How to automate invoice reminders and get paid on time.

Switch on what you already have

Most accounting and invoicing tools can already send reminders. Turning them on is a setting, not a project, so start there:

• QuickBooks Online: in Settings, Account and settings, Sales, turn on automatic invoice reminders. You can set up to three, each a chosen number of days before or after the due date, with your own subject and message. They go only to unpaid invoices you have already emailed, and one template covers every customer.
• Xero: invoice reminders email a customer when an invoice is nearly due or overdue. You can edit the wording, add a link to the online invoice, and turn reminders off for one invoice or one customer while you sort something out.
• Stripe: for one-off invoices, turn on reminders in the invoice settings and choose whether they go before, on or after the due date. Each invoice links to a page where the customer can pay.
• Trades on job software such as Jobber can have it send an email or text reminder about an unpaid invoice, and may need nothing else.

Check one thing in each: reminders go to invoices marked unpaid. If payments are matched to invoices late, a client who has paid gets chased. Match payments every day, so the software knows what is paid.

Make the invoice easy to pay before you chase it

A reminder cannot fix an invoice that is hard to pay. Before you set up a single reminder, check that each invoice:

• Shows the due date as a date, such as 14 November, as well as the payment terms.
• Goes to the person who pays it. At a business client that is often an accounts address rather than the person who hired you.
• Carries the reference the client needs, such as their purchase order or job number.
• Has a pay link or a card option where your software offers one, as well as your bank details.
• Says what it is for in words the client recognises: 'Boiler service, 12 Elm Road, 3 November' tells them more than 'Services rendered'.
• Goes out on the day the work ends, while the client still remembers it.

For a new business client, ask at the start who pays invoices and whether they need a purchase order number. One question then saves several reminders later.

A reminder schedule you can copy

This schedule suits payment terms of a couple of weeks or more. Move the days to fit your own terms:

• A few days before the due date: a friendly heads-up with the amount, the date and the pay link.
• On the due date: a short note that it is due today.
• A week after: a polite reminder that it is now overdue, asking them to say if anything is wrong.
• Two weeks after: a firmer reminder that names your payment terms and asks for a date.
• Three weeks after: a phone call from a person, instead of another email.
• A month after: a final written notice that says what happens next, such as pausing further work or the formal step your adviser recommends.

For consumers and one-off jobs, keep the first two steps and the call, and keep the tone gentle all the way through. For regular clients on account, one monthly statement that lists everything unpaid can replace a reminder per invoice.

QuickBooks allows three automatic reminders, which fits the first three steps. Everything after that is better done, or at least approved, by a person.

What to write in each reminder

Keep each reminder short and specific. Name the invoice, the amount, the due date and how to pay, and send it from an address someone reads. Wording you can adapt:

• Before the due date. Subject: Invoice 1043 due on Friday. 'Hi Sarah, a quick note that invoice 1043 for [amount], for the kitchen tap repair at 12 Elm Road, is due on Friday 14 November. You can pay by card with the link below or by bank transfer. Thanks, Tom.'
• On the due date. Subject: Invoice 1043 is due today. 'Hi Sarah, invoice 1043 is due today. The pay link is below. If you have already paid, thank you, and please ignore this.'
• A week overdue. Subject: Invoice 1043 is now overdue. 'Hi Sarah, invoice 1043 was due last Friday and we have not received payment yet. Could you check it reached the right person? If there is a problem with it, reply and I will sort it out.'
• Two weeks overdue. Subject: Invoice 1043, two weeks overdue. 'Hi Sarah, invoice 1043 is now two weeks past its due date, and our terms ask for payment within 14 days. Please pay by the end of this week, or reply with a date that works. If something is wrong with the invoice, tell me and I will look at it straight away.'
• Final notice. Subject: Final reminder: invoice 1043. 'Hi Sarah, invoice 1043 is a month overdue, and we have not heard back since our call on Tuesday. Please pay by Friday 12 December. After that we will [the next step you have agreed with your adviser].'

Leave out guilt, capital letters and threats you would not carry out. Even the firmest reminder should offer a way to raise a problem, because a client who questions one line may hold back the whole invoice until someone listens.

When a person picks up the phone

Automation handles the routine. A person should call:

• When the second overdue reminder gets no answer.
• When an invoice is above an amount you set, from its first overdue day.
• When a client who always paid on time suddenly stops.
• When a reply mentions a problem, a complaint or money trouble.
• When the client is one you want to keep working with for years.

Before the call, pause the automatic reminders for that invoice where your software allows it, so an email does not land in the middle of the conversation. Ask an open question, such as 'Is anything holding up invoice 1043?', and listen. Agree a date, or a plan if they need to pay in parts, and confirm it by email the same day. Note the call on the invoice or the customer's record, so whoever chases next knows what was agreed.

Name one person who owns unpaid invoices, with a backup for holidays. Reminders that nobody follows up teach clients that the last email can be ignored.

Stop the reminders when something is wrong

An automatic reminder is the wrong message for an invoice the client has questioned. Stop them for that invoice when:

• The client disputes a line or the whole invoice.
• A credit note or a corrected invoice is on its way.
• You agreed a payment plan, and the reminders would ask for the full amount.
• The client has paid part of it and the rest is being discussed.

Xero lets you do this for one invoice or for a whole customer. If your software cannot pause a single invoice, keep a short list of invoices on hold and check it before reminders go out, or use a workflow that reads that list. Then deal with the cause quickly: a reminder paused for months is a debt nobody is chasing.

When you need a workflow of your own

Built-in reminders are enough when every invoice comes from one tool and one template suits every client. Build your own when:

• Invoices come from a tool with no reminders, or from more than one tool.
• Different clients need different wording, timing or languages.
• You want reminders by text as well as email, or signed by the person who did the job.
• Payment plans need a reminder before each instalment.
• Reminders on bigger invoices should wait for a person to approve them.

A typical workflow runs once each morning:

• It reads the unpaid invoices from your accounting software through its API.
• For each one, it works out the step from the days before or after the due date.
• It skips invoices that are on the hold list, paid or disputed.
• It sends the reminder for that step in your words, from an address someone reads.
• At the call step, it creates a task for the person who owns unpaid invoices instead of sending another email.
• It logs every reminder on the invoice or the customer record, and sends a short morning list of what went out and what needs a call.

A person checks the morning list, approves reminders on invoices above the amount you set and reads every reply. We build this where the accounting software's API allows: the workflow sends reminders in your wording at the timing you set, stops once the invoice shows as paid, and passes disputed invoices to a person. See automation, and the prices page for where custom automation starts.

Reminders by text message

Some customers answer a text long before they open an email, so a short text with a pay link suits people who are rarely at a desk. Texts come with rules of their own. In the US, business texting from software needs carrier registration, and consent rules apply to what you send. In Europe and the UK, rules on electronic messages apply too. Ask your adviser what a payment reminder needs where you are, and see text message consent rules for the US.

Keep it to one or two texts: one on the due date and one after it. Put the business name first, include the invoice number and the pay link, and never put more personal detail in a text than the customer would want on a lock screen.

Late fees and interest: check the rules first

If your clients are businesses in the UK or the EU, late payment rules let you claim interest on a late invoice and a fixed sum towards the cost of recovering it. The rules cover business clients, not consumers. In the EU, interest runs from the day after the agreed due date, or from 30 days after the client receives the invoice if no date was agreed.

In the US there is no single rule. A late fee or interest generally has to be in the terms the client agreed to, and states set limits on both.

Before you mention a fee or interest in a reminder, ask your accountant or solicitor what applies to you and whether it is worth claiming. Mentioning a charge you are not entitled to, or would never claim, costs more goodwill than it gains.

Make the next invoice easier to collect

• Agree payment terms in writing before the work starts, with the due date stated on the quote.
• Ask for a deposit on larger jobs, or payment in stages on long ones.
• Take payment on the day for small jobs, with a card reader or a pay link sent before you leave.
• Offer a direct debit or a card on file for regular work where your payment provider supports it, as a cleaning company with weekly clients might.
• Invoice at the start of the month for retainers, as many coaches and consultants do.
• Keep a short list of clients who always pay late, and talk to them about terms before the next job.

Invoice on the day the work ends. Every day an invoice waits to be sent is a day added to when you get paid.

Check the reminders before a client sees them

• Create a test invoice to yourself with a due date a few days away, and watch each reminder arrive.
• Open the pay link on your phone and check it reaches the right invoice.
• Reply to a reminder and check the reply reaches a person.
• Mark the test invoice as paid and check that the next reminder does not go.
• Read every reminder as the client would, on a phone, and cut anything that sounds cross.

If reminders land in spam, check your domain's email settings before you change the wording: see why your business emails go to spam. Reminders sit next to the other first jobs worth automating in the first automations to set up.

Mistakes that sour a client

• Chasing an invoice that was paid days ago, because nobody matched the payment.
• Sending reminders from a no-reply address, so a client's question goes nowhere.
• The firmest wording for a client of ten years who missed one date.
• Reminders that carry on during a dispute.
• A subject line that hides what the email is about.
• Threatening a fee that is not in your terms.
• Five reminders in two weeks.
• Reminders to the person who hired you when the invoice should go to their accounts team.