Xero's invoice reminders come with your subscription and run from the ledger you already use, but they're email only, run one schedule for every customer, and don't stop by themselves for a part payment, a payment plan or a query. If one polite email sequence suits all your customers, they may be all you need. If not, a chasing tool adds other channels, rules per customer and payments in the same place.
In this article
The short version
- Xero's reminders are free and run from your existing ledger.
- They're email only, with up to five reminders on one schedule for every customer.
- They don't pause by themselves for part payments, payment plans or queries.
- A chasing tool adds other channels, rules per customer and reporting.
- Adfin chases from your own domain and takes the payment in the same place.
What Xero's reminders do
Xero's reminder feature is a simple scheduler attached to your sales invoices. You switch it on for your organisation, and Xero emails customers about unpaid invoices on the days you choose.
- You can have up to five reminders, and Xero sets up three when you first turn the feature on, with 7, 14 and 21 days overdue offered as presets.
- Each reminder is set as a number of days before or after the due date, so you can send a friendly note before an invoice is due as well as chase after it.
- Reminders only go to invoices marked as sent, and to contacts with an email address.
- Xero sends them overnight, early in the morning in your time zone, and you can't choose the hour.
- They stop once Xero sees the invoice is paid, which depends on the payment being reconciled from your bank feed.
The schedule belongs to the whole organisation. You can switch reminders off for one customer or one invoice, but you can't give a customer their own schedule, and there's no separate sequence for your slowest payers.
Where Xero's reminders fall short
Part payments tend to be the first gap you notice. Say a customer owes £4,000, pays £3,900 and forgets the rest. Xero keeps chasing the invoice in the same words, because it's still unpaid. The fix Xero offers is to switch reminders off for that invoice by hand. There's also an account-wide setting to skip reminders below a set balance, but it applies to every invoice, so it can't treat £100 left on a £4,000 invoice differently from £100 left on a £120 one.
The same gap shows up elsewhere:
- Payment plans: if you've agreed instalments, the reminder sequence doesn't know, so you have to switch it off and remember to switch it back on.
- Queries and disputes: there's no "on hold" status that pauses chasing while you sort out a wrong line on the invoice.
- Unreconciled payments: because reminders stop on reconciliation, a payment that's arrived but hasn't been matched yet can still trigger tomorrow's email, which is awkward when your bank feed lags over a weekend.
- Missed reminders: if reminders were switched off on the day one was due, it isn't sent later.
- Failed payments: a declined card or returned direct debit isn't something the reminder feature reacts to.
- Reporting: you can see one invoice's reminder history, but nothing tells you what went out across the ledger or which step got you paid.
And everything past a polite email is yours to do: the phone call, the statement, the late payment interest, the letter before action.
When Xero's reminders are enough
If you raise a modest number of invoices, most customers pay without much prompting, and one sequence suits all of them, the built-in feature is a reasonable answer. It's already looking at the right data, with no second contact list to keep up to date.
Switch it on, set three or four reminders including one before the due date, connect your bank feed so they stop when payment lands, and check the part-paid invoices each week.
What a chasing tool adds
| Xero's built-in reminders | What a chasing tool usually adds | |
|---|---|---|
| Steps | Up to five per organisation | Longer sequences |
| Schedule | One set of rules for every customer | Different rules for different customers |
| Channels | Email, SMS, WhatsApp and calls | |
| Part payments and plans | Switch off by hand | Rules that follow the balance and agreed instalments |
| Failed payments | Not covered | Retries and another way to pay, where the tool also collects |
| Reporting | One invoice at a time | What was sent and what got paid, across the ledger |
The question to ask of any tool is whether it also takes the payment. Some chasing tools only send messages and leave the payment to whatever you already had, so a customer who gets a reminder still has to find your bank details.
Adfin works alongside Xero as an approved Xero payment partner, with two-way sync, so payments are matched to invoices and your Xero ledger stays current. It chases over email, SMS and WhatsApp from your own email domain, on the schedule you set, with a payment link in every message, and its Customer Agents can adjust timing and channel per customer, offer instalment plans and add statutory late fees to overdue business invoices, within rules you approve. Essential credit control is free, so you don't pay extra for the chasing itself.
Common questions
How many payment reminders can Xero send? Up to five per organisation, with three set up when you first turn reminders on. Each is a number of days before or after the due date.
Do Xero reminders stop if a customer pays part of an invoice? No. You have to switch reminders off for that invoice by hand, or set an account-wide minimum balance below which reminders aren't sent.
Do Xero reminders stop when an invoice is paid? Yes, once Xero has reconciled the payment from your bank feed. A payment that hasn't been matched yet can still be chased.
What time of day does Xero send invoice reminders? Overnight, early in the morning in your organisation's time zone. You can't choose the time.
Can Xero chase by text message or WhatsApp? No. Xero's built-in reminders are email only.
Is it worth paying for a chasing tool if Xero already does reminders? It depends on how much of your chasing five email reminders cover. If you need other channels, rules per customer or payment plans, a tool earns its place, and Adfin's essential credit control is free.
Sources
- Xero Central - Set up and add invoice reminders (accurate as of October 2026) https://central.xero.com/s/article/Set-up-invoice-reminders
- Xero Central - How invoice reminders work (accurate as of October 2026) https://central.xero.com/s/article/How-invoice-reminders-work
- Xero - Chasing outstanding invoices (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.xero.com/uk/guides/chasing-outstanding-invoices/
- Adfin - Credit control (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.adfin.com/credit-control
- Adfin - Pricing (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.adfin.com/pricing
