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Automated overdue invoice reminders and automated late fees

Most of our clients pay their invoices on time but a number are always late...

Would be great if xero could send reminder emails following up on invoices marked as unpaid, say 7 days out from its due date...

"Quick courtesy email letting you know your invoice is overdue. Please remit payment asap. "

we've had late fees as part of our payment terms for a while, we don't really want to have them, but we can't act as a line of credit

therefore we find the threat/presence of them quickly motivates clients to pay their account.

but its been a pain to apply them manually and consistently

would be great if xero could apply late fees automatically like anumber of other accounting/billing apps

so combined with automated reminder for invoices appreaching due date, message would be something like

"Quick courtesy email letting you know your invoice is overdue. Please remit payment asap. Late fees apply at 31 days overdue"

And then on day 31, a new line is added to the invoice that is overdue

for example... Late fee $30

invoice retotalled and saved, then invoice is resent

feel this would pretty quickly sort out the late payers if they saw this happening automatically,

would also allow us to say "sorry its out of my hands, our billing system applies them automatically, you will just have to pay your invoices on time"

Feel this would be an useful feature for xero to implement, many people im sure could do with some help following up debtors.

Thanks

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tony on August 19, 2011 at 1:59

This is a very nice idea. But you'd be better off directing it to one of the Add-On providers

see http://www.xero.com/accounting-software/add-ons/

We're still waiting for Xero to come up with simple things like a Remittance Advice, this is way beyond that.

It's best to think of Xero as an online cashbook, and then look to buy the other features you need.

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Permalink Reply by Kym on August 22, 2011 at 5:29

thanks tony

i looked through addons

this one looks interesting for reminders of pending invoices

http://debtordaddy.com/xero-network-partner/

doesn't look like theres any addon that will deal with automatic calculation of late fees though?

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Permalink Reply by Tony on August 23, 2011 at 4:45

Putting the suggestion to Debtor Daddy is probably your best bet. The add-on providers I have dealt with have been very happy to take feedback.

I have even seen a few of my suggestions implemented.

I have given up making suggestions to Xero - they don't happen.

I guess Xero receives a commission, or fee, from the add-on providers ... so why would they want to add features that would cut into their income?

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Permalink Reply by Catherine (Xero) on August 19, 2011 at 23:44

@Kym Thanks for detailing this suggestion - automated reminders is something we're keen on doing as well as allowing you to use the notification Inbox within Xero to customise what you receive about your accounts e.g. invoices overdue. That's an interesting idea to have the late payment automatically added. I'll get these ideas to the team - we have quite a list of core features plus great suggestions and improvements from our customers to juggle into the pipe of work but we're ticking them off!

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Permalink Reply by Kym on August 22, 2011 at 5:28

thanks Catherine for the reply

would certainly make things function smoother for us

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Permalink Reply by Kym on December 2, 2011 at 14:44

hi catherine

wondering if there was any news about this ?

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Permalink Reply by Catherine (Xero) on December 2, 2011 at 17:26

Nothing to report I'm sorry - it's definitely on our long To Do list - thank you for your patience!

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Permalink Reply by Steven Heather on January 18, 2012 at 10:15

A friend and I are about to launch in the next two months a web based Reminders app, which will send the user email and SMS reminders and alerts. The app will be called Remindersetc and you can register your interest at www.remindersetc.com

The app will be for both personal and business users. It will be a central hub for all your reminders.

We will be looking to generate reminders from Xero and are in the early stages of discussions with them re their API.

I would welcome your thoughts as to what types of reminders you would like from Xero
If you get in touch by personal message, we’ll update you as soon as we are ready to launch so you can be amongst our first users

All the best
Steven

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Permalink Reply by Kym on January 18, 2012 at 12:37

Hi Steven thanks for the headsup

sounds interesting but will it do anything differnet from our existing supplier of reminder emails Debtor Daddy

this post was sort of beyond standard reminders as debtordady already takes care of that...

but applying a late fee automatically if reminders arent acted on...

that is obviously a lot more complciated

let me know

either way good luck with your app!

Kym

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Permalink Reply by Chris Hexton on February 23, 2012 at 1:24

Hi all, we've launched invc.me which enables this functionality. You can add invoices simply by signing up and sending them to 'invoices@invc.me'. We take care of the rest. It's easy to set automated reminders via SMS and email and we are on the brink of having the ability to extend support for automated referral to our collections unit.

Could be worth checking out as we are Xero users ourselves and this is definitely one of the areas in which it is lacking!

Chris

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Permalink Reply by Kym on February 23, 2012 at 7:56

hi chris

"enables this functionality"

which are you referring to

we are looking for the ability to automatically assing late fees

can't see it anywhere on your site that your service does

aside from that we are happy wiyh debtor daddy which as a flat monthly fee which works out a LOT cheaper than $1 per invoice...

Kym

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Permalink Reply by Chris Hexton on March 5, 2012 at 0:14

Hi Kym,

Our product also allows you to setup automated email and SMS reminders to your clients.

We're also actively working to add automated penalty charges on a percentage or flat fee basis.

We build Invc.me because, as Xero users, we felt there were some things missing when it came to managing our accounts receivable.

By this Thursday we should have our Xero integration basically ironed out. This will allow you to use Invc.me and have all of the data automatically updated in Xero.

I'd love to have more of a chat with anyone who is interested!

Chris