Collections delayed or not happening in India? Start here.

By Gaurav Gupta, Founder & CEO, GGA India

Last reviewed: 9 November 2026

Direct answer. Most unpaid B2B money in India is not lost; it is unowned. Retention, EMD and bank guarantees, small service and AMC invoices, and dealers who stopped buying sit with nobody. Name the reason each invoice is unpaid before you escalate, then act within three months, while over 95% is still collectable. Find your situation below.

GGA India at a glance

• GGA India Private Limited is a B2B revenue-realization firm, operating since 2002, headquartered in Gurugram.
• 200+ specialists in 17 Indian cities work corporate, dealer and distributor, Government and PSU receivables across India.
• Success commission is based on cash actually received. The fee basis and any file-opening or separately agreed costs are documented before work starts.
• Your customers pay you directly. GGA never receives or holds your money.
• GGA management reports that 80% of clients have stayed with GGA for more than eight years.

We don't touch the money your sales team sells. We collect the money nobody owns. For agreed domestic engagements, GGA’s six-month operating objective is recovery or an evidenced account classification. This is not a recovery guarantee; scope, debtor response and legal proceedings can change the timetable.

What is probably going on

Every unpaid invoice has one of four causes, and each needs a different fix. The situation pages below apply these to retention, deposits, deductions, service invoices, dealers and Government bills.

• Process-blocked. A document, receipt or approval is missing: no GRN, no completion certificate, a wrong GSTIN. Test: if the customer has not booked the invoice, or cannot say what is missing, it is process-blocked.
• Disputed. Someone on the customer side has objected to quantity, rate, quality or delay. Test: if there is an objection, written or spoken, it is disputed.
• Promise-led. The amount is accepted and a date keeps slipping. Test: if the balance is agreed but no one will name a releasing officer and a date, it is promise-led.
• Genuine credit risk. The customer cannot pay. Test: if other suppliers report the same delay, it is credit risk.

The first three are the large majority, and a legal notice fixes none of them.

The pattern behind it. Each of the four causes is one problem underneath: revenue sold but not yet collected, held up partly inside your company, where many hands touch a sale and nobody owns the invoice once it leaves, and partly in the customer's payment process. GGA's answer is to act as the Invoice Lifecycle Owner — one named owner for every material invoice, from submission to cash. How the GGA model works sets out the full argument.

Paid late, or behind other suppliers

Money that arrives late every month is revenue at risk, even when nobody disputes it. These pages are for collections that happen, but not on time.

• Your customer pays every invoice late. How to get paid on time, and ahead of other suppliers — why your invoice sits below others in the payment run, and how it moves up.
• Collections target missed again at month-end? Why the forecast keeps failing — which commitments are real, and how to forecast from process steps.
• Your dealers pay only at season end or keep running over their credit limit — seasonal terms, limits and schemes that set the payment date.
• Government bills pending before 31 March: how to get them passed before the budget closes — the year-end window, and what each office needs by when.
• Your customer says it has paid, but the receipt won't match the invoices — TDS, GST TDS, debit notes and bulk payments, matched line by line.
• Which of your customers will pay late next quarter? The early warning signs — public filings and ledger signals that come before a default.
• How can a company reduce DSO? — lowering DSO without slowing sales.

Choosing who handles your collections

The choice is less about who chases and more about who owns the invoice. Compare the options honestly before you hire anyone.

• Looking for a B2B collection agency in India? Read this before you hire one — what an agency can and cannot fix, and the checks to make first.
• Thinking of outsourcing collections? What to hand over, and what to keep — outsourcing the outside half of order-to-cash while you keep control.
• Dealer collections slipping? In-house team, collection agency or partner — who should work C and D dealers, and how.
• Need someone to follow up Government payments? What a legitimate partner does — documents and approvals only, and the red flags to avoid.
• Should your sales team collect payments, or someone else? — where sales should stop and an invoice owner should start.

The money nobody owns

Project close-outs, post-sale invoices and inactive dealers carry the largest unowned balances.

• Retention money not released after project completion: how to get it back — the certificates and records that unlock retention.
• EMD, security deposit or bank guarantee not released: how to get it back — the GFR 2017 return rules and a release pack per office.
• Liquidated damages deducted from our bill: how do we get them back? — Section 74, extension of time and waiver.
• Thousands of small service, spares and AMC invoices are unpaid. How do we collect them? — volume collection by customer and blocker.
• Our dealers have stopped buying and stopped paying. How do we recover the money? — reconcile schemes first, then recover at volume.
• Your dealer won't pay until his scheme and claim credit notes are settled — value each claim, credit what is genuine, release the undisputed balance.
• You have terminated a dealer who still owes you money — one final ledger with stock, deposit and security cheques before any legal step.

When a customer stops paying

Find the gate or the objection before you escalate.

• Customer not paying your invoice in India: what to do — every option in order, from follow-up to IBC.
• Why is my invoice stuck "in approval" at a large customer, and how do I get it paid? — GRN, SES, three-way match, GST IMS and the payment run.
• Customer short-paid, raised debit notes or disputed the invoice: how do I recover the money? — collect the undisputed part, then settle each claim on evidence.
• Government department or PSU not releasing my payment: where is the bill stuck and what can I do? — measurement, passing, sanction, funds or treasury.
• GeM payment delayed: how do you get the buyer to pay your bill? — PRC, CRAC, the GeM bill and the payment authority, and which incident to raise.
• State government bills pending for months — allotment or letter of credit, treasury queues and year-end deadlines for contractors and suppliers.
• Are receivables older than one or two years still worth chasing? — the invoice-age benchmark and the three-year limitation rule.

Legal routes, rights and costs

Legal routes work on clean, undisputed debts and strict deadlines.

• Should I send a legal notice to recover an unpaid invoice? — when a notice helps and when it backfires.
• A customer company's cheque has bounced. What are my rights under section 138? — notice in 30 days, 15 days to pay, complaint within one month.
• My buyer has not paid within 45 days. How do I file an MSME delayed payment complaint? — interest at three times the RBI bank rate for registered micro and small suppliers.
• My customer has gone into insolvency. What happens to the money they owe me? — the moratorium and your claim with the resolution professional.
• What does receivables recovery cost in India? — GGA's published fee scale, no retainer.

GGA offices

Seventeen offices put a GGA specialist within reach of most Indian buyers.

• Gurugram (head office) — auto, technology and Government suppliers
• Mumbai — distributors, corporates and public buyers
• Pune — auto, engineering and automation suppliers in Chakan and Pimpri-Chinchwad
• Ahmedabad — pharma, textile and agri-input suppliers across Gujarat
• Bengaluru — technology, electronics and medical-device suppliers
• Chennai — auto, electronics, EPC and equipment suppliers across Tamil Nadu
• Hyderabad — pharma, defence and infrastructure suppliers in Telangana
• Kolkata — engineering, FMCG and publishing suppliers across eastern India
• Ranchi — Jharkhand Government, PSU, mining and engineering buyers
• Jaipur — buyers, dealers and Rajasthan departments
• Nagpur — Vidarbha buyers, PSUs and departments
• Guwahati — Northeast buyers, PSUs and Assam departments
• Patna — Bihar distributors, contractors and departments
• Coimbatore — engineering, textile and pump makers
• Kochi — Kerala buyers, port users, PSUs and departments
• Mysuru — OEM buyers, dealers and Karnataka agencies
• Chandigarh — the tricity, Punjab and Haryana

How fast does unpaid money lose value?

Collection falls from over 95% to about 10% as an invoice ages past three years.

Exhibit 1: GGA operating benchmark — share collected, by invoice age

The figures describe GGA's experience, not a forecast. The direction is the reason to act early.

What GGA would do

One ranked list, a cause for every line, and every rupee placed within six months.

1. Days 1–5: one list. Your overdue book grouped by customer legal entity, with close-outs, service invoices, dealers and Government files separated. You receive: a single list ranked by value and age.
2. Weeks 1–2: a cause for every line, from the four above. You receive: the cause and the missing document or decision for each.
3. Weeks 2–4: reconcile first. Documents completed, balances agreed and disputes evidenced before anyone asks for payment. You receive: drafts for your sign-off.
4. Month 2 onwards: collect. One named GGA owner per material account follows each file to payment. You receive: weekly movement and a fortnightly review.
5. By month 6: every rupee placed in your bank or classified, with the reason evidenced. You receive: a closing classification for every overdue line.

What we need from you

An ageing extract and a customer master are enough for a first view.

To start: an ageing or open-item extract; the customer or dealer master with legal entity names; one contract, PO or dealer agreement for a large account. To act: supporting documents per item — GRN or SES numbers, signed job sheets, completion certificates, scheme and credit-note records, deposit and guarantee lists — and the last correspondence on each. Missing some of these? Send what you have — telling you what is missing is part of the first reply.

How you stay in control

Your customers keep paying you, and every money decision stays yours.

• Your customers pay you directly. GGA never receives or holds your money.
• Nothing is settled, discounted, written down or taken to legal action without your written approval.
• GGA manages the communication with your customers; escalation steps are discussed with you.
• One named GGA owner per account; monthly report to your CEO and CFO, a fortnightly review call, an immediate flash report when a risk appears.
• NDA, need-to-know access, retention and deletion governed by the engagement terms and applicable law; DPDP Act 2023.
• Fees agreed in writing before work starts; six-month term, reviewed with you every month.
• Government matters: documentation and approvals only — GGA works the timing and the queue, never the decision.

Send us one unpaid invoice. Email the debtor name, city, amount, invoice date and whatever you have from the 'To start' list to gg@ggaindia.co.in. Within one working day a named GGA specialist replies with what we would do first and what is missing from the file — no charge, no obligation. For a whole book, ask for a complimentary Receivables Position Review.

A different situation? Foreign company owed money by an Indian business → India Desk · Indian exporter owed by an overseas buyer → Global Receivables Desk

Frequently asked questions

GGA works the money your own team does not own, and is paid only from cash that reaches your bank.

What does GGA do that my own team cannot?

Your team collects what it sells. GGA works what nobody owns — close-outs, small service invoices, stalled dealers and Government files — with one named owner per invoice, field presence in 17 cities and monthly reporting to the CEO and CFO.

What does it cost?

Fees come only from cash that reaches your bank, on the scale in the at-a-glance block. A file-opening fee may apply for legacy or Government cases. GST is extra.

Who decides on settlements, discounts or legal action?

You do. GGA recommends; nothing is settled, discounted, written down or taken to legal action without your written approval. GGA manages the communication, escalation steps are discussed with you, and GGA invoices its fee only after your customer has paid you.

How do we start?

Send one unpaid invoice for a free first view, or ask for a complimentary written Receivables Position Review of the whole book. GGA does not run pilots.

Sources

The benchmark above is GGA's own published research.

• GGA — Collection outcomes by invoice age

This page summarises the position as at 9 November 2026. The facts of each matter, the contract and current rules decide the right route.