Zoho Books overdue invoice reminders and collections automation

Every weekday at 8:30am, run my accounts receivable collections chase in Zoho Books and report back to me in Slack.

Start by pulling every open invoice from Zoho Books with List Invoices and narrowing to the ones that are past their due date. For each customer that has at least one overdue invoice, use List Contact Unpaid Invoices to pull their full outstanding picture, so decisions are made against the whole relationship rather than a single invoice.

Bucket every overdue invoice by how late it is: 1 to 15 days, 16 to 45 days, 46 to 90 days, and more than 90 days.

For any overdue invoice less than 45 days late, send the nudge automatically with Send Invoice Payment Reminder in Zoho Books. Keep the tone routine for the 1 to 15 day bucket and slightly more direct for the 16 to 45 day bucket.

For anything more than 45 days late, do not send anything automatically. Instead, use Get Contact in Zoho Books to find the billing contact person and their email address, then write a firmer personalized escalation email and save it with Create a Draft in Gmail so a human reviews the wording before it goes out. Reference the specific invoice numbers, the amounts, and how long each has been outstanding, and make the 90 plus bucket noticeably firmer than the 46 to 90 bucket. Never auto send these.

Two rules to respect throughout. Skip any customer whose only overdue invoice is worth less than 100 in the organization's base currency, since chasing those costs more than they recover; if an invoice is in a foreign currency, convert it using the exchange rate on the invoice before applying that threshold. And never send more than one automated reminder for the same invoice within a seven day window, so keep a running record of which invoice was reminded on which date and check it before every send.

Finish by posting a summary to my finance channel in Slack with Send a Message. Cover total AR outstanding, total overdue, the five largest overdue balances with the customer name and days late for each, and a clear split of which reminders were auto sent versus which were left as Gmail drafts waiting for review. Note how many customers were skipped under the small balance rule. If nothing is overdue, post a short all clear instead of a full report.

Example output

AR sweep for Tuesday 12 Aug Total AR outstanding: 284,910 Total overdue: 96,440 across 23 invoices Largest overdue balances 1. Northwind Trading, 21,300, 62 days late 2. Halcyon Media, 18,750, 34 days late 3. Bridgeline Partners, 12,900, 118 days late 4. Cobalt Design Co, 9,480, 12 days late 5. Petrichor Labs, 7,200, 51 days late Auto sent reminders: 14 invoices under 45 days late Left as drafts for review: 6 invoices over 45 days late, waiting in Gmail Skipped: 3 customers under the 100 threshold

What does this prompt do?

Checks every unpaid invoice each weekday morning and sorts them by how late they are, from just missed to more than 90 days overdue.
Sends a polite payment reminder automatically for anything under 45 days late, so the routine nudging happens without you.
Writes a firmer, personalized escalation email for seriously late accounts and leaves it in your Gmail drafts so a person approves the wording first.
Posts a Slack summary to your finance channel with total outstanding, total overdue, your five biggest problem accounts, and what was sent versus drafted.

What do I need to use this?

A Zoho Books account with your customer invoices in it
Billing contact email addresses filled in on your Zoho Books customers
A Gmail account where the escalation drafts will be saved
A Slack workspace and the finance channel where the summary should land

How can I customize it?

Change the timing: run it daily, twice a week, or later in the morning to suit your team.
Move the escalation line: 45 days is the default cutoff between an automatic reminder and a draft for review, and you can push it earlier or later.
Adjust the 100 minimum so small invoices are skipped at whatever threshold is worth your time, and pick which Slack channel gets the summary.

FAQs

Will it email my customers without me seeing it first?

Only the gentle ones. Invoices less than 45 days late get a standard payment reminder sent automatically. Anything later is written as a draft in Gmail and waits for you to read, edit, and send it yourself.

Will customers get chased every single day?

No. The same invoice will never get more than one automatic reminder in a seven day period, even though the workflow runs every weekday morning.

What about very small invoices?

Customers whose only overdue invoice is under 100 in your base currency are skipped, since chasing them usually costs more than it recovers. You can raise or lower that threshold.

Does this work if I invoice in multiple currencies?

Yes. Amounts are converted to your organization's base currency before the workflow decides what is too small to chase and which balances are the largest.

What happens if nothing is overdue?

You get a short all clear message in Slack instead of a full report, so you always know the check actually ran.

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