Proposed payment follow-up system

Not shipped. This is the proposal for you to rule on. Nothing here is in the playbook yet.

The core insight first. This is a routing job, not a writing job. #lever already contains "Invoice is out, no money yet" and "3 payment promises broken, stop chasing". The content exists. The 30-day ladders just never point at it.

Rule 1 — one message, then stop

Never a second message before they reply. If you need to send an invoice too, that is one message with the file attached, not four.

This single rule prevents every blow-up in the corporate-lead thread. That client received four messages inside one minute, 84 minutes after he had already replied.

Rule 2 — three touches, then the ladder ends

Touch	When	What
1	Day after the date they gave	Forward-motion nudge. Never a status check.
2	Two days later	Second nudge, different angle.
3	Two days after that	Artifact. Invoice re-sent with a stated deadline.
—	Deadline passes	Wind-down fires. Mon to Thu only.

After touch 3 you stop asking. "Noted" stops being a valid reply because there is a date attached.

Rule 3 — never twice in one day

The corporate thread had four messages on one day and six on another. Hard cap of one.

Rule 4 — "checking with finance" is an ANSWER

React to it. Set the next date. Send nothing. Same rule as #answered.

Rule 5 — corporate buyers get half the cadence

Do not ask the employee to classify anyone. That is judgement and he will get it wrong. Use a phrase trip-wire instead, the same mechanism as the close trip-wire.

If their message contains any of: finance team boss corporate marketing approval need to discuss we they — then:

Touches go weekly, not every few days
No confirm-tonight offers, ever
Ask once: "who approves payment on your side?"

The corporate lead said "corporate doesn't work this way, not my own business, need time to discuss and agree" in the first hour. He was then given a confirm-tonight hosting bonus twice.

The R12 fix — exit ramps on both ladders

Both 30-day ladders say "COPY, SEND, MOVE ON. One a day, in order." Nothing routes out. Add three exits to the DO panel of each:

They replied at all → stop the ladder, go to #answer
They gave a date → stop the ladder, go to #followup
They said yes or an invoice went out → stop the ladder, go to #lever

The ladder is for silence only. The moment there is a human on the other end, it is the wrong tool.

Watchlist

Add a payment-pending state with a next-touch date and a touch count. The date is the only field anyone looks at. Touch count going above 3 is the alarm.

Takedown

Tied to the deadline stated in touch 3. Never to a feeling, never to how annoyed anyone is. Mon to Thu only, per your existing rule.

What I would NOT do

Do not stub the ladders. With the employee where he is, spare phrasings are cheaper than him inventing one at 8am. The cut list is duplicates only.
Do not add a new node for payments. #lever already is that node. Adding a second one recreates the saturation problem you flagged before.
Do not make anyone classify a buyer by judgement. Phrase list only.