The morning it falls due
The invoice hits its terms. A short reminder leaves that morning, to the person named on it, with the number, the amount and the job. The work is still fresh. Nobody has to remember it after knock-off.
Trades
Automated invoice follow-up for tradies
The job is finished and the invoice is already in Xero. The follow-up is the part that waits until someone is off the tools. A reminder leaves on the morning the invoice falls due, in the wording your business already uses, and it stops the moment the payment lands.
Why it sits
The money is earned. The chase waits.
A sparky, a plumber or a chippie finishes the job, raises the invoice, and drives to the next one. Chasing sits with whoever is left in the office, or with the owner at nine at night. It feels rude. It takes a decision about tone. It loses to a callout every time.
So a fortnight passes, then a month. The conversation gets harder the longer it waits, and the cash was earned on the day the job was finished. Most trade businesses are polite about this for a human reason. A machine has no feelings about it. It watches the accounts, notices what has gone past terms, and sends the reminder on the morning it falls due.
The thing worth measuring is plain. How many days an invoice sits before the first chase leaves. Whether a paid invoice ever gets a second email. Whether anyone is still thinking about the list six weeks later.
The follow-up
Three things the chase has to do.
The useful version is a schedule, your wording, and a stop the moment Xero shows the invoice paid. A person still approves anything unusual before it leaves.
The days you set
If it stays open, the next note goes on the day you chose. A second reminder, then a firmer one, then it stops and waits for a person. Seven, fourteen and twenty-one days is a common set. You write the gaps once.
It stops when the money lands
Payment clears in Xero and the next message never goes. The customer who paid this morning comes off the list, and so does the one who paid last week. A chaser sent to someone who has already paid is the message that costs the relationship.
A Thursday
The invoice goes out. The reminder does not wait for Sunday night.
An electrician finishes a switchboard in Burleigh on Thursday and invoices on Friday. The terms are seven days. The following Friday the reminder leaves before anyone has opened a laptop. The owner is on another job in Mermaid. If the invoice is still open a week later, the second note goes. If the customer paid on the Wednesday, nothing further is sent.
The same shape fits a plumber, a carpenter, a landscaper or an air-conditioning crew. The input is an invoice that already exists. Xero holds the amount, the due date and the payment. ServiceM8, when that is the job system you run, holds the site and the customer. The reminder uses the invoice number and the job, in the short note you would have typed yourself.
Staff reach it the way they already message each other, from Slack, Teams or WhatsApp, when they want to see what went out or hold one back. The accounts and the job system stay where they are.
What stays with you
The awkward ones still need a person.
A competent new starter could send the ordinary reminder on day two. That is the test for handing it over. These stay with someone who knows the customer.
- A disputed invoice, or one the customer says does not match the quote.
- Retention, a part payment, or anything that needs a conversation on site.
- The customer you would rather ring yourself.
- A quote that has not been accepted. Chasing an unpaid invoice is a different job from following up a quote.
The other job that pays a trade business back is the gap between the measure-up and the quote. A voice note from the ute becomes a quote in your prices and your terms, and a person still sends it. Both are in the three jobs worth automating first.
How a trade business starts
Half a day on the real invoices, then a fixed price.
The first visit is half a day with the person who actually chases, usually inside a week of the call. On the coast that meeting is at the office or the yard, from Coolangatta to Coomera. We watch how an overdue invoice is handled now, in Xero and in the job system, before naming a product.
Consulting and integration is the engagement when the software you already pay for can send the chase. The half-day review is $1,400. You leave with a written map and a fixed price to connect the first workflows. You can take the plan and do it yourself.
A local machine is a private worker on your network, hosted or on site. A hosted machine is $3,200, with the first year of hosting included. An on-site machine is $6,400, and the hardware stays yours. Invoice follow-up is one of the workflows on it, next to quoting when that gap is costing jobs. AI software is the build when a join between Xero and the job system is not enough. It is quoted before any work starts.
The wider Gold Coast service is the AI and automation specialist page.
Questions
What tradies ask before the first chase goes out.
Will it email customers without anyone reading it?
The first reminders can wait for a yes. Once the wording is the wording you would have sent, it goes on the schedule. A dispute, a part payment, or anything that does not match the invoice is held for a person.
What if they paid this morning?
The follow-up reads the invoice in Xero before it sends. Once the invoice is marked paid, the next message never goes. That includes the customer who paid last week and was already on the list.
Does this work with Xero and ServiceM8?
Xero holds the invoice, the due date and the payment. ServiceM8 holds the job, the site and the customer, when that is the system you already run. The records stay in those systems. The reminder goes by email, on the thread the invoice already lives in.
What about deposits and progress claims?
A deposit due before the work starts can sit on its own note and its own day. A final invoice follows the terms written on that invoice. Retention, and any claim that needs a conversation on site, stays with a person.
How much does automated invoice follow-up cost?
The half-day review is $1,400 on the Gold Coast, in Brisbane, or remote. If Xero and the job system can send the chase, connecting it is a fixed price quoted before any work starts. A hosted machine is $3,200, with the first year of hosting included. An on-site machine is $6,400, and the hardware stays yours. The follow-up is one workflow inside that.