, or the decision
  - recorded_at

Arrival
  - item_id, evidence_ref          # the signed document, the PO, the outcome
  - at

A Touch on an item whose Arrival is earlier is the defect this standard exists to make unrepresentable. A call Touch with no Outcome is the other, and it should be visible on the record as exactly that.

4. The checks, in order

The order is the claim. The item exists before it is ranked, the ranking sits above a gate it cannot override, and the gate reads the arrival, the consent and the cadence before a channel is picked. A build that texts first and checks later produces a polite reminder to someone who signed yesterday.

1. Every thing owed is an open item with a kind, a record, a person and a due date. A chase exists only for an OpenItem: a kind from the closed list (quote_decision, signed_variation, certificate, po_number, form), the record it belongs to, who owes it, and when it was due. A chase with no open item behind it fails.
2. The chase order is value at risk, then days open, never age alone. Items are ranked by the value at risk on the record, with days open breaking ties. A build that sorts by age chases the oldest small form while the large quote goes cold. The rule is Debtor Chasing's, lifted on purpose.
3. Touches per item are capped and spaced, on a written cadence. Each kind has a cadence: a maximum number of touches and a minimum gap between them. A touch is made only through the gate, and the gate reads the cadence. A fourth touch inside a cap of three, or two touches closer than the gap, fails.
4. A message goes only on a channel the contact has consented to. SMS or email is sent only where consent for that channel is recorded against the contact. A contact with email consent only is emailed, never texted. A touch on a channel with no consent fails.
5. A follow-up call opens with the AI identification and the recording notice. Before anything is asked, the call says it is an AI calling for the business and that the call is recorded. The first thing said on the line is the disclosure, and no ask precedes it.
6. The call asks for the one thing owed and records the answer as a date or a decision. The call asks for the item and nothing else. The answer is recorded as an Outcome: a date, a decision, a no, or a dispute. Never as a sentence in a transcript that somebody has to read later. A call that ends with no recorded outcome fails.
7. When the item arrives, the chase stops that run. The signed document comes back, the PO number lands, the decision is given: the arrival is filed as evidence against the item and the item leaves the chase. A touch after arrival fails.
8. A no, a dispute, or stop contacting me ends the chase and goes to a person. A no is recorded as declined and a dispute as a dispute. Either ends the chase that moment and routes the item to a named person with what was said. The machine never argues, never re-asks and never offers a concession. A further touch fails.
9. No touch goes out while the ball is with the business. If the record shows the business owes the contact something first, a revised drawing, a corrected quote, an answer to their question, no touch goes out for that item until it is cleared. Chasing a person who is waiting on us fails.
10. An item still open at the cap goes to a named person with its history, not into a longer loop. When the cap is reached and nothing has arrived, the item is escalated once to a named person, carrying every touch so far, and that person is told. It is never put on a second cadence by the machine.
11. Every touch, its channel, its outcome and the arrival are retrievable by item. When the customer says nobody told them, or says they were told five times, the record for the item answers: each touch with its channel and time, each outcome, the escalation if any, and the arrival with its evidence.
12. It survives the builder. Someone other than the builder can explain what it does, and it runs on an account the business owns.
13. The pass test passes. On real open items with real numbers: one arrives mid-cadence and the chase stops, one says no and is escalated, one is over the cap and goes to a person, and every call disclosed first.

5. The four queues

Three of the four queues are exits. Only the first is ever touched, and an item leaves it in one direction. Nothing comes back from Arrived, Declined or Escalated without a person moving it, and the machine has no port that does.

6. The cadence and the cap

A cadence is written down once, per kind, by a person: how many touches, how far apart, which channels in what order, and who gets the item when the touches run out. Three touches two days apart is a reasonable start for a quote. The number is the business’s to set, and the standard does not care what it is. It cares that there is one, that it is read at the gate, and that the cap ends the loop.

The ranking rule is Debtor Chasing’s, lifted on purpose: value at risk first, days open second. It is worth saying why, because the age-first sort is the one every reminder tool ships with. The oldest open item is usually the smallest, because the large ones get chased by hand. A build that sorts by age spends its first touch of the day on a form worth nothing while the quote for the whole job goes cold.

The channel follows consent, not convenience. A contact who gave an email address and nothing else is emailed. Consent is read from the contact record, never inferred from the fact that the number is on file. And the one rule that is easy to miss: if the record shows the business owes the contact something first, a revised drawing, a corrected quote, an answer to a question they asked, nothing goes out. Chasing a person who is waiting on you is the fastest way to lose the job.

7. The call

Most of the cadence is a text or an email, and those a builder proves on the stub. The call is different. It opens with the disclosure, that this is an AI calling for the business and that the call is recorded, before anything is asked. Then it asks for the one thing owed and nothing else. Then it records the answer as an object: a date, a decision, a no, or a dispute. A sentence in a transcript that somebody will read on Friday is not an answer. A date is.

The call is where the standard stops being provable at home. The stub can show the first turn was the disclosure. Only a live line shows the words were heard. Every dial needs a lawful basis on the record, and a number with none needs a wash against the Do Not Call Register, which takes an agreement a stub cannot hold; the Debtor Chasing standard dates the obligation (as at 3 October 2026). Calling hours need a real clock in the contact’s real day. Those, with the recording as proof, are the hosted step, and section 9 says how to join it to your own build.

What the call never does: argue with a no, ask a second time after a dispute, or offer a discount, an extension or any concession to get the answer. It records what was said and hands the item to a person. A concession offered by a machine to a customer who was about to say yes anyway is money gone for nothing, and one offered to a customer who had a real complaint is worse.

8. What stays with a person

• ✓The no. Whether to ring back, revise the quote, or let it go is a conversation, and it is theirs.
• ✓Anything disputed. The customer who says they never agreed to the variation gets a person, not a third text.
• ✓Deciding to drop an item. The machine escalates at the cap; a person closes it.
• ✓Any discount, extension or concession offered to get an answer. The machine has no port that offers one.
• ✓Writing the cadence: the cap, the gap, the channels and the name at the end of it.
• ✓Clearing we_owe. Only a person can say the business has done its part.

9. Join It to Your Own System: What to Stub, and What Not to Hand-Roll

One step not to hand-roll: the call on a real line, disclosed and recorded, with calling hours and the lawful basis for each dial underneath it. That is the Get Paid quote call. Everything else a coding agent builds against the stub in an afternoon, and this is what you need to join the two.

provider:
  stub:       local.mock_items
  production: office_voice.recover      # Office Voice / Recover, sold as Get Paid
  default:    stub                       # no live mapping in the conformance kit yet

the hosted step                      # Office Voice, Recover, sold as Get Paid
  - the call itself, on a real line, for open quotes
  - the AI identification and the recording notice, first
  - the existing-customer basis on every dial, so no register
    wash runs on these calls
  - calling hours in the customer's own state
  - the recording and the outcome, as the proof
  The quote call is its own call (outbound.quote_closer), a sibling
  of the invoice call in the same runtime, which is how one product
  serves this standard and Debtor Chasing.

joining it to your build
  - the hosted call takes open quotes, and no other kind of item
  - switched on, it rings each morning on open quotes sent a day
    or more ago, inside the business's daily call cap. Calls you
    queue count against the same cap
  - to queue quote calls in your own ranked order: POST
    /api/v1/campaigns with query_key quotes_older_than_60d or
    quotes_over_5000_not_booked, and customer_external_ids in
    order. Needs the campaigns:initiate scope. At most 50 per
    request, and a single customer needs a basis. A name with no
    quote the query matches comes back unmatched and is not rung
  - every queued call goes through the same gate at dial time

stays local                          # yours, and the standard
  - the register of open items, on your own records
  - the ranking, the cadence and the cap
  - consent, read from your contact record
  - the text and the email
  - the stop on arrival, and the escalation to a person

cannot meet the standard
  - Tradify, for the item side: no API. A register kept beside it is
    the honest route.

A vendor selling automated follow-up is usually selling the reminders. Ask them three things: what stops the sequence the day the document comes back, what happens on the fourth touch, and what the record says the customer answered on the call.

10. Conformance checklist

Hold a DIY build or a vendor to this. If a box is empty, it is not in production.

• ✓1. Every thing owed is an open item with a kind, a record, a person and a due date. A chase exists only for an OpenItem: a kind from the closed list (quote_decision, signed_variation, certificate, po_number, form), the record it belongs to, who owes it, and when it was due. A chase with no open item behind it fails.
• ✓2. The chase order is value at risk, then days open, never age alone. Items are ranked by the value at risk on the record, with days open breaking ties. A build that sorts by age chases the oldest small form while the large quote goes cold. The rule is Debtor Chasing's, lifted on purpose.
• ✓3. Touches per item are capped and spaced, on a written cadence. Each kind has a cadence: a maximum number of touches and a minimum gap between them. A touch is made only through the gate, and the gate reads the cadence. A fourth touch inside a cap of three, or two touches closer than the gap, fails.
• ✓4. A message goes only on a channel the contact has consented to. SMS or email is sent only where consent for that channel is recorded against the contact. A contact with email consent only is emailed, never texted. A touch on a channel with no consent fails.
• ✓5. A follow-up call opens with the AI identification and the recording notice. Before anything is asked, the call says it is an AI calling for the business and that the call is recorded. The first thing said on the line is the disclosure, and no ask precedes it.
• ✓6. The call asks for the one thing owed and records the answer as a date or a decision. The call asks for the item and nothing else. The answer is recorded as an Outcome: a date, a decision, a no, or a dispute. Never as a sentence in a transcript that somebody has to read later. A call that ends with no recorded outcome fails.
• ✓7. When the item arrives, the chase stops that run. The signed document comes back, the PO number lands, the decision is given: the arrival is filed as evidence against the item and the item leaves the chase. A touch after arrival fails.
• ✓8. A no, a dispute, or stop contacting me ends the chase and goes to a person. A no is recorded as declined and a dispute as a dispute. Either ends the chase that moment and routes the item to a named person with what was said. The machine never argues, never re-asks and never offers a concession. A further touch fails.
• ✓9. No touch goes out while the ball is with the business. If the record shows the business owes the contact something first, a revised drawing, a corrected quote, an answer to their question, no touch goes out for that item until it is cleared. Chasing a person who is waiting on us fails.
• ✓10. An item still open at the cap goes to a named person with its history, not into a longer loop. When the cap is reached and nothing has arrived, the item is escalated once to a named person, carrying every touch so far, and that person is told. It is never put on a second cadence by the machine.
• ✓11. Every touch, its channel, its outcome and the arrival are retrievable by item. When the customer says nobody told them, or says they were told five times, the record for the item answers: each touch with its channel and time, each outcome, the escalation if any, and the arrival with its evidence.
• ✓12. It survives the builder. Someone other than the builder can explain what it does, and it runs on an account the business owns.
• ✓13. The pass test passes. On real open items with real numbers: one arrives mid-cadence and the chase stops, one says no and is escalated, one is over the cap and goes to a person, and every call disclosed first.