How Pettus Workplace Solutions Decreased 60+ Days Past Due Amounts by 96% With Kolleno

About Pettus Workplace Solutions 

Based in Little Rock, Arkansas, Pettus Workplace Solutions has become a trusted provider of office supplies, janitorial products, and furniture for businesses across the region. Under the leadership of President Josh Pettus, the company has earned a reputation for reliability, responsiveness, and customer-first service.

However, behind the scenes, managing financial operations was becoming a growing challenge. With an expanding client base and increasing transaction volume, Pettus’ manual collections process, relying heavily on spreadsheets, was no longer sustainable. 

They needed a smarter, faster, and more automated solution to keep cash flowing and customers engaged. That’s when they discovered Kolleno.

The Challenges

Despite their outward success, Pettus Workplace Solutions was struggling behind the scenes with an outdated, manual collections process. As the business grew and customer accounts multiplied, managing accounts receivable with numerous spreadsheets became inefficient. 

Delayed follow-ups, missed payments, and rising overdue balances were becoming an issue, and the finance team was under mounting pressure to find a better way.

1. Overwhelming Manual Processes

Before implementing Kolleno, Pettus Workplace Solutions managed collections the old-fashioned way, through Excel spreadsheets. Two accounting employees juggled both payables and receivables, manually updating spreadsheets and trying to remember which customers had been contacted and which payments were overdue.

“We were working off an Excel spreadsheet to manage receivables—and if you forgot something, you just missed it,” said Josh Pettus, President of Pettus Workplace Solutions.

Without automation or centralized tracking, collections depended heavily on individual diligence and memory. As customer volume grew, cracks started to show, and missed follow-ups became a costly problem.

2. High Operational Costs

These manual processes weren’t just inefficient—they carried a real cost. Pettus needed two full-time team members to manage AR alongside AP. Even then, critical tasks slipped through the cracks. Time that could have been spent on growth initiatives or customer service was instead buried in endless follow-up emails and spreadsheet updates.

Josh recognized that continuing down this path would mean ballooning operational costs and jeopardizing cash flow as late payments piled up.

3. Lack of Visibility and Control

With no centralized system to monitor collections activities, Pettus had limited real-time insight into their receivables. Identifying top debtors, tracking aging invoices, monitoring promises to pay, or even quickly seeing the amount collected required a manual deep-dive every time.

There was no way to see the full picture at a glance. This made strategic cash flow forecasting difficult and forced the team to operate reactively instead of proactively.

The Solution

Why Kolleno AR Management?

Pettus Workplace Solutions needed a comprehensive system that could automate communications, provide real-time insights, and streamline the entire collections lifecycle.

They were looking for the following capabilities:

• Workflows for automated communication to ensure no customer fell through the cracks.
• Automated reporting to track performance metrics effortlessly.
• A centralized dashboard to monitor top debtors, aging buckets, promises to pay, and collections progress in real time.

Kolleno checked every box. 

“Once we realized that Kolleno could automate our entire collections process, it was the obvious choice out of all the options we’d researched,” said Josh Pettus. 

Implementing Kolleno transformed how Pettus Workplace Solutions managed collections. With automation, real-time data, and centralized control in place, Josh Pettus and his team quickly saw massive improvements across every critical AR metric. 

Processes that once took hours and plenty of guesswork were now seamless, trackable, and delivering real ROI.

Workflows for Automated Communication

Before Kolleno, managing customer communications around receivables was a highly manual, time-intensive process. Josh’s team had to remember to send reminders, compose emails manually, and track responses by hand. The chance of something slipping through the cracks was high and growing.

With Kolleno’s automated workflows, that entire manual burden disappeared. Pettus Workplace Solutions built intelligent sequences that automatically sent tailored communications based on invoice status, due dates, and customer profiles. Friendly reminders, overdue notices, and escalation emails went out automatically, keeping clients informed without any manual intervention.

“The automated email feature is hands down my favorite,” said Josh Pettus. “It took something that was painful and made it effortless.”

And the best part? These emails weren’t cold or robotic. Kolleno’s templates allowed the team to personalize messages, maintaining the professionalism and warmth that Pettus Workplace Solutions is known for.

The results were immediate: faster payments, fewer disputes, and dramatically less internal stress. Customers responded faster because communication was proactive, clear, and consistent—without overwhelming the accounting team.

“Now I know that every customer is being followed up with automatically and nothing gets missed,” Josh added.

Real-Time Automated Reporting

Visibility into collections performance used to mean digging through spreadsheets and manually cobbling together aging reports. It was tedious, error-prone, and reactive. Without accurate, real-time data, Pettus Workplace Solutions struggled to anticipate cash flow trends or highlight emerging risks.

Kolleno’s real-time reporting changed that overnight.

Now, Josh and his team can pull detailed reports on aging buckets, overdue invoices, promises to pay, collected amounts, and more—at any time, with a few clicks. Dashboards update automatically as payments are made or invoices are generated, ensuring leadership always has the latest view of financial health.

The team uses these reports for everything from day-to-day collections management to quarterly board meetings. Having real-time insights not only improved operational decision-making but also elevated strategic planning. For the first time, Josh could track KPIs like DSO (days sales outstanding) in real time and make adjustments before small issues became bigger cash flow problems.

Centralized Dashboard for Full AR Visibility

One of the most prominent changes for Pettus Workplace Solutions was the shift from scattered information to centralized control. Before Kolleno, key data, like which customers owed what, aging trends, and promises to pay, was fragmented across spreadsheets, email threads, and accounting notes. Managing collections felt like putting together a puzzle with missing pieces.

Today, everything lives inside Kolleno’s centralized dashboard.

The dashboard provides real-time visibility into:

• Top 10 debtors by outstanding balance
• Aging buckets (current, 30+, 60+, 90+ days overdue)
• Open promises to pay
• Collected amounts against monthly targets
• Upcoming payment schedules

This real-time view allows Josh and his team to immediately spot risks, prioritize follow-ups, and forecast incoming cash. Instead of reacting to overdue invoices after they become a problem, they proactively manage accounts well before payment issues arise.

The dashboard became their daily command center—a single source of truth that eliminated second-guessing and disconnected systems. It also made reporting to senior leadership effortless, providing clear visuals and metrics that highlighted the impact of AR efforts over time.

“With Kolleno, we can understand our collections position and take action faster than ever before,” Josh emphasized.

The Onboarding Experience

Software integrations are notoriously painful, but Kolleno’s onboarding process stood out as refreshingly smooth and collaborative. From the outset, the Kolleno team acted like a true partner to help kickstart Pettus’ financial transformation.

“The hardest part of any software project is onboarding—and Kolleno’s team was there every step of the way,” said Josh Pettus. 

Unlike previous integrations Josh’s team had experienced with other software providers, some of which dragged on for months and created major disruptions, Kolleno’s onboarding was efficient, transparent, and surprisingly straightforward. The team understood Pettus Workplace Solutions’ specific needs before configuring Kolleno based on their exact workflows.

For example, they created customized automated communication templates, mapped out collections workflows, set up centralized reporting dashboards, and integrated the platform seamlessly with Pettus’ existing systems.

“Compared to other integrations we’ve been through, this was by far one of the easiest,” Josh emphasized. “The team really listened to what we needed, made smart recommendations, and helped us get up and running quickly without overwhelming us.”

The result? Within a matter of weeks, Pettus Workplace Solutions had fully transitioned from manual collections chaos to a proactive, automated, and data-driven AR process. The team needed little training or help to get started due to the platform’s intuitive design.

Most importantly, the quick and effective onboarding meant that Pettus could start seeing improvements in cash flow, overdue reductions, and operational efficiency almost immediately, delivering fast time to value.

The Impact

The results speak for themselves. Partnering with Kolleno fundamentally changed the way Pettus Workplace Solutions operates and the impact was immediate, measurable, and transformational.

In just a short period, Pettus achieved staggering improvements across their key financial metrics:

• 50% reduction in total overdue invoices
• 60% decrease in median days to pay, slashing it from 60 days to just 24 days
• 96% reduction in the amount overdue from 60+ days

By automating communication, streamlining workflows, and providing real-time insights, Kolleno freed Josh’s team from manual busywork and allowed them to focus on what matters: driving cash flow, building stronger customer relationships, and growing the business.

Operationally, the changes were just as profound. With two fewer accounting roles needed for collections, Pettus realized significant cost savings without sacrificing service quality. The accounting team could now manage receivables with confidence, clarity, and minimal stress.

Moreover, the cultural shift was real. Collections, once seen as a painful, reactive burden, evolved into a proactive, strategic advantage. Armed with real-time dashboards, intelligent workflows, and instant reporting, Pettus Workplace Solutions now manages AR with the same level of precision and professionalism as their sales and service operations.

“We’re not just collecting faster, we’re operating smarter at every level,” Josh said. “Kolleno turned our collections into a strength rather than a liability.”

Put simply, partnering with Kolleno has helped Pettus Workplace Solutions scale efficiently, stay cash-positive, and create a more resilient financial foundation for future growth.

“Kolleno reduced our 60+ day overdue amounts by 96%. That’s not a small impact—it’s transformational”

– Josh Pettus, President, Pettus Workplace Solutions

Ready to Take Charge of Your Collections?

Book a demo today and discover how Kolleno can help you automate AR workflows, reduce overdue invoices, and boost your cash flow effortlessly.

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• Collections & AR Management
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