# Glossary

Terms you'll see in ai-collect, in plain language.

> This is the end-user glossary. For the engineering glossary covering technical concepts (RLS, virtual clock, etc.), see `platform-docs/01-overview/05-glossary.md` (internal).

## A

**Account** — Your record in ai-collect. For a debtor, it's the debt you owe. For a creditor, it's your organization.

**ACH** — Automated Clearing House. A way to transfer money between bank accounts. Slower than card (1–3 business days) but cheaper.

**Adjusted balance** — A balance that's been reduced after a partial dispute or a settlement. The amount currently owed.

**Audit log** — The append-only record of everything that has happened. Can't be edited or deleted.

## B

**Bankruptcy** — A legal process where a person or business that can't pay its debts gets court protection. When a debtor files for bankruptcy, collection efforts pause immediately under federal law.

## C

**Cease-and-desist** — A formal request from a debtor (or their lawyer) to stop contacting them. We honor these immediately.

**Compliance engine** — Our internal system that checks every outreach action against state and federal rules before allowing it.

**Contingency fee** — The fee a third-party collector takes from what they recover. Ours is 5%.

**Creditor** — The business that placed the account. The one owed money.

## D

**Debtor** — The person or business that owes money. In ai-collect, almost always a business or business owner.

**Dispute** — A formal challenge to the debt. While a dispute is open, collection stops.

## E

**Enrichment** — The step where we look up additional info about the debtor (phone numbers, emails, business entity type) before starting outreach.

## F

**FDCPA** — Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The federal law that protects consumers (and sole proprietors) from abusive collection practices.

**Frequency cap** — The legal limit on how often we can contact a debtor in a given period. Usually 7 attempts per 7 days.

## L

**Live feed** — The real-time activity feed in the creditor dashboard, powered by Supabase Realtime.

## O

**OTP** — One-time password / code. A 6-digit code emailed to debtors when they open the portal. Codes are good for 10 minutes; up to 5 attempts per code; up to 5 new codes per hour per session. SMS delivery is planned but not yet live.

**Outreach** — Any contact attempt to a debtor. Today: phone call (via ElevenLabs) and email (via Postmark). SMS and physical letters are planned but not yet live.

## P

**Payment plan** — An agreement to pay a debt in smaller installments over time. Sometimes called a "plan" or "installment plan".

**Placement** — A single invoice that's been placed with ai-collect for collection.

**Portal** — The debtor self-service site where debtors can pay, set up plans, dispute, and message the creditor.

## R

**Recall** — When a creditor withdraws a placement. The account closes with no further outreach.

**Remittance** — The payment ai-collect sends to a creditor for the amounts we recovered, minus our fee.

**Right party contact** — A call where we reached the right person (someone authorized to discuss the debt).

## S

**Settlement** — An agreement to pay less than the full balance to close the account. Common for older or hard-to-collect debts.

**Skip tracing** — Looking up updated contact information for a debtor who can't be reached at the contact info originally provided.

**Sole proprietor** — A business owner with no separate legal entity. Treated like an individual for collection-law purposes. FDCPA applies in full.

**Statute of limitations** — The time period within which a debt can be legally pursued. After this period, the debt is "time-barred". Periods vary by state, typically 3–6 years.

## T

**Tenant** — One creditor in our multi-creditor system. Your data is isolated to your tenant.

**3P (third-party)** — Collection mode where ai-collect collects on behalf of the creditor. We take compliance risk. 5% contingency.

**1P (first-party)** — Collection mode where the creditor uses our software to collect on their own debtors. They take compliance risk. Future mode.

**Two-party consent** — Some states require all parties to a call to consent to its being recorded. Our agent discloses this at the start of calls in those states.

## U

**Unreachable** — A placement where we've tried multiple times to contact the debtor without success.

## V

**Validation / verification** — The process of providing proof that a debt is valid. Required when a debtor disputes.

## W

**Write-off** — When a creditor recognizes a debt as uncollectible in their accounting. Doesn't extinguish the debt; just acknowledges it as a loss.

***

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


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