When a promised payment date passes without observed cash, stop using that promise as support for the original collection week. Keep the invoice's open balance visible, change the promise status to broken, and require a fresh evidence review before moving the amount to another week.

Microsoft's customer-aging documentation describes updating a transaction from promise-to-pay to promise-to-pay-broken when the aging date passes the promised date. Its collections automation FAQ treats disputed and promised invoices differently from resolved or broken-promise items in a collections process.

Preserve the failed assumption

Do not overwrite the original promise. Record:

  • invoice number and remaining balance;
  • promised amount and promised date;
  • source and recorded date of the promise;
  • the date cash was checked;
  • observed receipt, if any;
  • new status, owner, and next review date.

This record lets a variance review explain why expected cash did not arrive. It also prevents an old promise from silently supporting a new week.

Reforecast with an evidence ladder

Use the strongest current evidence available. An observed payment settles the relevant amount. A new specific customer commitment can support a revised assumption when its amount and date are documented. A resolved dispute or completed billing correction can change confidence, but it does not prove the payment date by itself.

If no new evidence exists, move the item to an exception or unassigned forecast bucket rather than repeatedly pushing it one week forward. The invoice remains open AR; only its timing assumption loses support.

The promise-to-pay tracking guide defines the fields for a valid commitment. The stale-evidence guide explains why old notes need explicit expiration.

Separate amount from timing

A broken promise does not automatically reduce the accounting balance, approve a write-off, or prove the invoice will never be collected. It changes the evidence for near-term timing. Keep any amount adjustment under the business's normal accounting and approval process.

For partial receipts, preserve observed cash and reforecast only the remaining open amount. If several invoices were included in one promise, allocate the commitment only when the source identifies the covered invoices; otherwise keep the customer-level note from becoming unsupported invoice-level precision.

Review the miss

Classify the variance without inventing motive: no receipt observed, partial receipt, dispute reopened, billing correction pending, customer date changed, or source data incomplete. Assign the next internal action and owner. AR Pulse does not contact customers or automate collections activity.

Decision rule

A promise supports forecast timing only through its stated date and amount. Once missed, preserve it as variance evidence, expire it as a timing signal, and require a new source before assigning a new collection week. The forecast variance review provides a repeatable review path. Teams with a valid QuickBooks export can apply for AR Pulse for a ranked cash-action list and four-week collections forecast.