Set up automatic reminders that nudge customers when their invoice is past due. You can create up to four different reminders — for example, one at 1 day late, one at 30 days, one at 60, and one at 90 — and send each by email, text, or both. Once you turn them on, Fieldwork sends them out automatically based on each invoice's due date.

In the upper-right corner of your screen, click the Settings gear icon.

Under Company Setup, click Late Payment Reminders.

Click the Create a New Late Payment Reminder button.

Choose how to send customers late payment reminders

This setting controls who receives the reminder email.

Each reminder has its own tab. The first tab is labeled 1 Days Overdue by default, but you can change that number to anything you want. You can also click the + Tab to add more reminders (for example, at 30, 60, and 90 days overdue).

This is the number of days past the due date that the reminder should be sent.

Important: "Days overdue" counts from the invoice due date, not the invoice creation date. So if a customer has Net 15 terms (payment due 15 days after the invoice), and you set this to 1, the reminder goes out 16 days after the invoice was created.

This is the time of day the reminder will be emailed. Pick a time when your customer is most likely to read it — usually mid-morning on a weekday works well. Avoid late nights and weekends if you can.

Type the smallest unpaid balance that should trigger a reminder. This stops Fieldwork from emailing customers about tiny amounts.

The dollar sign $ is already shown — just type the number.

This is the line your customer sees in their inbox before they open the email. Make it clear so they don't ignore it or mistake it for spam.

Good example for a first reminder: Past-due invoice reminder: {invoice_number}

You can use placeholders (see below) in the subject line, too — for example, to automatically drop in the invoice number.

When this box is checked, a PDF copy of the actual invoice is attached to the reminder email. The customer can open the attachment to see exactly what they owe and what it's for.

Why check it: Customers don't have to log in or click around — the bill is right there in the email.

Why uncheck it: If you'd rather have customers log in to your Customer Portal to view and pay, leave it unchecked.

This is the actual message your customer reads when they open the email. Write it in your own words. A good first reminder is friendly and gives the customer the benefit of the doubt. Later reminders should be firmer. This step-by-step progression — from polite nudge to final warning — is called a dunning sequence.

Placeholders are short codes wrapped in curly braces { } that Fieldwork replaces with real information when the email is sent. Click any placeholder to insert it into your Email Template, and copy & paste placeholders you would like to insert into your subject line.

Tip: Always click the Preview button to see how your customers will view your email

If you chose Text or Text & Email as the reminder type, you'll also see a Text / SMS Template section. This is where you write the short message that gets sent to the customer's phone.

Type your message into the template box. Keep it short and friendly — text messages are not the place for long paragraphs. Most customers will read a text within minutes, so a quick, direct message works best.

Just below the message box, you'll see something like Number of segments: 1.

A segment is a chunk of a text message. One segment is 160 characters (about 1–2 short sentences). If your message goes over 160 characters, it gets split into two segments. Over 320 characters, three segments — and so on.

Why this matters: You're billed per segment. So a message that takes 3 segments costs 3 times as much to send as a 1-segment message. The segment counter updates as you type, so keep an eye on it while writing.

Tip: Use {short_link_to_invoice} instead of {link_to_invoice} to save characters and keep your message to one segment.

Texting is an add-on service, not included in your regular Fieldwork subscription:

So a single 1-segment text costs 3 cents to send. A 2-segment text costs 6 cents. The $5 monthly phone number fee is charged whether or not you send any texts that month.

Just like the email template, you can use placeholders — short codes that Fieldwork automatically fills in with real customer and invoice details when the text is sent.

Note: For text messages, you drag the placeholder into your message instead of

clicking it (which is how email placeholders work).

Before turning the reminder on for real, click the Send a Test button to send the text message to yourself (or to a test number).

Why this matters: This is the best way to make sure:

Always send a test before saving — it takes 30 seconds and can save you from sending a broken or confusing message to every overdue customer at once.

Once your text message looks good and the test came through correctly, click the green Save button in the lower-left corner to save your changes.

If the test did not come through correctly, and you would like to restart your template, click Remove Template.

Need more help? Reach out to Fieldwork support, and we'll be happy to walk you through setting up your text reminders.

Also see: Online Portal - Getting Started Guide 1 of 2

Also see: Late Payment Reminder - turning off for a customer

Also see: How Placeholders work