Payment arrangements set to what each household can pay, so 7 in 10 are kept to the end
Plans set to what each customer can pay, so 7 in 10 are kept to the end.
See one case, screen by screen ↓When a customer cannot pay what they owe, a collections agent sets a payment arrangement on the phone: a down-payment now, then instalments on top of the ongoing bill. Today the instalment is a guess. The agent divides the debt by the longest term the rules allow, or takes the figure the customer offers under pressure, and nobody adds the ongoing bill to the instalment and sets it against what the household has left after rent, food and school fees.
So the plan meets the first summer bill and breaks. The customer is back in arrears with a broken-plan flag, and the next step is a disconnection notice, a re-plan call and often a field visit. The rules on minimum down-payments, length and re-offers vary by customer type and jurisdiction, and they are applied from memory. The first sign of a break is a missed instalment — by then it is too late to move a due date or offer an equal monthly bill.
Estimated split of one arrears call that ends in a payment arrangement, in minutes, by hand and with the solution. The conversation with the customer stays; the reading, sums and paperwork go.
Six agents read the account, hear the budget, score every instalment and check the rules; the collections agent sets the plan.
Payment Arrangement Management is software that sets a payment plan with the customer on the call, against their own budget and the utility's plan rules. Lumina Utilities supplies electricity and water. On Tuesday 13 October 2026 at 10:36, collections agent Rania Saleh takes a call from Mariam Qasim, Villa 14, Zahra Gardens, whose disconnection notice ends in seven days. Here is that call, screen by screen, in the working solution.
As the call opens, the account reader has read 14 months of bills, 2 past plans and the notice of 6 October. Mariam owes AED 4,560: AED 1,020 left from a broken plan, the July bill of AED 1,240, August AED 1,380 and AED 920 of September unpaid. Her last plan, PA-26-04117, was 4 × AED 600 with no down-payment; she paid 2 of 4.
Plan history: “set 9 Apr by Hassan Jaber · no down-payment · paid 2 of 4 · the June bill of AED 780 came on top”
Mariam's salary of AED 6,900 and Tariq's AED 4,500, both paid on the 27th. Rent 5,200, food and household 2,150, school fees and bus 1,150, car loan 950, phones and internet 320, family support 600. Each figure carries the second it was said. Income AED 11,400 less essentials AED 10,370 leaves AED 1,030; less an equal monthly bill of AED 560, AED 470 is left for an instalment.
Family support: “said 10:41:12 · ‘usually’ · to confirm”
At AED 600 the plan is 7 instalments, debt clear 28 May 2027 — but AED 1,160 a month to Lumina against AED 1,030 free. The keep-chance scorer puts it at 41%, likely to break. Switch off the equal monthly bill and Rania sees why the last plan broke: the July to September bills turn red, AED 840 short in the cooling months, and the chance drops to 6%.
Mariam: “Can I do six hundred a month, like last time? I'll make it work.”
Rania moves the instalment slider to AED 380: 11 instalments (the last AED 300), debt clear 28 September 2027. Bill and plan come to AED 940 a month, leaving AED 90 spare. The plan is due on the 28th, the day after both salaries, not the 24th. The dial goes green at 83%, likely to be kept, with every reason listed.
Rania: “Last time six hundred broke in June. Let's find a number that leaves you something spare.”
At AED 300 the plan runs to 14 instalments and the chance is 91%. But after a broken plan an agent can set up to 12 months under rule R-RES-2. The rules checker says so before the customer hears the offer, and routes the plan to collections team lead Khalid Mansour, who can approve up to 24 months under R-RES-3.
“Length 14 months > 12 — needs the team lead (R-RES-3, up to 24)”
Length 11 months, within 12. First re-offer in 12 months, no priority-services flag, so the disconnection notice can be put on hold. Keep chance 83%, above the 60% warning line. Rania reads Mariam the offer and, once she agrees on the recorded call, sets the plan.
“Inside the rules. Read her the offer: AED 460 today, then AED 380 on the 28th, debt clear 28 Sep 2027.”
The 10% down-payment of AED 460 is paid by card on the call, leaving AED 4,100 in the plan. The agreement lists every instalment with the equal monthly bill beside it — AED 940 a month, AED 860 in the last. It goes out by SMS with a link and by email as an Arabic and English PDF at 10:51, and the notice of 6 October goes on hold.
“The disconnection notice of 6 October is on hold while the plan is kept.”
One switch shows the agreement in Arabic, schedule and all. Beside it, what happens next: an SMS reminder on 25 November, three days before the first instalment; the keep chance re-scored on every new bill, with a callback for Rania if it falls below 60%; the equal monthly bill reviewed in May 2027, before the cooling months; debt clear on 28 September 2027.
The agreement is sent only after the agent confirms the customer agreed on the call.
The plan watcher re-scores all 9,860 live plans: 412 fall below 50% in the next 30 days, 49 of them among the 560 instalments due Saturday 24 October, three days before most salaries. For each it proposes the smallest fix — move the due date to the 28th, offer the equal monthly bill to a customer whose October bill came in 38% over forecast, or an SMS reminder.
The plan watcher never cancels a plan or starts a disconnection; a person decides.
In Zahra Gardens and Saffron Creek, 1,940 plans were set with the plan builder; 2,310 were set the old way in the same months elsewhere. After three months 81% of the new plans were on time, against 54%. Among broken plans, instalments over the budget fell from 46% of the causes to 18%; what is left is mostly job or income changes no one could see coming.
Sunil Varma: “A plan that breaks costs me twice: the debt and the disconnection.”
The same arrears call, seen by the four people behind it — what their week looked like, and what it looks like now.
Six agents read the account, hear the budget, score every instalment and check the rules; the collections agent sets the plan.
Reads arrears ageing, 14 months of bills, the 12-month usage forecast at the current tariff, open notices and every past plan with how it ended; works out the equal monthly bill.
Listens to the call in Arabic or English and fills income and essential costs, each figure tied to its moment in the recording; marks hedged figures (“usually”, “maybe”) to confirm.
Scores the chance a plan is kept at every instalment from AED 200 to 900 in steps of 10, from the monthly buffer, the bill forecast, the due date against payday and the customer's own plan history, and gives the reasons.
Before an offer is read to the customer, checks down-payment, longest term, re-offers in 12 months, priority-services and medical flags and the keep-chance thresholds, and says which rule applies.
Drafts the plan agreement in Arabic and English — amounts, schedule, equal monthly bill, the notice hold and what to do if a payment is hard — and schedules SMS reminders 3 days before each due date.
Re-scores every live plan at 06:00 and on every new bill or payment; for plans below 50% in the next 30 days, finds the reason and proposes the smallest fix — a reminder, a due-date move, the equal monthly bill or a re-plan call.
Sets plans inside the rules; the team lead signs the rest. The agents propose; a named person decides.
Ask about this customer, a plan or the rules — or say what to change. Every answer points to the bill, the plan or the rule behind it.
Why did Mariam's last plan break?
The instalment was set without the summer in view. PA-26-04117 was AED 600 a month with no down-payment. She paid April and May. The June bill of AED 780 arrived on top of the AED 600 — AED 1,380 in one month against AED 1,030 free — and school fees fell the same week.
What if she can only pay 300 a month?
AED 300 is 14 instalments (13 × 300 + 200), debt clear 28 Dec 2027. That is past the 12 months an agent can set after a broken plan, so it needs Khalid Mansour under R-RES-3, up to 24 months. Her keep chance at AED 300 is 91% with the equal monthly bill.
Which plans may break before payday?
560 instalments due Sat 24 Oct fall three days before most salaries; 49 of them, 9%, are likely to break, against under 3% on the 28th. The plan watcher proposes moving them to the 28th and texting each customer.
Warn me below 65% instead of 60%
Done as a draft: warn below 65% (was 60%). The team lead review stays below 40%. At 65%, 9 of today's 37 calls would show a warning instead of 7. The change is a new settings version and needs Sunil Varma's approval.
13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.
Down-payments, lengths, re-offers, who approves what and the keep-chance thresholds are settings, set per customer type — along with payday alignment, the equal monthly bill suggestion (when one month's bill is over 1.5× the yearly average) and SMS reminders 3 days before each due date.
| Setting | Default | Choose from |
|---|---|---|
| Residential, after a broken plan (R-RES-2) | 10% down · up to 12 months · 1 re-offer | Down-payment and length editable · set by the agent; a second re-offer needs the team lead |
| Residential, longer plan or hardship (R-RES-3) | 0% down · up to 24 months · 2 re-offers | Set by the collections team lead |
| Priority services customers (R-PSR) | 0% down · up to 24 months · 3 re-offers | Set by the agent · never a disconnection while on a plan |
| Commercial (R-COM-1 · R-COM-2) | Up to AED 25,000: 25% down, 6 months · over: 30% down, 12 months | Agent up to AED 25,000 · Head of Credit and Collections above |
| Warn the agent below | 60% keep chance | 20–90% in steps of 5 · shown on the plan builder and in the rules check |
| Team lead review below | 40% keep chance | 20–90% in steps of 5 · below it the agent cannot set the plan alone |
| “Best plan” keeps at least | 75% keep chance | 20–90% in steps of 5 · used for the call list and the quick picks |
| Align the due date to payday | On | On · Off — the day after the salary date the customer gives |
Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.
“demo” = seen in the working solution, on its sample data · “target” = the design goal, measured in the pilot · “estimated” = our estimate: AED 11.5M = 24,000 plans a year × AED 3,200 average balance × 15 more points of balance repaid, on Lumina sample volumes; the minutes per call are our estimate · “typical” = published figures (NEADA, Aug 2024 — US household energy arrears about $17.4B; J.D. Power 2025 — residential bills $189 a month, up 34% since 2020; NH PUC staff analysis — bad debt 0.3–0.9% of electric revenue). The 46% kept today and the pilot results are sample data. Lumina Utilities and the people, accounts and plans named on this page are fictional — characters and sample data in the working solution.
Software that helps a utility's collections agents set payment arrangements — a down-payment and instalments to clear arrears — that customers can actually keep. Payment Arrangement Management builds the plan with the customer on the call, against their stated income and essential costs, checks it against the plan rules and watches every live plan for early signs it will break.
The affordability listener takes income and essential costs from the call, each figure tied to its moment in the recording. The account reader works out the equal monthly bill from the 12-month usage forecast. What is left is what the household can pay, and the keep-chance scorer shows the chance of a kept plan at every instalment from AED 200 to 900, with its reasons.
Yes. Down-payment, longest term, re-offers in 12 months and who sets each plan are settings per customer type — residential, after a broken plan, hardship, priority services and commercial. The rules checker checks every offer against them before the customer hears it and routes anything outside them to the team lead.
It sets the plan to what the household has free, suggests an equal monthly bill so summer bills do not spike, and moves the due date to the day after payday. Then the plan watcher re-scores every live plan each morning and on every new bill, and proposes a reminder, a date move or a re-plan call before a payment is missed.
The score uses only the household budget, the bill forecast, the due date and the customer's own payment history. It never uses age, gender, nationality, religion, marital status or the language of the call, it shows its reasons, and it never blocks an offer.
Yes. The six software agents read, score, draft and propose; they never set, cancel or disconnect. The collections agent sets plans inside the rules, the team lead approves the rest, and only a person can restart a disconnection notice after a plan breaks.
Yes. The affordability listener follows calls in Arabic or English, and the agreement writer drafts the agreement, schedule and SMS reminders in both.
The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents — your plan rules, disconnection protections, agreement templates and a sample of past plans — and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. We will walk you through it on your own arrears calls first.
Held bills cleared in two days, not six, with the cause and the fix attached.
1-min demoHigh Bill InvestigationUsage, tariff, weather or leak: the real reason, in plain words.
1-min demoRevenue Assurance AnalyticsRecover the 2-4% that leaks between meter and bill.
1-min demoWe'll run Payment Arrangement Management on a sample of your own broken payment plans.