Which tools already send invoice reminders?
Xero's invoice reminders email customers when an invoice is due or overdue. Xero sets up three default reminders for overdue invoices when you turn the feature on, and you can create up to five, including reminders before the due date or on the day (set the days to 0). Reminders only go for invoices marked as sent, to contacts with a current email address, and you need the administrator or standard user role to set them up. Tradify's payments page says you can also enable automatic overdue payment reminders in Tradify. If invoices sync from Tradify to Xero, choose one system to send reminders, or customers receive two sets.
- Xero path: Sales, Invoices, then Invoice Reminders, and tick Email customers when an invoice is.
- Optional settings add the online invoice button, a PDF link, or skip invoices under an amount you set.
- Each reminder template can be edited, and Xero lets you insert placeholders into it.
How many reminders should an overdue invoice get?
The ACCC and ASIC debt collection guideline (RG 96) applies to creditors collecting their own debts as well as to collection agencies. It counts emails as contact and recommends no more than three contacts with a debtor a week, or ten a month at most, and only when necessary. It is written with individual debtors in mind, and says many of its principles are also relevant to business and small business debts. Count reminder emails, calls and texts together. The schedule below is a hypothetical example to adapt with your accountant, not a rule.
- Hypothetical: 3 days before the due date, a short note with the payment link.
- On the due date, a one-line reminder.
- 7 days overdue, a reminder listing the ways to pay.
- 21 days overdue, a final automated email, after which a person takes over by phone.
Where do replies to Xero reminders go?
Xero's help centre says customer replies to reminders go to the login email of the person who first turned reminders on, and that you can edit this address. In many small trade businesses that is the owner's own login, so replies about payments land in a mailbox nobody checks for them. Change it to the shared accounts address that the person handling debtors reads. Then test it: create a test contact with your own email address, send yourself a reminder and reply to it. If the reply does not arrive where you expect, fix the address before real reminders go out.
How should each type of reply be handled?
Replies to reminders fall into a small number of groups, and each needs a different first step. RG 96 says collection activity should be suspended when a person claims the debt has been paid or was never incurred and you have not confirmed it, so a reply saying the invoice is paid or not owed pauses reminders on that invoice. Disputes and payment-plan requests should pause them too while a person decides. Make the pause visible in your system so the next scheduled reminder does not go out while someone is still checking.
- Says it is paid: pause reminders, check the bank feed and reply with what you found.
- Disputes the work or a line: pause reminders and pass it to the person who ran the job.
- Asks for a payment plan: send to whoever approves arrangements, then track the plan instead of reminding.
- Remittance advice attached: match the amount to the invoice and record the payment.
- Wrong contact: update the contact email in Xero, since reminders go to that address.
- Bounce or out-of-office: check the address or return date; it is not a response.
What can AI do with reminder replies?
An AI triage step reads each reply, labels it with one of the groups above, links it to the invoice number in the thread and drafts a response for a person to approve. It can compare a remittance amount with the invoice and flag a mismatch, and it can notice when a customer says the same thing twice. Keep it away from decisions: it should not mark invoices paid, agree to payment plans, write off amounts or describe consequences of non-payment. RG 96 has a section on representations about the consequences of non-payment, and a model writing firm-sounding text can drift into statements nobody approved.
Should invoice reminders include promotions?
No. ACMA warns that spam law breaches can occur even when a message is mostly factual, including a bill or invoice that also carries promotional or sales content. Keep reminder templates to the invoice number, amount, due date and how to pay. If you want to tell customers about a service special or a maintenance plan, send it separately, only to people who have agreed to receive marketing, with an unsubscribe. Lock the reminder template so an AI drafting tool cannot add an upsell line, and check the first few reminders it sends.