Sending automatic reminders for overdue invoices

In this article, you'll learn how to send automatic reminders when an invoice goes past due: texts and emails to the customer with the pay link, and an email to your team when nothing comes in. Every company already has these rules. They just start switched off, so you decide when the chasing begins.

An invoice goes past due the day after its due date, and the due date comes from the invoice's payment terms. If you haven't set those yet, see Setting payment terms for invoices.

To open your automations:

  1. In the menu, click Automations.
  2. Click the My Automations tab.

On the phone app, tap the bolt icon at the top of your Home screen. It opens the same Automation Center.

The reminder rules you already have

Under My Automations you'll find four rules named Invoice reminder:

  • Invoice reminder | 1 day, | 3 days and | 5 days send the customer a text and an email that many days after the invoice due date. Each one says the invoice is owed and includes the pay link.
  • Invoice reminder | 6 days — tell the office emails your team that three reminders went out and nothing came in, with the customer's phone and email so someone can call.

Each rule only runs when the amount due is greater than 0, and each is set to send between 9:00 and 19:00. The office email goes to the account owner unless you pick other team members.

Turning the reminders on

  1. In the menu, click Automations, then My Automations.
  2. Type "Invoice reminder" in the Search box to see just these four rules.
  3. On each rule you want, click the switch on the right of the card. It turns green.

There's nothing else to save. The switch is the only on/off, and a rule that's on will send.

Note: A rule only runs for invoices that go past due after you switch it on. An invoice that was already overdue when you turned the rules on won't get reminders.

How the trigger works

The CRM checks your open invoices every ten minutes. The day after an invoice's due date, if money is still owed, its status changes to Past Due on the Invoices page and the "an invoice is due" trigger fires once. The reminder rules count from the due date, so "3 days after the invoice due date" lands three days past due.

If the customer pays before a later reminder is due, that reminder is skipped. A partial payment leaves the invoice past due, so the reminders keep going until the balance clears. To see what each rule did, click Activity at the bottom of its card. Entries read Sent, Scheduled or Skipped, with the reason.

Changing the timing, wording or recipients

  1. On the rule's card, click •••, then Edit. Clicking any underlined word in the card's sentence opens the editor too.
  2. Click the underlined timing (for example 1 day after) to change it. Pick immediately, ahead of or after, then a number and minutes, hours or days.
  3. Click client to switch the recipient to your team. A row of names appears; click the people who should get it. If you pick nobody, it goes to the account owner.
  4. Click the underlined medium to choose a text message, an email or a text and email.
  5. Click Preview/edit message. Edit the Subject (emails only) and the body, and click any short code such as invoice_link or amount_due to insert it. Click ✓ Save and close.
  6. Under Automation will be sent, set the earliest and latest times a reminder may go out. Untick the box to allow sending at any hour.
  7. Click Update automation.

On the phone app the same controls open as sheets from the bottom of the screen, and the timing sheet is titled When to send.

Tip: The short codes under the message box are the only way to pull in the customer's name, the invoice number, the amount due and the pay link. Keep invoice_link in any customer message so they can pay from the text.

Building your own overdue rule

If you want a different schedule, say a reminder at 10 days, build a rule from scratch.

  1. Click + Add automation.
  2. Type a name in the box at the top.
  3. Click this happens, and under an invoice choose is due.
  4. Click do this and choose who gets what, for example send client a text and email.
  5. Click within a defined time, choose after, and set the number of days. The sentence now ends with "the invoice due date".
  6. Click + Add condition, choose amount due, greater, type 0 and click ✓ Apply. This keeps the rule from firing on an invoice that's already been paid.
  7. Click Preview/edit message, write the message, and click ✓ Save and close.
  8. Click Add automation.

The new rule appears under My Automations switched on.

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