Outcomes, not tasks
Every tool counts its own activity. Keel gives them all one outcome, and proves it moved.
Where late cash comes from
Show the figures
| Component | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Receivables | $533B | $531B | $547B | $600B | $773B |
| Inventory | $627B | $666B | $662B | $581B | $616B |
| Payables | $498B | $665B | $550B | $546B | $548B |
- +45%
- Receivables opportunity since 2021. Inventory and payables held near flat.
- $773B
- Now sits in receivables, up 29% in one year.
- 40 of 50
- Industries saw collections get worse in 2025.
Excess working capital, North American companies. The Hackett Group, North American Working Capital Survey 2026, via CFO.com.
Keel splits DSO in two
“Collections brings the problem to light but is rarely where it starts.”
The Hackett Group, 2026
13 of 58 daysare late payment your team can influence. Keel targets those.
Example book: 58 days of DSO on 45 day terms.
Structural: Best Possible DSO
Negotiated terms, customer concentration and bargaining power. Cash cannot come in before the agreed date.
Keel leaves it alone.
Operational: delinquent DSO
Weak credit decisions, order and invoice errors, disputes, poor prioritization and slow cash application.
Keel targets it, across every team that touches it.
Hackett calls long terms for powerful customers vendor financing at an unpriced cost. Keel shows these strategic arrangements as counterparty risk, outside collection targets.
Every account gets its own action
Same book, four different moves.
Late
Call before their payment run
Faster cash
On time
Stop the reminders
Lower cost to collect
Strong payer
Offer more credit
Revenue growth
Strategic terms
No collection contact
Risk in view
The right moment, and the right silence
Keel knows when to ask and when to wait. Here is one week at Tidewater Components.
- Keel acts
- Keel holds back
Mon 9:00 a.m.
Keel holds back
Dispute open
Invoice 2207 is disputed over a missing PO number. No reminder goes out.
Tue 2:10 p.m.
Keel acts
Dispute closes
Billing adds the PO number. Keel sends the corrected invoice that afternoon.
Wed 9:00 a.m.
Keel acts
The ask, a day early
Dana in payables gets the ask the day before Thursday's run. She adds it in one tap.
Thu 10:00 a.m.
Keel holds back
Payment posts
The invoice is paid in the run. Reminders stop on their own.
Fri All day
Keel holds back
Renewal window opens
The contract renews in 60 days. Keel goes quiet and the account owner leads.
Demo account
Keel learns each account's payment run, the weekday its payables team releases payments. Inside the 60 days before a renewal, the account owner leads.
Five things no one else combines
Hover a dot for the detail. Directional judgments from public information, not tested evaluations.
Swipe the matrix sideways to see every column.
| Category | Neutral across vendors | Finance outcomes | Trade offs across functions | Guardrails | Proof of result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dunning and reminder toolsSend reminders on a schedule | Partly: Varies | No: Activity, such as reminders sent | No: Not their job | Partly: Schedules and pause rules | No: Rarely against a holdout |
| Finance agent suites and AR automationAutomate Order to Cash tasks inside their own stack | No: Their own agents | Yes: Strong on cash KPIs | Partly: Limited | Partly: Within the suite | Partly: KPI gains mapped to agents |
| Process intelligenceLink agent activity to process KPIs | Partly: Partly | Partly: Medium | Partly: Medium | Partly: Flags conflicts | No: Process metrics |
| Agent governance platformsGovern agent permissions across vendors | Yes: Yes | No: Weak | No: Weak | Yes: Permissions | No: Not their job |
| Generic AI agentsComplete a task they are given | Partly: Varies | No: None by default | No: None | No: Whatever you build | No: None |
| KeelDefine the outcome, guide every agent, prove the result | Yes: Any vendor, several ERPs | Yes: Delinquent DSO, retention | Yes: Core design | Yes: Rules agents cannot override | Yes: Treated versus holdout |
- Neutral across vendors
- Guides any vendor's agents, across several ERPs.
- Finance outcomes
- Success is delinquent DSO and retention, not activity.
- Trade offs across functions
- Cash speed weighed against retention and dispute risk.
- Guardrails
- Rules agents cannot override, with a trace behind each decision.
- Proof of result
- A holdout group your CFO and auditors accept.
Yes Partly NoKeel's finance outcome rating is a target until pilots report.
And paid on outcomes. Fees tie to verified value, so Keel does well only when you do.
Keep the tools you have
Keel replaces nothing. It sits above your people and agents and tells them what winning means.
Underneath, it reads one CRM and one billing system per company. It never writes back.
What Keel reads, system by system
- SalesforceCRM
How it connectsAn admin signs in with Salesforce. Production org or sandbox.
What Keel readsAccounts, contacts and won opportunities. Renewal date and billing id from fields you name.
Read queries only
- HubSpotCRM
How it connectsAn admin signs in with HubSpot and approves read scopes.
What Keel readsCompanies, contacts, closed won deals and deal owners.
Read scopes only
- QuickBooks OnlineAccounting
How it connectsAn admin signs in with Intuit and approves the accounting scope.
What Keel readsCustomers, invoices, payments and credit memos. PO number from an invoice field.
Read queries only
- StripeBilling
How it connectsAn admin pastes a restricted key. Keel tests it before saving it.
What Keel readsCustomers, invoices, charges and credit notes.
Read permissions only
- CSV uploadAny system
How it connectsAn admin uploads your exports. They apply straight away.
What Keel readsAccounts, contacts, invoices and payments.
Your file only
An admin signs in
One sign in per system. Credentials are stored encrypted, on the server.
Keel reads
Each connector reads the objects above. None of them writes to your systems.
Accounts are matched
Billing customers are matched to CRM accounts by billing id or name. Anything unmatched is listed.
Nightly sync
Each night Keel reads what changed. An admin can also sync at any time.
Another system? Start from a CSV export. Salesforce, HubSpot, QuickBooks and Stripe are trademarks of their owners, shown to name the systems Keel reads.
What 12 weeks with Keel could look like
Demo account
25% fewer late days
12.1 to 9.0 days. Holdout: 5%. 2.4 days better than the holdout. Inside Keel's 20 to 30% target.
- Cash released
- $3.3M
- Half the book, the half Keel managed.
- If every account had Keel
- $6.7M
- Estimate from this book.
- Net revenue retention
- 104%
- Holdout 103%. Faster cash cost no customers.
- Dispute resolution
- 11 days
- Holdout 18 days.
See what Keel could do on your book
Bring your aging report to 30 minutes with the founder. See where your late days sit.