Payment reminders and late fees
Chase overdue invoices automatically, and decide whether late fees are worth it.
Chasing invoices is the job nobody wants and everybody postpones. Reminders do it on a schedule so it stops depending on whose week it is.
Where to find it
Set up a reminder schedule
Reminders are defined relative to the due date — Due + a number of days. Add as many steps as your firm wants.
Turn on Send automatically and they go out without anyone approving each one.
A schedule that works for most firms:
- Due + 3 — a light touch. Most late invoices at this point are an oversight.
- Due + 14 — firmer, and worth reading before you turn it on.
- Due + 30 — the one that says a person is about to call.
Three is usually right. Firms that set eight reminders train clients to ignore all of them.
Automatic or reviewed
Send automatically is the setting to think about.
Automatic is the point of the feature — a reminder that waits for someone to approve it is a reminder that goes out late or not at all.
The argument for reviewing is the client you're mid-conversation with, where an automated chaser lands badly. If that's a real concern for a handful of clients, the better answer is usually to resolve those individually rather than to slow the whole system down.
Late fees
A Late fee can be applied as a Flat amount.
Worth a moment's thought before turning this on. Late fees change client behaviour less than most firms expect, and they generate conversations. Many firms configure them, never enforce them, and end up with an invoice that says one thing while the partner says another.
If you use them, make sure your engagement letter says so and that you'll actually apply them.
What clients see
A reminder references the invoice and, where online payment is on, includes the pay link.
That combination is what makes reminders work. A reminder without a way to pay asks the client to go and find the original invoice, which is one more step and one more day.
Notes and limits
- Reminders stop when the invoice is paid.
- Reminders go to the invoice's billing contacts.
- Changing the schedule affects future reminders, not ones already sent.
- Reminders depend on your firm's email sending being configured.