Everything to get running, use it, and keep it healthy. Skim Part 1 to start in ~5 minutes — the rest is here whenever you want it.
That's it. Everything below explains each piece.
Picture the Sheet as a living workbench, not a static spreadsheet.
The tabs, and their jobs
- Recipients — your worklist. One row per account you're chasing.
- Sent Box — your history. The moment an email sends, that row leaves Recipients and lands here, locked. So Recipients is always "still to do," Sent Box is "done."
- Dunning Messages — your editable wording library (Stage · Subject · Message). The Dunning Writer pulls from here; tweak any message and it flows into your next send.
- Field Bank — a browsable catalog of every column label you can drop in. Reference only.
- Config — the hidden brain. Remembers your column setup. You never touch it.
The Recipients tab has a head and a body
- Rows 1–12 — the head: Common Details — the things that are the same for everyone (remit-to address, payment methods, signature). Fill once.
- Row 13 — the toggles: Email / Tracker per column.
- Row 14 — the headers. Row 15 and down — the body: one row per account.
The two big ideas
1. Email vs Tracker. Every column has a toggle. Email = it shows up inside the email (Amount Due, Pay Link…). Tracker = it stays in your sheet, just for you (Days Overdue, Dunning Stage, Notes). One row holds both what the debtor sees and your private notes.
2. Same-for-all vs per-account. The head (Common Details) is identical for everyone — fill once and apply it to the accounts you tick. The body columns are unique per account.
How a row lives and dies (the lifecycle)
Add / import → Mark Ready → Preview / Open in Drafts (a real Gmail draft is created; row = Draft) → Send (the draft sends; row = Sent) → the row moves to the Sent Box.
Two human checks (Ready, then Reviewed) before anything leaves — and it's your Gmail that sends.
It watches itself (self-healing)
- Edit an account after you reviewed it → it quietly drops back to "needs Ready."
- Rename a required column or scramble a toggle → it snaps back.
- Sent one straight from Gmail? Hit 🔄 Refresh — it notices and marks it Sent.
- Give it Due Dates → 🐾 Update aging figures out how overdue each account is and suggests its stage.
The Hound gives you a full-screen web App — your main control room — and a classic Sidebar inside the sheet (a fallback with the same actions in a narrow panel). The App is described below; the Sidebar mirrors it. (To use the App, deploy it once — Part 4.)
The sheet menu — 🐶 10X Collections Agent (deliberately slim; the workflow lives in the App)
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| 🐶 Open the Hound App | Opens your web App. |
| 🔗 Set the App link | One-time: paste the App URL you got when you deployed it. |
| 🐾 Classic sidebar (fallback) | The narrow in-sheet panel — same actions. |
| 🩺 Health Check / Repair | Diagnoses and fixes layout / trigger problems. |
| ⚙️ Setup / Rebuild Workbook | Builds or repairs the sheet's tabs and structure. |
Top — the scoreboard
- 💰 The money strip — Accounts · Total Due · Overdue: how much you're chasing, at a glance.
- Four pills — Ready / Reviewed / Draft / Sent: where your batch sits in the pipeline.
- 🔄 Refresh — catches up on anything sent from Gmail, recomputes aging, resets stuck rows.
- 📖 Guide · ⓘ Limits & help · 🔑 License live in the top bar.
The toolbar — prep your batch
- 📥 Import — pull a list from a Google Sheet, or paste one. Common headers auto-match (Email → Recipient Email, Contact → Recipient Name, Company Name → Company, Total Due → Amount Due, Status → Payment Status); anything else comes in as your own column. Aging buckets are understood — Current / 1-30 Days / 90+… set each line's Dunning Stage on arrival. Imports append below your list; totals/summary lines are skipped; email-less rows still land (you'll see a ⚠ count).
- ⚙️ Presets & columns — load a role setup (🧾 AR · 📗 QuickBooks · 📘 NetSuite · 🏠 Rent · 🎟️ Membership · 🩺 Medical · 💼 Freelancer · 🐾 General). QuickBooks & NetSuite mirror those systems' exports so imports land 1:1. Also ➕ Add columns and 🧹 Start Fresh (clear rows, keep the setup — sent history stays safe).
- 🐾 Update aging — computes Days Overdue from each Due Date and fills blank Dunning Stages (imported buckets and manual picks always stick).
- ✍️ Dunning Writer — writes the past-due notice (Subject + Message) into your ticked accounts, each by its stage, pulling from the editable Dunning Messages tab. Tick accounts first — nothing selected, nothing written. It only writes the wording; it does NOT create a draft, so your Mark-Ready checkpoint stays intact.
- 🗂️ Common details — your remit-to, methods, portal, signature. Fill once, then apply to your ticked accounts.
- 🎚️ Email / Tracker — flip any column between shows inside the email and stays in your sheet.
- 📎 Attach — a PDF (statement / instructions) on every email in the batch.
The accounts table — your worklist
- Every account with its Amount / Due / Days Overdue / Stage / Payment / Progress.
- Filter by search, stage, or status; tick the accounts you want — or Select all (filtered).
- Selection drives everything: Dunning Writer, Common Details, and Mark Ready all act on your ticked rows.
The action bar — the send lifecycle (the 2 checks)
- ✅ Mark Ready (check 1) → 👁 Preview + draft (creates the real Gmail drafts + logs Reviewed = check 2) or 📨 Drafts (opens them in Gmail) → ✉️ Send ready (sends from your Gmail; sent rows slide into the Sent Box).
- Send warns before a big batch — Gmail caps daily sends, so work in batches of ~25–50.
The classic sidebar works with zero setup. The web app is a nicer full screen you can also share with a team.
/exec).Change the code later? Deploy → Manage deployments → ✏️ edit → Version: New version → Deploy. That "New version" step is what makes changes go live; your link stays the same.
Sharing = shared inbox. Anyone with the link runs the app as you, on your data, sending from your mailbox — great for one AR team working a shared queue. Only share it with your own team.
This runs on Google Sheets + Apps Script. Sturdy, but not a bulk-email platform:
- Gmail caps daily sends: ~100/day on a free @gmail account, up to ~1,500–2,000/day on Google Workspace. Past the cap, the rest fail until tomorrow.
- Send in batches of ~25–50. Filter by stage and work one bucket at a time. The app warns you before a big batch.
- Very large runs can hit Google's 6-minute limit — the tool pauses and asks you to click Send again to finish.
- It's your Gmail — your signature, your sending reputation. Preview before a big run.
- Questions: Agent@10xfinanceai.com
⚖️ Not legal advice. Collections rules (e.g. the US FDCPA for third-party collectors) vary by who collects and where. You and your counsel own compliant wording. The defaults are written for first-party creditors collecting their own debts — use the optional Disclosure / Legal Footer field for your context.
🔄 Start a fresh run (new cycle): App → ⚙️ Presets & columns → 🧹 Start Fresh. It clears your account rows but keeps your setup. Your sent history stays safe in the Sent Box.
⚠️ Keep the sheet healthy
- Add accounts below row 14; don't insert/delete rows in the top zone.
- Don't rename the tabs (Recipients, Config, Sent Box) or the gold required headers — they snap back.
- Don't type in the green status cells (Ready / Reviewed / Status) — the buttons run those.
- Changing a toggle or header un-readies your rows so you re-check before sending — that's a safety feature.
🆘 Something looks off? (try the lightest first)
1. Layout shifted, data fine → Menu → 🩺 Health Check / Repair.
2. Real mess (scrambled/deleted data) → File → Version history → See version history → pick a version before the mistake → Restore this version. The whole sheet snaps back.
3. Beyond saving → start over from a fresh copy of the original link (do a version-restore first — your Sent Box history lives in this copy).
💡 Before anything risky (a giant import, a bulk edit), File → Make a copy as a one-click backup.
The Hound's playful name is for you. The emails your accounts receive stay calm, clear, and professional. 🐶