# How overdue reminders work The overdue reminder workflow chases unpaid bills for you. You set up a series of steps, such as "7 days overdue: send an email". OnboardMe runs them automatically every day. Why it helps * Saves hours every month. No more checking who's overdue and writing chaser emails. * Consistent and professional. Every client gets the same polite reminders at the same points. * Easy for clients to pay. Every reminder includes a secure link to pay straight away. * Smart about timing. Reminders stop when a client pays, disputes the bill, promises to pay or has a payment scheduled. OPEN THE WORKFLOW Either: * go to Bills & Payments → Debtors and click Workflow rules, or * go to Settings → Business → Payment Settings → Debtors & payments → Manage debtors & payments and open the Overdue reminders step. > Who can do this: Owners, Admins and Finance Admins. START FROM A PRESET The first time you open the workflow, choose a starting point. You can change any step before you save. Preset Steps Gentle: friendly email nudges spaced out over six weeks 7 days: Email · 21 days: Email · 45 days: Email + mark In progress Balanced: early emails with SMS follow-ups at key points 1 day: Email · 7 days: Email + SMS + mark In progress · 14 days: Email · 30 days: Email + SMS + mark Contacted Firm: contact from the due date with frequent email and SMS Due date: Email · 3 days: SMS · 7 days: Email + SMS + mark In progress · 14 days: Email + SMS · 30 days: Email + SMS + mark Contacted Or click Start from scratch to build your own. To swap to a preset later, click Replace with preset. ADDING AND EDITING STEPS Click Add action (or Add action here / Add a later action on the timeline). Each step has these fields: Field What it does When How many days overdue the bill must be. Enter 0 for On the due date. Label Optional name for the step. Leave it blank to use the timing. Branding themes (Xero only) Limit the step to bills on certain themes. Leave it blank to include every theme that sends reminders. Send Nothing, Email, SMS or Email + SMS Email template Which email to send. The default is Unpaid Invoice Reminder. Assign to Hand the bill to a team member, or leave as Don't change Set status Change the collection status (New, In progress, Contacted, Disputed or On hold), or leave as Don't change Active Turn the step off without deleting it. Inactive steps show as Paused. Click Update step, then Save workflow. Rules: * A workflow can have up to 20 steps. * Each step must do at least one thing. * Two active steps can't do the same thing on the same day for the same bills. To have two steps on the same day, limit them to different branding themes. > Tip: Use Duplicate step on a step card to copy it, then change the day. CHECK BEFORE YOU SAVE * What will happen summarises your workflow in plain English. It also warns about things like SMS costs or a missing template. * Preview impact shows which step each overdue bill would get if the workflow ran today. It also shows how many messages would be sent, the estimated SMS cost, and which bills would be skipped and why. WHEN REMINDERS ARE SENT * The workflow runs once a day at 8:00 am. The setup screen shows the time in your region. * "Days overdue" is worked out from your local date. Steps run on any day of the week, including weekends. * Each step runs once per bill. A bill never gets the same step twice. * If a bill has reached several steps that haven't run yet, only the latest one runs. Clients aren't sent a burst of catch-up messages. * If a send fails, OnboardMe retries it automatically over the following days. WHEN YOU FIRST SAVE (OR ADD A STEP) Some bills will already be past a step when you save it. For those bills, OnboardMe applies the step's assignee and status changes, but does not send the email or SMS. Messages only go out for steps a bill reaches from now on. These updates happen in the background and can take a few minutes. WHICH BILLS GET REMINDERS A bill is included when all of these are true: * It's unpaid, not cancelled, and has a due date. * It's on a branding theme with Send reminders ticked. * The client's billing notifications are turned on. Reminders pause while a bill: * is Disputed or On hold * has an active Promise to pay (until 3 days after the promised date) * is on a payment plan * has a payment scheduled or being processed See Debtor collection statuses explained [https://onboardme.help.center/article/1147] for details. > Tip: There's no master off switch. To stop all reminders, turn off Active on > each step, or delete the steps. WHAT THE CLIENT RECEIVES Email: Your chosen template, from your practice name, with your logo. It includes a link to the client's portal, where they can pay. Emails go to the client's billing contact if one is set, otherwise to the client's email address. SMS: The Unpaid Invoice SMS Reminder template, for example: > Hi Sam, invoice INV-1043 for $1,250.00 was due 01/03/2026. Pay here: [short > link] - Smith & Co SMS reminders are charged to your SMS wallet for each message part. If your wallet balance is too low, the SMS is tried again in the next daily run. CUSTOMISING TEMPLATES Edit the default templates, or create your own, in Templates → Email templates under the Payment details category. Your own templates then appear in the step's Email template list. Placeholder Inserts [ClientName] / [ClientFirstName] / [ClientSalutation] Client's name [InvoiceNumber] Invoice number [Amount] Amount still owing [DueDate] Due date [Link] Secure link to the client portal to pay [PracticeName] / [PracticeEmail] Your practice details > Note: The portal link in reminders stays valid for 14 days. SENDING A REMINDER MANUALLY You can send a reminder at any time from the Email or SMS icon in the Debtors queue, or from the bill's Reminders tab. Manual reminders: * always use the default Unpaid Invoice Reminder template * can't be sent before the bill is due, or while a payment is being processed * ask you to confirm if one was sent in the last 24 hours, or if the bill is paused * don't change the bill's status or the workflow REMINDER HISTORY Open a bill and go to the Reminders tab to see every reminder sent for it, both automated and manual: Status Meaning Queued / Pending / Sent On its way Delivered Reached the client's inbox or phone Bounced / Failed / Undelivered Didn't arrive. Check the email address or mobile number. The bill's History tab also records each workflow step that ran, including any assignee or status changes.