Xero’s reminders are on, and they still pay late

1. What the free reminders already do well

Start with the honest part, because most of the apps sold against Xero’s reminders skip it. They are included in your subscription, they are already in your file, and once they are on they run every day whether or not anyone remembers. That last part is most of the value of any chasing system.

According to Xero’s own help pages (checked October 2026):

• Three reminders are ready the moment you switch them on.

  You can edit or delete them, and add more, up to five in your organisation.

• They can go before the due date as well as after it.

  You choose the number of days either side, and a reminder set to zero days goes on the due date itself.

• They carry the way to pay.

  An option adds a button to the online invoice, with the amount due, due date and invoice number in the email, and another adds a link to the PDF.

• Small balances can be left alone.

  You can set an amount below which no reminder is sent.

• You can pause one customer or one invoice.

  Xero's own example is a partly paid invoice, or one you have already spoken to the customer about.

• You can see what went.

  The Reminders column on the Awaiting Payment tab shows how many reminders have gone for each invoice, and an invoice's history shows when.

For a customer who forgot, that is all it takes. An email with a pay button lands, they tap it, and the invoice closes without anyone in your office touching it. If your reminders are not on yet, turn them on before you read any further. The overdue invoice email wording paper has three emails ready to paste into them, and the checklist for when they are not sending.

2. Where the emails stop

None of this is a fault. It is what the feature is: an email on a timetable. These limits are read straight off Xero’s help pages, checked October 2026.

3. Signs the emails have stopped working

You do not need a report to know. If three or more of these are true of your week, the reminders have done the part they can do.

• The Reminders column says All sent, and the invoice is still there.
• The same names are on the aged receivables report every Friday, a little bigger each time.
• The money that does arrive late comes in the day after somebody rang.
• A customer said "I'll pay it Friday" in a reply, and nobody checked on Monday whether they did.
• Reminders were switched off for a customer during a query, and nobody remembers switching them back on.
• Your bookkeeper sends a list of overdue accounts, and the list is where the chasing ends.
• The small invoices age out because the time goes on the big ones.

4. Why more email will not fix it

An emailed reminder is a note on the fridge. It works on people who were going to do it anyway. It does nothing for the person who has read the note and decided to leave it there.

Late payers are not one group. Some forgot. Some never got the invoice, or it went to someone who left. Some have a question about a line on it and are waiting for you to ring. Some are short of cash and paying whoever pushes hardest. A fourth and fifth email reaches the first group, who were already paying, and nobody else.

So the question is not whether to replace Xero’s reminders. It is which of those groups is costing you, and which kind of add-on reaches that group. That is the next section.

5. What each kind of add-on fixes

Five kinds of thing get sold as “better than Xero reminders”. They are not competing for the same job. The named products in each are compared in debtor-chasing apps for Xero, and what they cost in what accounts receivable automation costs.

6. Where a phone call fits

A call sits after the emails and before the collector. The reminders have already reached everyone who was going to pay from an email, so whoever is left is the group a call is for. Nobody in the business wants to make those calls, and that is the whole problem: the call works, and it is the step that does not happen.

A person in your office making them is still the best version when you have the person and the hours. If you do not, this is where we should say plainly what we sell.

Get Paid, on Office Voice, is the call in section 5 done for you. It works like a teammate on the accounts desk rather than a campaign you have to run. It picks up where Xero’s reminders leave off:

• It says it is an AI and that the call is recorded, before anything else.
• It reads the balance from your live Xero just before it dials, so an invoice that has been paid is never chased.
• One call per customer, covering every invoice they owe, read out on the call.
• It texts Xero's own payment link while the customer is still on the line.
• A promise to pay is written back to the invoice in Xero as a date, and the next call moves to that date.
• If nobody answers, it follows up by text and email instead.
• A dispute is captured and passed to you, rather than chased. The things only you can decide are the only things that reach you.
• It checks the Do Not Call Register and calling hours in the debtor's own state before dialling, and it stops the moment the money lands.

It is $199a month ex GST, flat, with no call caps and no per-minute overage. Telephony is billed at the carrier’s rate with no markup, and A$29 sets up your number, which comes off your first bill. It does not do payment plans, hardship, write-offs or anything a lawyer would call a demand, and it is not a licensed collector: those stay with you, or go to an agency.

Keep Xero’s reminders on alongside it. The emails still collect from the forgetters for nothing, and the calls only have to cover what the emails could not.

7. Stay on Xero’s reminders if

Plenty of businesses should change nothing. Stay where you are if:

• Most of your late invoices are paid within a week or two of the first reminder. The forgetters are your whole problem, and Xero already handles them.
• Your overdue list is short enough that you or your bookkeeper ring the stragglers yourselves, and you actually do.
• You have not yet fixed the basics: invoices marked as sent, a current email on every contact, your own wording in the templates. Do those first; they cost nothing.
• Your customers pay up front or on the day. Then the reminders barely matter at all.

Paying for an add-on before the free version is set up properly is buying a second lock for a door you have left open.

8. Where to start

1. 1

   Get the free reminders right

   Turn them on, put your own wording in, check every customer has an email address, and mark invoices as sent if they leave Xero any other way.

2. 2

   Read the Reminders column after a month

   Look at the invoices that say All sent and are still unpaid. That list is the size of the gap.

3. 3

   Sort that list by why

   Forgot, never got it, has a question, short of cash, gone quiet. The biggest group tells you which add-on from section 5 to buy, if any.

4. 4

   Add one thing, not five

   Start with the add-on that reaches your biggest group. Keep Xero's reminders running underneath it.

For the wider picture, with credit control and remittance matching alongside the chasing, read accounts receivable automation.