Payment reminders and debt collection

Under Orders → Invoices → Payment reminders you follow up invoices that are not paid. Every business has a reminder plan: when the reminders go, the deadline they give, and what happens when the plan is done. The plan applies whether Bookingleaf sends the reminders or you do.

Only owners and administrators see Payment reminders.

Set up the reminder plan

The first time you open Payment reminders, you see Set up your reminders. Until the plan is saved, the lists are empty and you can't send reminders to many at once.

Go to Orders → Invoices → Payment reminders.
Answer Do you use debt collection? The answer decides what happens to an invoice that is still unpaid when the plan is done, and which plan we recommend.
Look over the reminders. The plan is filled in with what we recommend, marked Recommended. Change the days, the deadline or the channel if something else suits you better. The plan can have one to three reminders.
Choose Who sends the reminders: We send them ourselves or Bookingleaf sends them.
Click Save the plan. If you chose that Bookingleaf sends them, the button reads Save and switch on.

Beside the form, How the chase goes shows what happens to an invoice that is not paid, day by day.

The Minimum amount is 100 kr: an invoice with 100 kr or less left to pay gets no reminder. The reminders ask for what is left to pay, with no fee or interest.

The recommended plan

If you use debt collection, we recommend one reminder 7 days after the due date, with a 14-day deadline. The agency sends its own debt collection notice, so more reminders from you only delay the day the claim can go to the agency.

If you don't use debt collection, we recommend three reminders. The first goes 7 days after the due date, and the next two 3 days after the previous deadline, each with a 14-day deadline. That makes reminders on about day 7, 24 and 41 after the due date. With three reminders you can write off what is not paid, six months after the due date.

Days count from the due date, and each reminder after the first counts from the deadline before it. A reminder always waits at least 3 banking days after the deadline, so a payment made on the deadline has time to come in. Over weekends and holidays it can therefore go a little later.

Send reminders yourself

If you send the reminders yourself, Payment reminders opens on Reminders to send. It lists the invoices where the plan says the next reminder can go today. You find the same in the invoice list with the filter Reminders: Can be sent now.

Tick the invoices you want to remind.
Click Send reminder.
Choose the channel and a New deadline, and send.

The customer gets the reminder right away, and it counts as the next step of the plan. Under the invoice's status you see how far it has come, for example "Reminder 1 of 3 can be sent now".

Paused invoices, invoices with the minimum amount or less left, and time-barred claims are not on the list.

When you send to many at once, only the reminder the plan says can go now is sent. To send a reminder outside the plan, do it from the invoice, one at a time.

Warnings before you send

Before you send a reminder yourself, Bookingleaf tells you if there is a reason to hold back. You can still send it.

Past the plan: "This will be reminder 5. The plan stops after 3."
Disputed: the customer has said they don't agree with the claim, and the invoice is paused as disputed.
Blocked: the customer has blocked email or SMS from you, so the reminder won't arrive on that channel.

Reminding again and again about a claim the customer disputes goes against good debt collection practice. Answer the customer instead, and sort the matter out.

Let Bookingleaf send the reminders

Bookingleaf can send the reminders on the plan, without anyone pressing a button. Choose Bookingleaf sends them when you set up the plan, or switch it on later:

Go to Settings → Automation, under Payments and invoicing.
Click Send by themselves under Payment reminders.
Click Switch on.

First we check that reminders suit you, so they don't go to customers who have already paid. Payments must come in with KID, and at least one KID payment must have come in during the last 60 days. If many payments are registered by hand after they came in, you can't switch it on yet. If you don't pass the check, you keep the plan and send the reminders yourself. Support can help you with what needs to change.

While it is on:

Reminders are sent on weekdays between 09:00 and 15:00.
Only invoices falling due after it was switched on get reminders by themselves. Older overdue invoices are under Reminders to send, and once you send one of them a reminder, it follows the plan from there.
If more than 50 reminders are due at once, all of them are held until you click Send anyway on Automation.

Reminders that need a person land under To review: customers without email or phone, customers with credit, and reminders that failed. There you can Send anyway, Skip the step or Pause.

See Send planned invoices automatically for how automation works otherwise.

Pause reminders

If a customer has a payment plan, or has said they don't agree with the claim, pause the reminders.

Open the invoice and click Pause under Reminders. On the customer, click Pause reminders on the Invoices tab.
Choose whether the pause applies to This invoice or All of the customer's invoices. A pause on the customer also covers invoices they get later.
Choose a reason: Payment plan, Disputed or Other.
If you like, choose a date the pause lasts Through. Leave it empty to end the pause yourself.

A disputed invoice is also kept off Ready for collection. When the pause is over, the next reminder counts from that day, at least 3 banking days on.

Bookingleaf doesn't read the replies customers send to reminders. If a customer writes that they don't agree with the claim, pause the invoice as disputed yourself.

Customers who have blocked you

Every message from Bookingleaf has a link the customer can use to block messages from you. A reminder to a blocked address doesn't arrive. Call the customer or send a letter, or let the invoice go on to the end of the plan.

Send to debt collection

If you use debt collection, an invoice lands under Ready for collection when every reminder is sent, the last deadline has passed and more than the minimum amount is still unpaid. Invoices paused as disputed are left out.

Click Download for the agency. You get a zip file with a CSV of customer, address, amounts and dates, and the reminders as PDFs.
Register the case with your collection agency, the way they ask.
Click Sent to debt collection on the invoice. Add the agency and the case number in the note if you like.

No more reminders are sent for the invoice. If you marked the wrong one, or the agency sends the case back, click Undo.

The agency sends its own debt collection notice. A reminder from Bookingleaf is not a debt collection notice, and is never worded as one.

If a payment comes in after the invoice was sent to debt collection, it lands under To review. Tell the agency, and click Passed on to the agency.

Don't wait too long

A claim is time-barred three years after its due date. Neither reminders nor a debt collection notice stop that clock. Each invoice on the list shows the date under Time-barred from, with the oldest at the top. The agency needs a few weeks before it can take the case further, so send the oldest first.

A time-barred claim gets no reminders, and the invoice shows Time-barred.

Reminders done

If you don't use debt collection, the invoice lands under Reminders done when every reminder is sent and the last deadline has passed. It gets no more reminders, and stays there until it is paid, written off or time-barred.

If you won't get the money, click Write off to open the invoice and write it off. A write-off needs a ground, for example that the invoice is unpaid six months after the due date and has had three reminders. If the plan has fewer than three reminders, send the rest by hand before you can write it off on that ground.

Change the plan

Go to Settings → Automation and click Plan under Payment reminders. There you change the reminders, the minimum amount and whether you use debt collection. The change applies from the next run, to every invoice.