Set up automatic payment reminders

Goal

Have 4fleet email clients about unpaid invoices on a schedule you choose, so you do not have to chase each one by hand.

Automatic reminders are off until you turn them on. Nothing is sent to clients before that.

Prerequisites

• You are an owner or admin. The Finance settings are open to those two roles only.
• Invoices are being emailed to clients. Reminders go only to invoices that were delivered, are unpaid, and have a client email address. An invoice that was issued but never emailed is skipped.
• A mailbox is connected.

Steps

1. Open Settings > Finance > Invoice automation.
2. Scroll to the Invoice Payment Reminders card.
3. Turn on Enable automatic payment reminders. The schedule fields appear.
4. Under Reminder Schedule, set Before due date reminder, in days before the due date. Enter 0 to switch this reminder off.
5. Set First overdue reminder, Second overdue reminder and Final overdue notice, each in days after the due date. The suggested values are 3, 7, 14 and 30 days.
6. Select Save Reminder Settings.
7. In Start emailing clients about unpaid invoices?, read the warning and select Turn on and save.

To also remind on the due date itself, open Accounting > Invoices > Reminders and turn on On due date. Settings has no field for that one.

Expected result

Clients receive each reminder once per invoice. 4fleet checks about once an hour. If several reminder dates have already passed when you turn this on, only the most recent one is sent, not all of them. Once an invoice is paid, pending reminders are canceled. While reminders are on, an overdue invoice also raises an "Invoice overdue" notice for your team, even if the client has no email address.

Troubleshooting

• If no reminder arrives, check that Enable automatic payment reminders is on, that the invoice was actually emailed to the client, and that it has a client email address.
• If the invoice belongs to a booking whose balance is collected on the service day, reminders wait until the service is complete.
• If you extended the due date, reminders count from the new date, not the printed one.
• If the Reminders tab under Invoices shows switches as off while reminders are on, your days are custom. That tab only recognizes Day before due date, 3 days overdue, 7 days overdue and 14 days overdue. Do not flip those switches unless you want to replace your own schedule with those fixed days.
• If you want to chase one invoice now, open it and select Send reminder.
• If you cannot open Finance settings, your role is not owner or admin.