The week-of chase checklist I use so an AR sheet still matches what is open

Mid-AR honesty is necessary. Week-of chase is different. The morning you decide "I will chase from this sheet today" is when a paid PDF is still greening Open, a duplicate filename is still summed twice, a credit memo is still filed like a payment that cleared the wrong invoice, a partial still looks like the full balance, a superseded invoice is still on the chase list, and an invented due date is still looking official enough to email about.

I am Brittany Bonds, a freelancer admin helper. I turn messy invoice PDF piles into a clean accounts-receivable sheet. I am not a CPA, bookkeeper, lawyer, tax advisor, or collections agent, and this is not financial, tax, legal, collections, or accounting advice. It is a practical week-of chase checklist for keeping open balances, statuses, and invoice identities visibly honest before anyone treats the sheet as the chase list.

This is complementary to my earlier posts, not a rewrite. My first-pass workflow is How I turn a pile of invoice PDFs into an AR sheet. The second pass is The mid-AR checklist I use so an accounts-receivable sheet stays honest. This third pass is the week-of chase check: the moment when someone may email, call, or escalate from the open column.

What "honest enough to chase" looks like

• Open filter shows real money still open — not paid PDFs, duplicates, or voided folklore still greening
• Open / partial / credited / void / ask are still separated — nothing looks chaseable that is still unclear
• Every chase-ready row has customer, invoice #, amount remaining, and evidenced due date or is labeled ask
• Credits reduce the right invoice (or sit as linked negatives) — not misfiled as payments that zero the wrong row
• Superseded and replaced invoices are archived — not still on today's chase list beside this week's open balance
• Aging buckets (if you use them) use remaining open + evidenced due — tidy buckets that ignore partials are theater
• You can answer "who still owes what, by which invoice, as of when?" without reopening the PDF folder

If the only chase plan you have is a sticky labeled "blast the open column," week-of chase honesty has already slipped.

The week-of chase checklist

Use this against the near-final AR sheet and the live artifacts (invoice PDF folder, payment notes, credit memos, bank matches if provided) before anyone treats the sheet as this week's chase truth.

1. Kill paid / duplicate / superseded inflation before anyone hits send

• [ ] Paid invoices are marked paid (with paid date when known) — do not leave them greening Open
• [ ] Duplicate PDFs of the same invoice # + amount are one row — not two chase lines
• [ ] Superseded, voided, or replaced invoices are archived — not still looking live
• [ ] Estimates / quotes that look like invoices stay out unless marked billed
• [ ] Skim test: Open shows live money only, not a museum of paid and void ghosts

2. Separate open, partial, credit, and ask before anyone trusts the chase filter

• [ ] Status is open / partial / credited / void / ask — not a single Open checkbox for everything
• [ ] Partials show amount paid + amount remaining — full original still open is silent-partial theater
• [ ] Credits / credit memos are separate negatives or linked credits — not misfiled as payments that clear the wrong invoice
• [ ] Rows without customer name, invoice #, or amount are ask — missing identity is not a chase list
• [ ] Skim test: a new teammate can answer "what is actually chaseable today?" from the sheet alone

3. Lock due dates, aging, and PDF sources

• [ ] Due dates exist only when evidenced on the PDF / notes — invented Net-30 folklore stays guess / ask
• [ ] Aging buckets (0–30 / 31–60 / 61+) use remaining open + evidenced due — tidy buckets that ignore partials stay incomplete
• [ ] Every chase-ready row maps to a PDF (or named export) — folder folklore without a row is not AR
• [ ] Soft cutoff / as-of is named once — older closed noise stays out or flagged
• [ ] Skim test: sorting by invoice # shows one open line per invoice, not doubles across PDF + export

4. Honesty tripwires (before you treat the sheet as chase-ready)

• [ ] You did not promote "folder looks empty of red" to "all open and ready to blast"
• [ ] Incomplete sections stay Needs-confirm / incomplete — not silently promoted to chase-ready because the sheet looked sparse
• [ ] Private / pricing / legal lines the client said to keep out stay out of any share view
• [ ] Raw dump artifacts (unfinished paste, named complainers, draft notes) are out of the chase view
• [ ] Skim test: a stranger can answer "who owes what, by which invoice, what's still open?" from the sheet alone

Soft CTA

If you have a pile of invoice PDFs and want a clean AR sheet in 24 hours: arsheet on Gumroad ($12). Code ADMIN12 for $2 off. Full shop: brittanybonds.gumroad.com. Catalog mirror: brittany-bonds.github.io.

Not financial, tax, legal, collections, or accounting advice — just admin cleanup so the open story matches the PDFs.