A new client is good news until you open its aging report. Months of unworked balances, three payers nobody has heard from, and a client who expects the number to shrink by next month's call.
Start by sorting, not working
Before anyone makes a call, sort the balances by age, by payer, and by size. The sort does two things. It shows what's still recoverable, since every payer has filing and appeal limits and some of the oldest balances may already be out of reach. And it gives you a first conversation with the client: here's what we found, and here's what we'd work first.
Work what's recoverable, in the right order
"Oldest first" sounds fair but is rarely the best order. A better rule: balances still inside a payer's appeal or filing window first, then the large balances, then the long tail of small ones. Small balances are worth doing, but they shouldn't crowd out the ones that are about to expire.
Keep inherited A/R apart from new work
Report inherited balances separately from claims your team generated after the start date. Otherwise the client's old problems drag your numbers down, and your own good work gets buried under the backlog. A separate line in the weekly report also makes it obvious when the cleanup is finished.
Agree on write-offs before you start
Decide who has authority to write a balance off and what the threshold is. When a payer says a claim is past filing, someone needs to be able to say "that one's closed" without a week of back-and-forth.
What to tell the client, and when
Clients can handle bad news better than silence. Share the sorted picture in the first week: what looks recoverable, what's probably closed, and what you'll work first. Then send the same simple update every week, with inherited balances on their own line. A client who sees steady movement rarely needs to ask where things stand, and the cleanup stops feeling like a referendum on your team.
When the backlog is bigger than the team
This is where overflow capacity earns its keep. Add a few hours, or a dedicated person, for the cleanup only, and scale back when it's done. That's easier than hiring for a bump you know is temporary.
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