Can you help me start taking deposits before projects begin?

Yes. If you currently work mostly on post-payment terms, I can help you introduce deposits without making the client experience awkward. We can work out where a deposit makes sense, how much to ask for, when it should be due, and how to communicate the change to existing and new clients. I can also handle the payment follow-up once the process is in place. The goal isn’t just to chase invoices faster. It’s to build better payment habits into the way your agency works.

We finished the work, but the client has been ignoring me for weeks. Can you help?

Yes. This is one of the situations the service is designed for. I can take over the overdue payment follow-up, establish what is actually blocking payment, keep the conversation moving, and escalate it when needed. Sometimes the invoice is genuinely stuck in procurement or finance. Sometimes nobody internally has taken ownership. And sometimes the client is simply avoiding the conversation. Those situations need different approaches. You stay informed, but you don’t have to spend another three weeks writing increasingly uncomfortable “just following up” emails.

Why hire payment operations support instead of an accountant or bookkeeper?

Because accounting and payment follow-through are different jobs. Your accountant can tell you that an invoice is overdue. They usually aren’t responsible for managing the client relationship around it, navigating procurement, chasing approvals, figuring out who is blocking payment, or deciding when and how to escalate. Payment operations sits between finance, client communication, and account management. I work on the client side of the problem: getting the payment process unstuck and keeping it moving until the money arrives.

Why not just hire a VA to chase invoices?

You can, if the job is purely administrative. But payment follow-up often stops being administrative very quickly. Clients can usually tell from the language, framing, and questions whether they are speaking to someone who has authority and understands commercial relationships. And when they sense that the person following up has no real decision-making power, the message becomes easier to postpone. That is the uncomfortable part. You don’t necessarily need another full-time operations executive. But you do need someone who can communicate like one. With this service, you get senior-level client and payment communication backed by 15 years of operational experience, at a cost closer to outsourced admin support. That works because the process is narrow, structured, and heavily streamlined.

Will my clients know I outsourced payment follow-up?

They will know they are speaking to someone responsible for payment operations on your side. That is the point. I’m not pretending to be you, and I’m not sending generic collections emails. The communication should feel like a natural extension of your agency: professional, informed, calm, and appropriately firm. You stay the person responsible for the client relationship. I become the person responsible for keeping the payment process moving.

Will this damage my client relationships?

It shouldn’t. In many cases, it does the opposite. One reason founders struggle with overdue payments is that they are trying to protect the relationship while also asking for money. Those two roles can become emotionally tangled. Separating them helps. You can continue discussing the work and the relationship with the client, while I handle the payment process. The communication stays professional and proportionate, with escalation only when it is actually necessary.

Do you work with late invoices only?

No. I can help with the whole client-side payment process: deposits, payment schedules, invoice follow-ups, procurement delays, overdue payments, internal blockers, and escalation. The best time to fix payment operations is actually before an invoice becomes 45 days overdue.

What happens if a client simply refuses to pay?

I can manage the commercial follow-up and escalation process, but this isn’t a debt collection or legal service. If the issue reaches the point where legal action, formal debt recovery, or a solicitor is required, I’ll make that clear and help you organize the communication and documentation for the next step. The aim is to resolve the issue before it gets there whenever possible.

Who is this service for?

Small agencies and studios where the founder or another senior person is still personally managing deposits, invoice reminders, procurement questions, and overdue payments. It is particularly useful if you have good revenue but uneven payment timing, a small number of high-value clients, or clients with complicated procurement processes. The service is intentionally narrow: I take payment chasing off the founder’s plate without adding another full-time operations hire.

Collected42

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About

Collected42 is one person running payment operations for small agencies.

The plain version of what this is, who runs it, what it costs, and what it is not — so there is one page that answers those questions without marketing language.

The facts

What it is

An outsourced client payment operations function for small B2B agencies, studios and consultancies.

What that covers

Deposits before work starts, payment reminders, overdue invoice follow-up, procurement and accounts-payable blockers, and escalation inside the client finance team.

Who runs it

Tatiana Thieree, fractional client payment operations executive. She also runs the design agency Prznt Perfect, which is where the problem came from.

Who it is for

Small B2B agencies and studios invoicing roughly $5,000 to $20,000 per project, where the founder or another senior person is still chasing payment personally.

Who it is not for

Bookkeeping and accounting work, legal disputes, aggressive debt collection, or firms that already employ dedicated payment operations staff.

What it costs

$490 per month, month to month, for up to 10 active payment threads. Free 3-day trial. Cancel any time.

Also available

The Payment Ops Wiki — eight modules and fourteen templates, $6.99, lifetime access and ongoing updates.

Not to be confused with

Collective42, the design agency in Encinitas, or Collected, the Level 42 album. Collected42 has no connection to either.

Why this exists

Most late payments are not refusals. Invoices stall because nobody approved them, there is no PO, the entity on the invoice is wrong, or they missed a payment run. Those are operational problems, and they get solved by someone working the thread — not by a founder sending a fourth polite reminder.

The awkward part is that the founder is the wrong person to send that reminder, because the founder is also the person holding the client relationship. Separating those two roles is the whole idea: you keep the relationship, Collected42 runs the payment thread.

Keep the client relationship. Delegate the payment chasing.

Hand over one stalled invoice and watch it get worked before you pay anything.

Start free — 3-day trial