The invoice chaser

Asking for money is awkward, so reminders get put off. The invoice chaser does the looking and the drafting: your intern's agent finds the invoices in your QuickBooks Online that are unpaid past their due date, drafts a reminder for each, and sends them to you as one request. Nothing reaches a customer until you approve it.

Switch it on

1. On the Agents page, connect QuickBooks Online. Tick "See which invoices in QuickBooks are unpaid past their due date" and "Send polite reminders for overdue invoices, after you approve each batch".
2. Issue a token for your intern's agent with both of those ticked. See Tokens for your intern's agent.
3. Open the "Invoice chaser" card on the same page, check the settings and press "Save settings".

If the card says "Not available yet", QuickBooks is not switched on for this site yet. Ask us.

The settings

• Start reminding when an invoice is this many days overdue. Invoices that are less late are left alone.
• Remind the same invoice again after this many days at the earliest. The same invoice is never reminded twice inside this gap, whatever the agent asks. We check it again just before each reminder goes.
• How reminders go out.
  • "QuickBooks emails the invoice again": QuickBooks sends the invoice, with its pay link, using the invoice email you set up in QuickBooks (Account and settings, Sales, Messages). QuickBooks does not take other wording.
  • "Your Gmail sends the reminder": the reminder text goes from your own Gmail to the address on the invoice. Connect Gmail on the Agents page first.
• Tone (for reminders from Gmail).
  • "Step up": the first reminder is friendly, the next is firm, and the third is a final notice saying you will call.
  • Or always friendly, always firm, or always the final notice.
• Your payment terms (optional). As written on your invoices. A reminder may mention a late fee or interest only if your terms do.
• Standing permission amount (optional). See "Let reminders go without asking" below.

What the reminders say

They speak as your business: in the first person, signed with your name and your business's name. Each one names the invoice, the amount due, the due date and how many days late it is, and asks the customer to reply if anything looks wrong.

A reminder never threatens legal action, never mentions lawyers, collection agencies or credit reports, and never adds a late fee or interest your own terms do not mention. A reminder that breaks one of these rules is refused before it reaches you.

Approve the reminders

The agent's reminders come to you as one request: the email "An agent request is waiting for your approval", and a line under "Waiting for your approval". The "Invoice chaser" card also links to it.

The request page shows every reminder in full: who it goes to, the customer, the invoice, the amount due, how many days overdue, the tone, and how it goes out (for Gmail, the exact subject and text).

• Untick any customer you want to call yourself, such as a key account.
• Press "Approve the n ticked", "Approve all", or "Decline all".

Just before each reminder goes, we look at the invoice in QuickBooks again. If it was paid in the meantime, nothing is sent.

Latest run

The card shows when the agent last looked, how many overdue invoices it found, how many were due a reminder, how many reminders wait for you, and how many were sent since.

Let reminders go without asking

Once your intern's agent is live, you can give a standing permission for "Send polite reminders for overdue invoices". Open "Give a standing permission" on your intern's card, choose it, and set the daily number and for how long. See Approvals and standing permissions.

Even then, a batch still waits for you if:

• it has more reminders than are left of the daily number,
• any reminder is a final notice, or
• any reminder is for more than the amount you set on the "Invoice chaser" card.

Stop it

Press "Pause all" at the top of the Agents page. The agent's next request is refused, you cannot approve while paused, and a batch that is running stops before its next reminder. Press "Resume" to carry on. To stop for good, untick the two chaser lines under the QuickBooks account, or revoke the token.