The Three Check Sweep: a roofing collections checklist for deposits, finals and holdbacks

Most money that goes missing in a roofing company was never refused. It was never asked for. The Three Check Sweep is a short weekly routine that catches it, and it works the same whether a person runs it from a spreadsheet or an AI agent runs it against your job software and your books.

The three checks, in order

1. Deposit. Every job marked sold has its deposit recorded before the crew is scheduled to roll.
2. Final. Every job marked complete has a final invoice sent, and anything still open gets a polite reminder.
3. Holdback. Every insurance job with money held back has the final bill and the paperwork in front of the insurer.

That's the whole sweep. The rest of this page is the detail for each check, the exact messages, and the rules that keep it safe. If you want the background on how an agent does this work, our guide to AI for collections in roofing covers it.

Who this is for and what you need first

This is for a roofing office that does a mix of retail and insurance work and loses track of payments once the crew moves on. You need three things before your first sweep:

• A job list with a status for each job (sold, in progress, complete). AccuLynx, a CRM or a whiteboard all work.
• Your payment record, usually QuickBooks or whatever your bookkeeper uses.
• One named person who sends or approves every message. Pick them now.

Set aside the same 20 minutes each week. Monday morning works for most offices because it catches anything that finished the week before.

Check one: every sold job has its deposit

Pull every job marked sold or scheduled. For each one, find the deposit in your books. A deposit that a customer "sent last week" but that you can't see counts as missing.

Send this when a deposit is missing:

Hi [first name], this is [your name] at [company]. We have your roof on the schedule for [date]. Before the crew can roll we need the deposit from your contract, [amount]. You can pay here: [payment link]. Any questions, just reply.

Rules for this check:

1. Quote the deposit from the signed contract. Never invent a new number or a new deadline.
2. If the deposit isn't in by two business days before the start date, a person calls. Not the agent.
3. Don't move the crew date as a threat. Moving it is a scheduling decision for the owner.

Our deposits and finals page explains why this gap opens: a job can look sold for weeks while the deposit never arrived.

Check two: every finished roof has its final

Pull every job marked complete in the last 60 days. For each one, check two things: was a final invoice sent, and is it paid?

If no invoice was sent, that's an office task, not a reminder. Send the invoice today.

If it was sent and is still open, use a short sequence:

• Day 7 after the invoice: "Hi [first name], it's [your name] at [company]. Thanks again for choosing us for your roof. Your final invoice for [amount] is ready here: [link]. Let me know if anything looks off."
• Day 14: "Hi [first name], a quick reminder that the final invoice for your roof is still open. Here's the link again: [link]. If something about the job isn't right, reply and I'll call you."
• Day 21: a person calls. The texts stop here.

Notice the last line of the day 14 message. It invites a complaint on purpose. An unpaid final is often a homeowner who has a question about a gutter, a dent or a cleanup, and the fastest way to get paid is to hear it.

Check three: every insurance job has its holdback request

This is the check most offices miss, because the money is real but it doesn't arrive on its own.

The Texas Department of Insurance explains that on a replacement cost claim the first check covers the estimated repair cost minus depreciation and the deductible, and the insurer pays the held-back depreciation once it receives the bill for the completed repairs. Its worked example uses a $10,000 roof and a $2,000 deductible. Policies and states differ, so read each claim, but the pattern is common: someone has to send the bill.

Pull every insurance job marked complete. For each one with depreciation still held back, build the packet:

• [ ] Final invoice for the completed work, on your letterhead, matching the scope the adjuster approved
• [ ] Claim number and the homeowner's name exactly as the insurer has them
• [ ] Completion photos (the full roof, each slope, flashing and any line items the adjuster called out)
• [ ] A signed completion or satisfaction form, if your contract uses one
• [ ] Any supplements that were approved, with their approval dates
• [ ] Where the insurer should send payment and who it's made out to

Then send the homeowner this:

Hi [first name], your roof is done and we've put together the final invoice and photos your insurer needs to release the rest of your claim. I've attached them. Most insurers want the homeowner to send them in, so please forward this to your adjuster, or reply and I'll walk you through it.

Some contractors send the packet to the adjuster directly with the homeowner's permission. Do whatever your contract and your state allow, and write it down so every job is done the same way.

The tone rules for every message

Collections messages go wrong when they sound like someone else wrote them. Four rules cover almost every problem.

Write as your company, in your company's name. An original creditor collecting its own debt is generally outside the federal debt collection law, but a law firm summary of an FTC warning notes that a creditor that uses a name other than its own can be treated as a debt collector. So the sender is always "[your name] at [company]", never a made-up collections department.

Never threaten. No talk of liens, lawyers, credit reports or late fees in a message the agent drafts. Those are owner decisions with their own legal steps, and they belong in a phone call or a letter you approve.

A dispute stops the sequence. The moment a customer says the work isn't right, the reminders stop and a person calls. The agent's only job is to notice the reply and flag it.

No AI voice calls. The FCC ruled in 2024 that AI-generated voices count as artificial under the robocall rules, so they need consent unless an exemption applies. Keep the agent to texts and emails your office approves, and let people make the calls.

How an agent runs the sweep

You can run all three checks by hand. An agent just does the comparing and the drafting so nobody has to remember.

If you use AccuLynx, its API includes endpoints for job payments, job invoices, job financials and the current job milestone, which is everything the sweep compares. AccuLynx can also email a scheduled report on a set day and time, so a plain receivables report to your office every Monday is a good first step even before any AI.

With an agent in place, the weekly loop looks like this:

1. Monday at 7 AM it reads every job's status and every payment.
2. It lists the gaps under the three checks, oldest first.
3. It drafts the message for each gap using the templates above, with the real job, amount and link filled in.
4. A person reviews the list, edits anything that needs it and approves. Our trust page describes that default: sensitive actions wait for a yes.
5. It logs who was contacted and when, so next Monday's sweep starts from the truth.

What to watch out for

• Wrong amounts. Every number in a message comes from the contract or the invoice, never from memory. Check it before you approve.
• Jobs with two payers. On insurance work the homeowner may owe the deductible while the insurer owes the holdback. Send separate messages.
• Customers who already paid. Payments that arrived by check last Friday may not be in the books yet. When in doubt, look before you send.

How to tell it worked

Write down three numbers before your first sweep: how many sold jobs are missing a deposit, how many finals are older than 30 days, and how many insurance jobs have a holdback outstanding. Run the sweep for six weeks and count again. You'll know whether it's working from your own numbers, not ours.

If you'd like help setting this up inside your own software, your free AI Operations Audit starts with exactly this kind of gap.