Plan the next two weeks of payments

You know today's balance. The payment plan shows the next 14 days: which bill leaves on which day, in the order your cash allows, what the balance is after each, which early-payment discount is worth taking without eating into your cushion, and which bill your cash cannot cover on its day. Someone who approves payments can then move a bill the agent scheduled to the plan's day. The plan never pays anything itself: on the bill's day, the agent checks it again with every rule before it pays. It works the same in a workspace on Arc testnet and on Arc mainnet.

Where to find it#

Open Bills & receivables and choose the Payment plan tab. Every member of the workspace can read it.

At its top, a line says how fresh the balance is: "Sandbox: the balance is simulated." in a sandbox, or how many minutes ago it was read from the chain in a live workspace. Under it, in one row, are the figures the plan starts from and ends with:

• Cash now: the operating wallet, and the USYC reserve when the workspace has one, as Safe to spend today counts it. The agent brings back from the reserve what a day needs before it pays.
• Cushion: "15% of what leaves within 7 days", and of the open milestones: the same cushion Safe to spend today keeps, so the two never disagree.
• Lowest balance with this plan, and the day it falls on.
• Not covered by the cash, when a bill is marked short: what those bills come to, still owed.
• Discounts this plan would take: "An estimate, if paid as planned". Nothing in the plan calls a discount saved before it is taken.

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What it counts#

• Bills to pay in USDC that are still open: waiting for the agent, scheduled, on their way, held, waiting for details, or being decided in Approvals. A bill is in the plan when its due date, the day the agent scheduled it for, or its discount's last day falls within the 14 days. A bill whose day falls after them is listed under "After" the 14th day, and not counted in the days shown. A bill the agent scheduled within the 14 days keeps that day, even when its due date falls after them.
• Open milestones, counted today: they are paid once their work is verified. A verified milestone the agent may not release on its own, above two approvals or the contractor's payment limit, or to a contractor screened high risk, waits for people and says so.
• Each obligation once. A payment already on its way is that payment. A milestone whose USDC is held in escrow is listed under Listed, not counted, since its cash has left the wallet, and so is a bill the agent flagged for review, such as a likely duplicate.
• A bill and a milestone for the same payee and amount may be one payment entered twice. The plan cannot tell, and the agent would pay both, so both are counted and both say May be the same payment until one of them is closed.
• Bills in EURC are paid from the EURC balance: the plan names how many there are and what they come to, and never adds them to USDC.
• Not counted: money you expect to receive, and a recurring payment's next bill until it has been created. Money expected in, folded under Cash effect, lists apart the receivables due in the 14 days, a deal's released lines among them and a part-paid one for what is still owed, and the deal lines planned for those days that are not invoiced yet, each with its day: "Not counted in any balance above: money expected is not cash until it arrives." See Turn a signed deal into a collection schedule.

How each bill gets its day#

1. Overdue or due today: today, first in line.

2. Otherwise its due date, or the earlier day the agent scheduled it for. The plan never moves a payment later than the agent chose, and never earlier for any reason but a discount. A bill the agent scheduled after its due date, because the due date changed since, is brought back to it only when the cash covers it there, the agent's spending limit has room for it, and nothing else is then short or above that limit: with no other line approved, and with the bills brought back before it, so two are never brought back to days they do not fit together.

3. Earlier only for an early-payment discount, on the discount's last day, and only when all of these hold:

   • the discount is worth at least what holding the cash in the reserve until the due date would earn, which is how the agent decides too;
   • the cash covers the bill on that day;
   • with that bill paid then, the balance stays at or above the cushion on every day until it would otherwise be paid (from then on, paying early leaves more cash, never less), unless the cash could not cover the bill on that later day at all;
   • no other bill is left short;
   • the agent's spending limit has room for the billed amount that day, without taking the room another payment had (a bill the limit has no room for on either day keeps its own day);
   • each of these holds with no other line approved, so approving one line never depends on another.

   They are weighed in the order of the discounts' last days, the larger first. A bill the agent already scheduled on or before the discount's last day keeps that day: it takes the discount there, and the plan never moves it later, to earn yield, to protect the cushion or for anything else. Its line says what that day holds: when the balance goes under the cushion, or that the bill is short or above the agent's spending limit.

Within a day, a payment already on its way comes first, then milestones, then overdue bills from the oldest, then by due date and the smaller amount.

Each line says why it is on its day, for instance "Overdue since Oct 9, 2026: first in line today." or "Pays on Oct 14, 2026, the discount's last day, to take the 1% early-payment discount (6.40 USDC); the balance stays above the cushion." When the balance goes under the cushion later in the 14 days, the line says until which day it stays above it. When a discount is not taken, the line says why: it "would take the balance under the cushion", "would leave" another bill short or above the agent's spending limit, the bill "would be short of cash" on that day, or "the reserve's yield until then" is worth more than the discount.

Reading a line#

The payments are grouped by day, each day's heading with Balance after: the balance once that day's payments leave. Each line has the payee, what leaves that day (a discounted amount shows the billed amount struck through beside it), where it stands with the agent and its marks, and "The plan moves it here" when the plan would move it to that day. Open a line for why it is on its day, each mark's reason in a sentence, and Approve. A line can carry these marks:

• Short of cash: the balance cannot cover it on its day. It is not taken off the balance, since the agent holds a bill it cannot pay, and it counts in Not covered by the cash at its billed amount: unpaid on its day, it loses any discount ending then. The plan never spends cash that is not there.
• Under the cushion: paid on its day, it leaves the balance under the cushion. An obligation is still paid on its day: it is never delayed to protect the cushion.
• Over the agent's limit: the agent's daily or 7-day spending limit has no room for it that day, so it waits for a person's approval. The limit is weighed against the billed amount, as the agent weighs it, and what leaves after a discount is what uses the room. What the agent paid in the last 7 days counts against each of the first 7 days. Bills in EURC use the limit too, at their USDC value, which the plan does not know: on a day the agent pays one, it may have less room than the plan shows.
• Above payment limit, Two approvals and High risk: the checks the agent runs before every payment and before it releases a verified milestone. Such a bill or milestone is not the agent's to pay on its own: people approve it, and a payee screened high risk waits for Compliance.
• May be the same payment and Due date unreadable.

A bill that waits for a person, held or waiting for details, is counted on its due date and says Waits for a person, with Decide in Approvals. A bill the agent has not decided yet gets a day too, but says "Not decided by the agent yet": the agent decides it first. A bill whose scheduled day has come says "The agent decides it again at its next cycle": it is counted on the day the agent's own rule gives it then, today, a discount's last day or its due date, and nobody moves it.

Cash effect, folded under the days as Cash effect, day by day, lists each day money leaves: what leaves, the balance As scheduled now, and the balance With this plan, "Projected, before any receivable arrives." A balance under the cushion is in bold.

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Approve a day#

Owners, admins and approvers see "The plan moves it here" on a line, and Approve inside it once opened, when its plan day, within the 14 days, is earlier than the day the agent scheduled the bill for, and Approve all shown when there is more than one such line.

• Approving moves the day, nothing else. The bill is still scheduled; the agent decides it again on the new day, with every check it runs before paying: screening, the payee's payment limit, two approvals, its spending limit, and the cash. A move to today starts a cycle, as adding a bill does, so a discount ending today does not wait for the next scheduled one.
• Never your own bill. Nobody approves the day of a bill they entered: the line says "You created this bill, so someone else must approve its day." The workspace's only approver can, and the audit log says so.
• A line whose checks do not pass cannot be approved: it says "Clear what stops it before approving its day."
• Each line on its own, and the moves together. Approve all shown sends the lines you were shown. Each is checked again by itself, then, in the plan's order, together with the lines the same press has already moved, so the moves made hold together even when another line is not moved, for instance a bill you entered. Only those that pass move, and the message names those that did not, and why: "Moved 2 payments. The agent checks each again on its day before it pays." A line that would need the room or the cash a line not moved would have freed says "Together with the moves just made", and what it would do.
• A move that fails part way. The lines already moved stay moved, a move to today still starts a cycle, and the message says which did not move. The lines after the one that failed are not tried: approve them again once the page shows the plan as it is now.
• The plan you saw. The plan is worked out again when you approve. If anything changed since it was shown, the balance, a bill's amount, payee, address or due date, or a payee's payment limit or screening, nothing moves: "The plan changed since it was shown. Look at the new plan, then approve again." A bill that changes while the approval is running says "This bill changed a moment ago. Look at the new plan." Either way the page then shows the plan as it is now.
• Not during a cycle. While the agent is deciding: "A cycle is running. Try again in a minute, once it has finished."

Each move is a signed entry in the audit log, payment_rescheduled, with who moved it, from which day to which, and the facts the line showed. The bill's decision trail reads "A person moved its payment to" the new day "from the payment plan", and the agent's own decision stays the one its card shows.

When the balance is not fresh#

In a live workspace, the plan's cash is the balance read from the chain. When that read is more than 10 minutes old, or has never been made, the plan stays on screen with "The balance is not fresh", how old the figure is, and Refresh balance. Approving is off until the balance is read again: "The plan below uses the last figures read. Approving is off until they are fresh." The server refuses an approval on a stale balance too, and the page then shows the plan with approving off and Refresh balance.

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When the agent's spending limit, the figure for two approvals or the open milestones cannot be read, the plan says "Part of the plan could not be read", names what, and approving waits in the same way. A sandbox's balance is its own simulated figure, so it is always current.

The last 30 days#

Under the plan, Last 30 days is "Counted from what was paid and recorded, not from a plan.":

• Paid by the due day: the bills paid in the last 30 days, and how many of them were paid on or before their due date.
• Overdue now: open bills past their due date.
• Discounts taken: the discounts on bills paid in the last 30 days, as their transfers carried them: each bill's amount less what was paid.
• Days moved by a person: approvals from the plan.

What the plan does not do#

• Choose another day by hand. You approve the plan's day, or leave the agent's.
• Spread bills over days to stay within the agent's daily limit: a line over it is marked instead.
• Plan EURC, or count the Gateway balance as cash for payouts sent through it.
• Count a recurring payment's next bill before it has been created.
• Stop the agent. When the agent is paused or payments are switched off, the header says so, and the plan still shows the days it would pay on.

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