Automated Invoice Follow Up for Tradies: Get Paid Without Chasing

Automated invoice follow up for tradies comes down to three moves. Send the invoice from your job app the moment the job is done. Switch on Xero's invoice reminders so the polite chasing goes out by email without you. Then keep a phone call in the sequence for the few customers who still don't pay.

If you want SMS reminders, softer wording for regulars, pauses for payment plans or an alert when a large invoice goes overdue, a custom automation is worth adding on top. For the bigger picture on trade admin, start with my guide to AI automation for tradies.

The short version: invoice on site, turn on Xero reminders with one before the due date, and never run job app and Xero reminders on the same invoices. Add a custom automation when email-only, same-for-everyone reminders stop being enough.

Send the invoice before you leave the job

The easiest invoice to get paid is the one the customer gets while they're still looking at the new switchboard. If you write invoices on Sunday night from notes in the ute, fix that first. No reminder helps an invoice that hasn't gone out.

All the main job management apps connect to Xero, so you can invoice from your phone on site and let the books catch up. Here's what each vendor says.

Sources: ServiceM8, how the sync with Xero works, ServiceM8 Payment Follow Up, Tradify and Xero, Tradify invoicing, Fergus Xero integration, Fergus invoice reminders and simPRO on the Xero App Store.

Then check two things. Xero only sends its reminders for invoices marked as sent in Xero, so open a synced invoice and see how it's showing before you rely on them. And pick one system to do the chasing. Fergus says that once it's connected to your accounting software, you should turn off any invoice reminders in that system, so customers don't get two of everything.

Getting paid before you drive off beats any reminder. Xero's Australian payments page says you can add a Pay now button to invoices by connecting Stripe (cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayTo and buy now, pay later) or GoCardless for direct debit. Check each provider's current pricing page for their fees. Source: Xero, accept payments online.

For subbies in Queensland, the QBCC says a payment claim under the BIF Act (the state's security of payment law) must identify the work, state the amount claimed and request payment of it, "even if you are using your usual tax invoice". If you subcontract on construction work, check your Xero invoice template does all three. That's general information, so read the QBCC's request payment page or ask a lawyer about your own contracts.

How to turn on Xero invoice reminders

Xero's invoice reminders are built in. Before you start, Xero Central says every customer you want reminded needs a current email address in Xero, the invoices must be marked as sent, and you need the administrator or standard user role. Then:

1. Go to Sales, then Invoices.
2. Click Invoice Reminders: Off.
3. Tick Email customers when an invoice is. This switches on Xero's three default reminders, which go out for overdue invoices. The settings show them at 7, 14 and 21 days.
4. If you take online payments, tick Include button to online invoice and detail summary. It puts the online invoice link, amount due, due date and invoice number at the top of every reminder.
5. If you like, tick Include a link to the invoice PDF.
6. If you like, tick Don't send reminders for amounts owing on an invoice under and enter an amount, so a few leftover cents don't trigger a stern email.
7. Click Save.

To add a reminder before the due date, go back in and click Add reminder. From Send if an invoice is, choose due in, then enter the number of days before the due date. Set it to 0 to send on the due date itself. You can have up to five reminders in total. Each has its own email template, and Insert placeholder drops in invoice details.

After the first set-up, the same settings live under Sales, Sales settings, Invoice settings, Invoice Reminders. Sources: Xero Central, set up invoice reminders and edit or delete an invoice reminder.

What Xero's invoice reminders can and can't do

Going by Xero's own help articles, the reminders go by email before, on or after the due date, to the main person on the contact plus anyone with Include in emails ticked. Replies go to whoever turned reminders on, or an address you pick under Send replies to. You can stop them for one customer from their contact record (menu icon, then Turn off invoice reminders), or for chosen invoices from the Awaiting Payment tab (tick them, click More, then Turn reminders off).

Xero sends reminders each morning between 4am and 8am in your organisation's time zone. If you switch reminders off in that window and back on later, that day's reminders are skipped for good.

Here's where they stop:

• The automatic reminders are emails. Xero's Australian site says you can send the invoice itself by SMS, but it lists the automated reminders as email.
• One set of reminders covers the whole organisation. The builder who sends you work every month gets the same wording as a one-off customer who has gone quiet.
• They don't pause on their own. Agree a payment plan and you turn reminders off for that invoice yourself, which is what Xero suggests for part-paid invoices.
• Nothing tells you, the owner, that a large invoice has gone well overdue. You find out when you open Awaiting Payment.

If you send a handful of invoices a week and know every customer by name, that's enough. For more advanced options, Xero points to the Xero App Store. Sources: Xero Central, turn invoice reminders on or off and how invoice reminders work.

A follow-up sequence that gets you paid, with wording to copy

Xero's defaults all go out after the due date. I'd add one before it, rewrite the wording in your own voice and put a phone call in. Here's a sequence for 14-day terms. Shift the days to suit yours.

1. 3 days before due: a friendly heads-up by email.
2. On the due date: short and plain.
3. 7 days overdue: a bit firmer, and asks if there's a problem.
4. 14 days overdue: you ring them.
5. 21 days overdue: a final written reminder that says what happens next.

Swap the square brackets for your details, or for Xero's placeholders.

Before the due date

On the due date

7 days overdue

The phone call

Then listen. If it's the work, book a time to fix it. If it's cash flow, agree a date or a plan in writing, then turn off reminders for that invoice so they don't get a firm email the next morning.

Final reminder

Keep each message short enough to read on a phone, with the pay link in every one. Your terms of trade should say when payment is due and what happens when it's late, so the last email has something to point to.

What a custom automation adds on top of Xero

A custom automation is a workflow that checks your unpaid invoices in Xero every morning and decides what to send, who gets it and how. I build these in n8n or Make. It can do things the built-in reminders can't:

• Send an SMS with the pay link as well as the email, for customers who never open their inbox.
• Use different wording for different customers. A builder who sends regular work gets a gentle note from you. A one-off homeowner gets the standard sequence.
• Pause on its own when a payment plan is agreed. You tick a box against the invoice in a shared sheet, and the reminders stop unless an instalment is missed.
• Text the owner when a large invoice goes overdue, with the customer, the job and their number, so you can ring them that day.
• Put the phone call on your list as a task, instead of sending another email.

I've built reminder systems like this in other industries. For an NDIS provider, I set up a compliance register where the deadline reminders went out on their own at 60, 30 and 7 days. For an Australian business coach, I set up booking confirmations and reminder emails in Make.com: a personalised confirmation for each new booking, then reminders a day and an hour out. On the trades side, I've mapped out a Tradify to Xero reporting flow in n8n. Invoice follow-up uses the same building blocks.

A custom automation needs someone who owns it. If your Xero contacts have old email addresses, or your job app and Xero disagree on what's paid, it just sends the wrong reminder faster. Clean that up first. For the wider invoicing workflow, see how to automate invoicing in Australia. If you also run a CRM, my HubSpot Xero integration guide covers getting invoice and payment status back into it.

If you'd like reminders like these that sound like you, book a free call and we'll go through your overdue list together.

Xero reminders vs job app reminders vs custom automation

Worked example: a three-person plumbing business

This one is made up. Say a Brisbane plumbing business has the owner, a plumber and an apprentice, and the owner's partner does the books part time. They run Tradify and Xero. Homeowners are on 7-day terms, and two local builders who send regular work are on 30-day terms.

Invoices used to go out in a batch on Friday night, and the partner chased when she remembered. One builder got the same stern template as everyone else and rang the owner to complain.

1. The plumbers create and approve each invoice in Tradify before leaving the job, with the online payment option on.
2. They pick Xero to do the reminding and switch off Tradify's payment reminders.
3. The partner checks a few synced invoices show as sent in Xero, turns on Xero's reminders, adds one 3 days before the due date and pastes in the wording from this guide.
4. She turns off reminders for both builder contacts. The owner rings them himself at month end.
5. When a homeowner asks to pay a big hot water job in three parts, she turns off reminders for that invoice and diarises the instalments.

What's left is the partner switching reminders off and on by hand, builders who need a different voice, and an owner who wants a text when a large invoice slips well past due. So they add a small automation on top. Each morning it reads unpaid invoices from Xero and checks a payment plan sheet. Homeowners get an SMS alongside the overdue email, builders get a softer email signed by the owner, and anyone on a plan is skipped unless they miss an instalment. When a large invoice passes 14 days overdue, the owner gets a text with the customer's number.

Getting started

1. Open Awaiting Payment in Xero and look at what's overdue today. Our invoice overdue cost calculator shows what slow payers are costing you.
2. Check your invoice shows a clear due date, your bank details and a pay link. If you need a clean layout to start from, try our free invoice generator.
3. Start invoicing from your job app on site.
4. Choose one system for reminders and turn the other one off.
5. Turn on Xero's reminders, add one before the due date, and paste in the wording above.
6. Note what you still do by hand. That list is what a custom automation would cover.

My workflow automation service covers invoice follow-up from mapping your current process to handover. It's built in your own accounts wherever possible, and it's yours once it's paid for.

Want reminders that sound like you and stop when they should? Show me how you invoice and chase today. I'll tell you whether Xero's reminders will do the job, or what a custom setup would add. Book a free call.