The overdue payment text nudges customers who haven't paid an invoice: once at 7 days, once at 14 days and once at 30 days past the due date. Three texts at most per invoice, then it stops.
Reminders go by text message only. Run a Call doesn't send overdue reminder emails for regular invoices; to email a customer about an unpaid invoice, use Resend invoice on the invoice.
Before you start
- Business texting must be set up and approved. See Enabling SMS-based automations.
- Owners, admins and office staff can turn it on.
Turn it on
- Open Automations from the sidebar.
- Open the Texting folder.
- Flip on Text a reminder when payment is overdue.
You'll see Your overdue-payment texts are live — customers now get a text when a payment's past due.
The check runs every morning and looks at all your open invoices, not just new ones. On the first morning after you turn it on, customers whose invoices are already 7 or more days overdue get a text. Void or mark paid any old invoices you don't want chased first.
Which invoices get a reminder
An invoice gets texted when all of these are true:
| Condition | Why |
|---|---|
| It was sent to the customer | A customer isn't chased for an invoice they never received |
| Its status is Sent, Viewed, Partial or Overdue | Paid and void invoices are left alone |
| Its due date has passed by at least 7 days | The first nudge waits a week |
| The customer (or the invoice's contact) has a phone number | Nothing to text otherwise |
| It wasn't brought over from your previous software | Imported history is never chased |
What the customer gets
With online payments set up, the text includes a link to pay:
Hi Sarah, this is a friendly reminder that invoice INV-0042 for $450.00 is 9 days past due. Pay online: (link)
Without online payments:
Hi Sarah, this is a friendly reminder that invoice INV-0042 for $450.00 is 9 days past due. Contact Desert Valley HVAC to arrange payment.
The amount is the invoice total and the day count is the actual number of days past due. To use your own wording, see Changing the wording of a built-in message.
The invoice's status changes to Overdue when the first reminder text is sent.
An invoice doesn't turn Overdue just because its due date passed. The status only changes when a reminder text goes out. If this automation is off, or the customer has no phone number, a past-due invoice keeps its Sent, Viewed or Partial status.
How the schedule works
- The check runs once every morning at 9:00 AM Eastern time.
- Each invoice gets at most one reminder a day and three in total.
- An invoice that was already very late when you turned this on catches up one reminder per morning: for example, 20 days late gets the first reminder one morning and the second the next, then waits for day 30.
- The reminders stop as soon as the invoice is paid or voided.
- Invoices and customers with reminders paused are skipped until you resume them.
- Turning the switch off pauses reminders. Turning it back on picks up where each invoice left off; nobody gets a reminder twice.
Pause reminders for one invoice or one customer
When a customer is on a payment plan, disputes a charge or has agreed a later date with you, pause their reminders instead of switching the whole automation off.
For one invoice:
- Open the invoice.
- Open the More (⋯) menu and choose Pause overdue reminders.
You'll see Overdue reminders paused, and the same note shows at the top of the invoice, next to the customer's name and the date. The option appears on invoices that can get a reminder: sent, not yet paid, and not brought over from your previous software.
For every invoice of a customer:
- Open the customer from Contacts.
- Open the ⋯ menu in the header and choose Pause overdue reminders.
An Overdue reminders paused badge appears under the customer's name, and each of their unpaid invoices shows Overdue reminders paused for this customer. Invoices you send them later are covered too.
To start them again, open the same menu and choose Resume overdue reminders. The 7, 14 and 30 day schedule carries on from there; the customer never gets the same reminder twice.
Pausing only stops the automated overdue texts. The invoice, its due date and its balance don't change, and you can still resend the invoice or text a payment link yourself.
Replies
Customers can reply to the text; the reply shows up in Conversations like any other text. A customer who replies STOP won't get any more automated texts.
Good to know
- The schedule (7, 14, 30 days) can't be changed. Only the wording can.
- A payment plan or an agreed extension: the reminder doesn't know about it. Use Pause overdue reminders on the invoice or the customer (see above), or change the invoice's due date so the countdown starts later.
- Customers aren't flooded: a customer gets at most one automated text every 25 minutes, so if another automated text went to that customer just before, the reminder waits until the next morning's check.
- Membership renewals: overdue membership renewal invoices also get their own emails. See Membership renewal and dunning emails.