For small businesses

Automatic payment reminders

Chasing late payments is the part of running a business nobody wants to do, and the part that decides whether you get paid. This does it on a schedule, and knows when to stop.

The problem with reminders

Reminders are easy to send and easy to get wrong. Send too few and the bill ages quietly. Send too many and you damage a relationship over money the customer was always going to pay. Send one after they have already paid and you look like you are not paying attention. So the rules below are published in full — not because the schedule is clever, but because you should be able to see exactly when your customer will be contacted before you switch it on.

The schedule

Exactly when a customer hears from you

On creation

First SMS

The customer gets the payment code or link straight away. The three-day cooldown starts here.

On the due date

First reminder

Fires automatically, if the bill has a due date and the reminder is on. Skipped when there is no due date.

Due date + N

Second reminder

A follow-up, N days later, where you set N between 3 and 14. Counts from the creation date on bills with no due date.

Any time after the cooldown

Your own reminder

Send one by hand whenever three days have passed since the last message. Repeats until the bill is settled.

On payment

Everything stops

Paid, cancelled or expired — all reminders end permanently, automatic and manual alike.

The guarantees

What the rules will not let happen

These hold no matter how the reminders are configured.

  • Nobody is messaged twice within three days, whatever combination of reminders is switched on
  • A paid bill can never trigger another message
  • A bill with no due date is never treated as overdue
  • You can turn either automatic reminder off without losing the manual one
  • Every reminder is an SMS, so it works without your customer installing anything

The three-day cooldown is the whole design

Every message — the first SMS, an automatic reminder, one you send yourself — resets a three-day lock. Nothing can send while it is running. That single rule is what stops two reminders landing on the same customer in the same afternoon when a due date and a follow-up happen to coincide.
Questions

Common questions about reminders

When does the first reminder go out?

On the due date itself. If a bill has no due date, the first reminder is skipped — there is no date for it to fire on, and guessing one would mean chasing someone who was never late.

What is the second reminder?

A follow-up that fires a set number of days after the due date. You choose the gap, between 3 and 14 days. On a bill with no due date it counts from the day the request was created instead.

Can the same customer be reminded twice in a row?

No. Every reminder — automatic or manual — starts a three-day cooldown, and nothing can send during it. The cooldown is recalculated from the most recent of the request being created, an automatic reminder firing, or you sending one by hand.

What happens when the customer pays?

Every reminder stops immediately. The same applies if the request is cancelled or expires. Nobody is chased for money they have already paid.

Can I send a reminder myself?

Yes, whenever the three-day cooldown has elapsed and the bill is still pending. Sending one restarts the cooldown, and you can repeat that until the bill is settled.

Do I have to use automatic reminders?

No. Both automatic reminders can be turned off independently. With both off, the bill still sends its first SMS on creation and the manual reminder is available three days later.

Get started

Stop doing this by hand

Tell us how you bill today and we will show you what the schedule would look like for your customers.