The SETTLE Method
SETTLE is a six-step payment navigation system for resolving overdue and disputed business invoices. It works in the stage between routine reminders and formal collection, starts by finding out why an invoice is unpaid, and sets a clear next step towards payment.
Time drives everything
SETTLE is not an event-driven system. It is a time-driven payment navigation system. Most businesses react when an invoice becomes overdue. SETTLE starts much earlier.
Every stage is built around one critical date: the agreed payment due date.
If the practitioner does not know the following, the SETTLE Method cannot be applied correctly:
- The invoice date
- The agreed payment terms
- The agreed payment due date
Everything in SETTLE revolves around protecting that date.
Before the conversation
- S
Signal
Spot trouble before the due date.
Most late payments give notice. A customer's habits change, a purchase order goes missing, a contact leaves. Signal is the habit of noticing before the due date, not after.
- E
Engage
Make the first contact easy to answer.
The first message sets the tone for everything after it. Make it easy to answer: specific, polite and clear about what happens next.
The conversation
- T
Trace
Find the real reason it's unpaid.
An unpaid invoice has a reason. Until you know it, you are guessing. Trace sorts the cause so the next step fits it. There are four common causes: a dispute, a cash flow problem, an admin error, or avoidance.
- T
Talk
Negotiate an outcome both sides can keep.
Negotiation here means finding an outcome both sides can keep. Focus on what each side needs, not on winning the argument. Common outcomes are a payment plan, a partial payment now with the balance later, a corrected invoice, or a credit note plus payment.
- L
Lock
Put the agreement in writing.
A verbal agreement is a hope. Lock turns what was agreed into a short written record that both sides acknowledge.
If it fails
- E
Escalate
Escalate with cause, on a clean record.
Sometimes the agreement fails. Escalation is a decision, not a reflex, and it goes best when the record is already in order.
Want the full training? Take the SETTLE Method course — $199 AUD, lifetime access.
SETTLE is a general payment navigation system, not legal advice.
Learn the whole method, step by step.
The SETTLE Method course covers all six steps with checklists and scripts you can use the same day. One payment of $199 AUD, lifetime access.