Xero invoice reminders: how they work, and where they stop

This guide covers how to turn them on, what every setting does, what users say about them, and the point where the native feature runs out. It is written for the office manager who owns the debtors list and wants to know what Xero already does before paying for anything else.

How Xero invoice payment reminders work

Xero invoice reminders are switched on under Sales, then Invoices, then Invoice Reminders. Xero then emails each unpaid invoice's contact on the days you set, before or after the due date, using the template you edited. That is the whole mechanism.

Xero's reminders are a setting inside the sales ledger, so there is nothing to install. Once switched on, every invoice that meets three conditions is picked up automatically: the invoice has been marked as sent, the contact has an email address on file, and the amount owing is above the minimum-amount threshold.

Xero Small Business Insights measures the wait a reminder schedule is built to shorten.

A reminder that lands in spam does nothing to it.

How to set up invoice reminders in Xero

The schedule belongs to the organisation, so a firm running three Xero organisations sets it three times. Xero records the reminder history on each invoice, so you can check what went out and when.

Every setting, and what it controls

Notice what is missing from that table. There is no row for contact groups, no row for a second schedule, no row for SMS, no row for statements, and no row for fees. Every one of those is an open request on Xero's own product ideas board, covered below.

Is there a limit on Xero invoice reminders?

Yes. Xero invoice reminders are capped at five per organisation, and the same five apply to every customer. Xero Central says "You can have up to five reminders in your organisation."

• Three by default. Turning reminders on gives you three, at 7, 14 and 21 days after the due date. You can edit or delete any of them.
• Before or after the due date. Add more until you reach five, each set a number of days before or after the due date.
• A silent stop. Once an invoice's fifth reminder has gone, Xero sends nothing more and tells nobody in your business. The invoice stays open until a person notices it.

Xero has a replacement in development. On 31 August 2026 it moved the request to increase the number of reminders (41 votes) to "In development", describing multi-step follow-up plans under JAX that go past the current 5-reminder limit. Until it ships, five is the cap. What Xero JAX does with overdue invoices covers what it offers today.

Xero automatic payment reminders on invoices

Xero sends a reminder automatically when an invoice is marked as sent, is still unpaid, has a contact email on file, and reaches a day in your schedule. Pay or void the invoice and the reminders stop on their own.

Automatic means the schedule runs without anyone opening Xero. The three qualifying conditions matter because each one is a common reason a reminder never went out:

• Marked as sent. An invoice emailed from another system and synced into Xero as approved but not sent will be skipped. Mark it as sent, or reminders never trigger.
• Email on the contact. A contact created from a bank feed or a job system often has no email address. Xero cannot remind an address it does not hold.
• Above the threshold. A minimum amount set to £50 silently excludes every smaller invoice. Check the figure if a reminder seems to have vanished.

Pre-due reminders are supported: set a reminder for a number of days before the due date and Xero sends a courtesy note ahead of time. Practitioners often call this the highest-value setting in the feature, because it catches the invoice that was never received before it is late.

Automatic does not mean escalating, which is what a dunning sequence adds. Reminder five reads the same as reminder one with a different day count, and after it fires nothing else happens. There is no handover to a person, no fee, no statement, and no SMS.

Xero invoice reminders reviews: pros and cons

Users rate Xero reminders well for the price, which is nothing, and for how fast they switch on. The consistent complaint, on Reddit and on Xero's own ideas board, is that one schedule applies to every customer with no way to vary it.

The pattern in the reviews is that nobody dislikes the feature. The r/xero threads the search engines keep citing are titled "Payment reminders for certain customers" and "anyone else finding reminders too limited". The reviewers like what it does and want it to do one more thing.

Practitioners in the UK and Australia report the same experience. Xero's Small Business Insights for the June 2026 quarter put average days late at 8.3 in the UK and 6.0 in Australia, so the average invoice is settled within days of the first overdue reminder. The trouble starts with the customers who are not average.

Xero invoice reminder limitations: what the native feature can't do

Xero's invoice reminders have five structural limitations: one schedule for every customer, email only, no automatic statements, no late fee or interest, and no escalation after the last reminder.

They are good enough while every customer can be followed up the same way, and stop being enough at the second customer group: different terms, a key account, or a chronic late payer. The limitation that matters most: Xero invoice reminders apply one schedule to every customer in the organisation. You can switch reminders off for a contact or an invoice, but you cannot give a contact group, a payment term, or a region its own sequence. Xero's own product ideas board is the evidence. Each request below is open, answered officially, and unshipped.

Xero's own reply on the interest thread lists the workarounds: a note on the invoice template, a manual fee, or an app from the Xero App Store.

Four signs you have reached the ceiling

1. You are switching reminders off by hand. Every contact-level off switch marks a customer who needed a different schedule.
2. Someone sends statements on the first of the month. The job exists because Xero has no schedule for it.
3. Reminder five has fired and the invoice is still open. Nothing happens next unless a person notices.
4. Your terms say interest applies and it never has. A fee that is never charged is a term that is never enforced.

If none of those apply, stay on native reminders. They cost nothing and they work.

Where Xero reminders stop, and where Paidnice picks up

Everything past Xero's fifth reminder email lives in the Xero App Store: a schedule per customer group, SMS, scheduled statements, late fees and interest, and escalation to a person. The apps differ mainly in who they are built for.

Each gap has its own guide on this site, so the detail is one click away:

• A different schedule per customer. The most common first step. See different Xero invoice reminders for different customers and reminders by contact group.
• SMS. Xero can send the invoice itself by SMS in AU, NZ, UK and US, but not a reminder. See SMS payment reminders for Xero.
• Scheduled statements. The 1,169-vote request. See automatic customer statements in Xero.
• Late fees and interest. The 2012 request. See adding late payment fees in Xero, with the statutory rates for the UK and Australia.
• Better templates. Before adding software, the five native templates can be rewritten. See email templates for invoice payment reminders.
• The invoice PDF. A Xero reminder carries a link, never the invoice file. If your invoice comes from an ERP, here is how to attach the right PDF anyway.
• Sales visibility. Reminders live in Xero and the customer's inbox, so get those reminders into your CRM too.

Which app depends on the business. Chaser is the established tool for larger businesses, with email, SMS, and credit checks; its entry tier covers turnover up to £4m and starts at £199 a month. Paidnice is built for the business that wants the four jobs above in one plan on Xero:

• A reminder schedule per contact group, with email and SMS.
• Statements on a schedule, with interest recalculated at the moment they send.
• Late fees and interest posted to the Xero ledger, so the charge sits in the customer's payables.
• Escalation to a named person when the last reminder has fired.

Essentials is £49 a month in the UK and AUD 99 in Australia, and customers see half as many late invoices in the first 30 days. Six tools are compared in credit control software for Xero.

Whichever you pick, leave Xero's native reminders switched on until the app is running, then turn them off so the customer does not hear from both. Practitioners report double-sending as the common first-week mistake with any add-on.

Common questions

The five questions office managers ask most about Xero reminders, each answered in one paragraph from the settings and ideas-board facts above.

How many invoice reminders can Xero send?

Up to five per organisation, three of them on by default. The detail is in the limit section above.

Can Xero send reminders to some customers and not others?

Only by switching reminders off for individual contacts or invoices. There is no per-group schedule, and no way to run two different sequences in one organisation.

Does Xero send reminders by SMS?

No. Xero can send the invoice itself by SMS in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and the US. Automated SMS reminders are an accepted product idea that Xero said on 17 June 2026 is not on the current roadmap.

Why did a reminder not go out?

Almost always one of three things: the invoice was never marked as sent, the contact has no email address, or the amount owing is under the minimum-amount threshold.

Does Xero add a late fee when a reminder is ignored?

No. Interest on late invoices has been an open request since 29 March 2012 with 1,114 votes. Xero's suggested workarounds are a note on the invoice, a manual fee, or an app.

Written by

Denym Bird

Co-founder & CEO of Paidnice

Denym is a software entrepreneur and writes about accounts receivables management for small business.

LinkedIn X