Most late payments are not people refusing to pay. They are people who forgot. Payment reminders chase those invoices by email so you don’t have to be the one who nags.
Reminders are off until you turn them on. They go to your customers, under your business name, so ClippingCash does not switch them on without asking you.
New accounts get asked once. The last step of the first-job setup asks Send automatic payment reminders? (recommended), with yes picked and a preview of the email your customers would get. Keep yes and reminders turn on when you click Create First Job. Pick no, skip the step or close the setup and nothing changes. A late fee is a separate choice there, never on by default.
1 Open Reminders
Go to Settings and open Reminders. The Customer Payment Reminders card is at the top. Reminders come with every plan, Starter and up.
Read the card before you flip the switch. It spells out who gets emailed, when, what the email says and who is skipped.
2 Switch it on
Turn on the switch labelled Send payment reminders to my customers. The card confirms that reminders will go out on the schedule shown. Turn it off any time and no more reminder emails go out.
3 The schedule
Each unpaid invoice that has a due date gets:
- a reminder 1 day before it is due,
- reminders 3, 10 and 20 days after it is past due,
- and a final notice at 30 days, sent once per invoice (skipped if a late fee was already added). Accounts that already had reminders set up keep the final notice day they had, 20 unless you changed it; change it under Final notice after in step 7.
Each customer gets at most one reminder per stage, so nobody gets the same email twice. Day counts follow your company’s time zone, and if you paused the account for the winter, the paused weeks don’t count toward how overdue an invoice is.
That spacing is worth keeping. The day-before email catches people while paying is still easy. Day 3 catches the forgetful, day 10 is a real reminder, day 20 says it is now a problem, and the final notice is the last word before you pick up the phone.
4 What the email says
Your business name, the invoice number, the amount and the due date. If you take card payments, it has a Pay Now button, which is the part that actually gets the money in.
5 Who is skipped
Customers on autopay are skipped, because their card is about to be charged anyway and an overdue notice would only confuse them. Invoices with no due date are skipped too.
On their own, reminders don’t change what a customer owes. They remind; they don’t add charges. A late fee only happens if you turn one on in the next step.
6 Add a text on day 7
Tick Also text the customer on day 7 past due and save. One text goes out on day 7, between the day 3 and day 10 emails, with your business name, what is owed and the pay link.
Only to customers who agreed to texts, only between 8am and 9pm, and only when invoice texts are on. Each text uses one text credit, so it needs a plan with texting (Growing and up). Never sent to customers on autopay. Off until you tick it.
7 Change the schedule or add a late fee
Under the switch, the owner or an admin can change the schedule and set a late fee, then click Save late fees and schedule. These settings only appear for the owner and admins.
- Days before due and Days after due set when reminders go out, separated by commas. Final notice after sets the day the final notice goes.
- Tick Charge a late fee on overdue invoices and pick the Fee type: a flat dollar amount, or Percent of what is still owed. A percent fee is worked out on the unpaid balance after payments and credit, rounded to the cent, so a customer who paid most of the bill isn’t charged on the part they paid. Nothing owed, no fee.
- For a percent fee you can set a Maximum fee ($) so a big invoice doesn’t get a big fee. Leave it blank for no cap.
- Grace period (days past due) is how long you wait. The fee is added once per invoice, the first day it is more than that many days past due.
Late fees only run while payment reminders are switched on. The fee shows as its own line on the invoice. It isn’t added while an autopay charge on that invoice is going through, or while your account is paused for the winter.
8 Chase one invoice by hand
Reminders run on their own, but you can also work the list yourself. Who owes me shows every past-due invoice with Send reminder now to send the next reminder today, and Mark promised for a customer who said when they will pay: automatic reminders wait until that date. And for the invoice that is never getting paid, write it off and the reminders stop.