Your main contact has left while a six-figure debt remains unpaid

The relationship leaves with the employee

Imagine a joinery supplier owed $124,000 whose usual contact suddenly leaves the customer's business. That person knew the projects and had promised to investigate payment. The replacement says they have never seen the account. You now need a workable handover without assuming either employee personally controls the money or accepts the whole claim.

Return to the customer's payment arrangements

business.gov.au recommends checking the contract's payment conditions when an account remains unpaid. Find the agreed invoice destination and notice details, then check which contacts are current. A staff departure does not tell you whether the debt is admitted, disputed or scheduled for payment. Keep those questions separate when you approach the business again.

Source: business.gov.au: What to do when you haven't been paid

Prepare a short continuity note

Summarise the outstanding invoices, dates sent, unanswered questions and any written payment proposal. Attach the relevant correspondence instead of forwarding years of unrelated emails. Label a former employee's verbal assurance as your recollection unless there is a contemporaneous record. Give the new contact enough information to investigate without presenting an uncertain conversation as an established agreement.

Find responsibility for the next decision

Ask who can confirm the invoice position and who can approve payment. Those may be different people. In the hypothetical example, the new project manager might verify delivery while finance controls the payment run. Request a named contact for each unanswered issue and a realistic response date, rather than asking the replacement employee to solve everything immediately.

Keep earlier rights and dates visible

Do not quietly restart your whole recovery timetable because an employee has changed. Tell your adviser about any formal notices, contractual timeframes or proceedings already in motion. A courteous handover discussion can occur alongside necessary professional advice. Avoid suggesting that a new contact's willingness to review the file automatically changes previous arrangements or deadlines.

Confirm the handover has actually happened

Check that the summary reached the responsible people and record their response. If nobody accepts responsibility for reviewing the account, escalate through the customer's appropriate business contact and seek advice about the next step. Bring the continuity note to CRP. It should show what remains unpaid, what has changed and exactly which decision is still missing.