# Configuring your strategy

Your **strategy** is the set of preferences that controls how aggressive our outreach is, what discounts we can offer, and when we escalate.

> Status: a rich, configurable per-creditor strategy profile is in active design. Today the platform exposes **one** creditor-tunable setting (`posture_default`); everything else lives in code as platform defaults. The Account Planner is autonomous per-placement — most of what creditors will eventually tune is currently driven by the planner's compliance + state config.

## What you can configure today

The creditor settings endpoint (`GET` / `PATCH /v1/settings`) exposes a deliberately small surface:

| Field                                                                        | Values                             | Purpose                                                     |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
| `posture_default`                                                            | `preserve` (default) or `escalate` | The default tone for new placements.                        |
| `webhook_url`                                                                | URL or null                        | Where status-change events are POSTed (signed HMAC-SHA256). |
| `tier`, `contingency_pct`, `slug`, `name`, `api_key` (masked), `qbo_enabled` | Read-only                          | Set at signup / by admins.                                  |

### Posture (preserve vs escalate)

* **`preserve`** — peer-professional tone, central persuasion route. Best for accounts where you'd happily renew the customer. This is the default.
* **`escalate`** — peer- or firm-professional tone, faster cadence, more direct framing. Best for accounts you've already attempted to collect on yourself.

You can change posture from **Settings → Default Collection Posture** in the dashboard, or via `PATCH /v1/settings`. The change applies to **new** placements; existing placements keep the posture they were created with.

> Note: regardless of posture, the planner cannot settle in a way that violates state law, ignores a valid dispute, or contradicts a recorded compliance flag. The compliance engine is the hard ceiling on what's allowed (per CLAUDE.md rule 1: no outreach without a fresh compliance decision).

## What is **not** yet configurable

The following knobs are commonly requested and are part of the strategy roadmap, but **do not exist in the creditor-facing settings API today**. Don't promise customers they can tune these:

* An **aggression ladder** beyond `preserve` / `escalate` (no "Relationship-preserving / Standard / Firm / Pre-legal" levels in code).
* A **negotiation floor** (`negotiation_floor` / minimum settlement percentage) — settlement logic exists in `src/services/strategy/settlement.py` but isn't exposed as a per-creditor knob.
* **Plan parameters** (max plan length, minimum down payment, minimum monthly payment, auto-acceptance bounds) — there's no per-creditor configuration surface.
* **Per-event escalation toggles** (bankruptcy, attorney, cease-and-desist, high-value dispute, broken commitment, sub-floor settlement). The platform handles bankruptcy / cease-and-desist mandatorily through the compliance engine; finer-grained per-creditor toggles are not in the settings API.
* **Channel preferences** (voice-off / email-off / SMS opt-in) — channels are platform-wide today; SMS isn't implemented at all.
* **Per-placement strategy overrides** at upload time — the intake schema (`NormalizedPlacementDraft`) doesn't carry a strategy-overrides field.

If any of these matter for your buy decision, tell your customer success contact — they're triaged by request frequency.

## Disputes and escalations (what the platform actually does)

Even though you can't toggle these as a creditor, here's what runs automatically:

* A debtor dispute pauses outreach and routes the placement into the disputes flow (see [Responding to a dispute](/for-creditor-partners/creditor-operations/responding-to-a-dispute.md)).
* A cease-of-contact request is honored immediately; further outreach is blocked by the compliance engine.
* A bankruptcy mention pauses outreach pending operator review.
* A settlement / payment plan negotiated by the agent is recorded against the placement; the dashboard surfaces it for your awareness.

## TODO

* Screenshot: Settings page posture toggle.
* Replace this page when the configurable-strategy profile ships.

***

Last reviewed: 2026-05-24 by Customer Success.


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