Automatic payment reminders: get paid without chasing

What are automatic payment reminders?

They’re short, polite emails that go to your client on a set schedule, worked out from the invoice’s due date. Instead of you making the awkward “mate, that invoice…” phone call a fortnight after it was due, Sammy does the chasing in your name, so most invoices get paid without you having to ask twice.

3 days before

A friendly heads-up that it’s coming up

On the due date

A polite “due today” note

1 week overdue

A gentle follow-up

2 weeks overdue

A firmer “let’s get this sorted”

How it works

1. Give the invoice a due date. The whole schedule hangs off it. Set a default under Settings, Business, and every new invoice gets one automatically.
2. Switch on email reminders when you send. On the send screen, turn on Email reminders. You see the exact date each one will go out, and you can tap any date to read the email your client will get.
3. Sammy sends them for you. Each reminder goes out at 9am your local time, from your business name, with the invoice PDF attached and the amount still owing on the day. Replies come straight back to you.
4. You hear every time. Sammy lets you know in the app whenever he reminds a client, like “Sammy reminded Sarah about INV-0007”. If one can’t be sent, he tells you so you can follow up yourself.
5. He stops when there’s nothing left to chase. See the list below.

When the reminders stop

Sammy cancels the reminders still to come when:

• The invoice is paid in full, or you mark it as paid.
• The invoice is cancelled.
• Your client replies to the invoice email. A real conversation beats an automatic nudge, so he backs off and lets you take over.
• Your client unsubscribes from the reminders. Anything you send them yourself still goes through.
• The invoice email bounced, so there’s no point chasing that address.
• You cancel them yourself, from the Payment reminders card on the invoice’s Messages tab.

A part payment doesn’t stop them. Sammy keeps politely chasing the rest, and each reminder shows the balance still owing, not the original total.

Paid? Send a receipt

When the money lands, mark the invoice paid and Sammy asks for the payment date and method, so the receipt and the PAID stamp on the invoice show the real date. Switch on Email a receipt and it’s ready to check and send. The receipt is a one-page, branded PDF with who paid, how much, when, by what method and which invoice it settles. It’s deliberately not another tax invoice, because your client already has one.

• It works on deposit and progress invoices, since each one is its own invoice.
• Invoices paid through Xero can be receipted too, once the payment syncs.
• Send it as many times as you need, for a lost email or a second bookkeeper.

On bigger jobs, set up a payment schedule so every claim is its own invoice, ready to be chased and receipted on its own.

Questions tradies ask

Will the reminders put my clients off?

Each one is a short, courteous email from your business, never pushy. It shows the invoice number, the amount owing, the due date and your payment instructions, and says to disregard it if they’ve already paid.

Are they on for every invoice?

No. Reminders are off by default and you choose per invoice, so turning them on for one doesn’t turn them on for the rest. Automatic payment reminders are a Sammy Pro feature.

What if I move the due date?

The reminders that haven’t gone out yet move with it. Push the due date out a week and every remaining reminder moves a week later too.

The invoice is already overdue. Can I still turn them on?

Yes. Sammy skips the steps that have already passed and sends the rest.

Can I chase one by hand?

Yes. Send reminder is in the invoice’s actions any time, with or without the schedule.

Do they go by text?

Not yet. For now, reminders go by email.

Step-by-step guides

• Automatic payment reminders
• Sending a payment receipt
• Deposits, progress claims and final claims
• Xero integration