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Settings - Late Payment Reminders
Settings - Late Payment Reminders

How to create email and text message reminders for overdue invoices

Beau O'Hara avatar
Written by Beau O'Hara
Updated over a week ago

Summary

Create up to four unique messages to remind clients of overdue invoices . The reminders start working the day you activate it and will deliver the messages based on the invoice due date. You can send an email, text or both.

Key Points

  • Activate Late Payment Reminders

  • Set the type of reminder to send, email, text or both

  • Create the email template

  • Create the Text template

To activate Late Payment Reminders:

  1. Click the Settings gear icon in the upper-right corner

  2. Under Company Setup, click Late Payment Reminders

  3. Click the Create a New Late Payment Reminder button.

This article describes how to set up two types of reminders: email and/or text.

Select the type of reminder to send: email, text, or text & email.

Note Text reminders are an additional $5 a month plus 3 cents per text to your monthly subscription.

Create the email template

The page opens with a tab named 1 Days Overdue. If you use this default setting, a Late Payment Reminder will be emailed to the customer one day after the invoice due date.

If a customer’s billing term is Net 15 (payment due 15 days after the invoice was generated) and the invoice is unpaid, the Late Payment Reminder will be sent 16 days after the invoice was generated.

If the customer's billing term is Upon Completion (payment due on the same day of the service or invoice date), and the invoice is not paid at the time of service, the Late Payment Reminder will be sent 1 day after the invoice was generated.

In all scenarios when a Late Payment Reminder is sent, the status of the Invoice is Overdue. Invoices with a status of Unpaid, do not receive a late payment reminder.

Email Subject

The subject of the email should grab the attention of the customer. Something like Past-due invoice reminder: {invoice_number} for the first reminder is sufficient in most cases. 

Days Overdue

Change this number to change the number of days the reminder goes out after each customer’s  billing terms. When you change the number the number in the tab also changes. If you change it to 10, and the billing term is Net 15, and the customer has not paid, the Late Payment Reminder will be sent 26 days after the service was completed. 

Minimum amount 

What threshold of a dollar amount do you not want to send a Late Payment Reminder? Leave this blank if you want the system to always send a late payment reminder for all overdue invoices, regardless of the balance due. If you want to set a minimum balance due, please enter it in this field.

Email Template

The Email Template is a standard template that is the text for the Late Payment email.

Placeholders

The Placeholders function the same way as described in earlier articles

+ Tab

Click the + Tab to create another Late Payment Reminder. This one will be further out in time, such as 30 days. Click the + Tab again to create more reminders such as 60 and 90 days.

With each reminder you'll want to change the email subject line and the content/tone of the email template to make each one a more strongly worded message. This progression is known as a Dunning Message. The 1 Days Overdue can have the tone of, “Oops! Maybe you forget about us.” whereas the 90 Days Overdue message might include references to a collection agency and a hefty late payment fee.

Remove Template button

Click the Remove Template button to remove it from the system.

Save button

Click the Save button to save the templates.

Create the Text template

Modify the text message template, if necessary.

This is a sample message sent to the customer. By clicking the link, the device's browser will open up your Customer Portal where the customer can log in and pay overdue invoices.

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