Send payment reminders automatically: get paid faster

You did the work, you sent the invoice, and then it goes quiet. Two weeks later the money still is not in. Sending payment reminders automatically solves exactly that: a friendly nudge goes out the moment an invoice is overdue, without you having to track it or make an uncomfortable phone call. In this article you will read how it works, what the law allows, what it does for your cash flow, and when you should deliberately not automate it.

How big is the payment problem really?

Getting paid late is no longer the exception, it has become the norm. Nine out of ten Dutch SME owners deal with customers who pay late, according to research by Exact among business owners. On average 14.2% of all invoices are paid late, calculated by a joint study from IMK, evofenedex and InRetail, published via De Ondernemer. So one in seven invoices comes in later than agreed.

That hurts more than a sum on paper. You have already paid for the work, your people’s hours, the materials, the VAT you front. Until the customer pays, you are financing their purchase. The average payment term to SMEs is 27.7 days, peaking at 34 days in industry (Exact). For a business that is short on cash, that is the difference between paying your own bills on time or not.

Why the reminder never gets sent

Almost every business owner knows that following up works. And still it does not happen. Not because you do not want to, but because it feels awkward and because it simply slips through the cracks when things get busy. You do not want to risk the relationship over an invoice that "will probably come in". So you wait. And you wait a little longer. Until the amount has been open so long that it feels embarrassing to even bring it up.

What "sending reminders automatically" actually means

Sending reminders automatically is not a debt collector harassing your customers. It is a small automation that watches your outstanding invoices and sends a polite message at the right moment. If an invoice is still open after the agreed term, a friendly reminder goes out by itself. If the customer does not respond, a slightly more formal one follows a few days later, and only then do you step in, for the cases that truly need attention.

• The right timing, the reminder goes out the moment the term lapses, not three weeks later when you happen to notice.
• A rising tone, friendly first, then businesslike, then formal. The tone adapts per customer.
• The right channel, by email, and where it fits via WhatsApp or text, because a message gets read faster than an email.
• Automatic stop, the moment payment comes in, the sequence stops immediately. No one gets a reminder for an invoice already paid.
• Only the tricky cases reach you, the majority who pay after one nudge handle themselves. You keep time for the few customers who genuinely need a conversation.

The right moment and the right tone decide everything

The art of reminding is not about being stricter, but about being earlier and more consistent. A reminder that arrives one day after the due date reads as friendly service. The same reminder after three weeks feels like an accusation. An automation always sends on day one, friendly, short, with the invoice attached and a payment link in the message. No searching for the customer means faster payment.

And tone matters. A good customer who forgets once should not be treated like a defaulter. AI can match the tone to the situation: mild for someone who is always on time and just slipped once, more businesslike for someone who makes a habit of it. Important: you set the limits in advance, and the genuinely sensitive cases always pass by you first.

The law: what you may do, must do, and what it earns you

Reminding is bound by rules, and they work in your favour. For business customers the legal payment term is a maximum of 60 days; if you agree nothing, it is 30 days (Ondernemersplein/RVO). If a business customer pays late, you are entitled to a standard fee of €40, compensation for your collection costs (legally up to €6,775) and statutory commercial interest. That commercial interest has stood at 11.15% per year since early 2025 (Dutch government). That is money you are entitled to, but only if you actually charge it.

• Business customer: you are not required to remind first, but it is courteous, and it keeps the relationship intact.
• Private customer: you must first send one free reminder (the so-called 14-day letter) before you may charge collection costs.
• State on your invoice that you charge interest and costs on late payment, otherwise you stand weaker later.

An automation calculates those amounts neatly for you and places them in the right reminder, so you leave nothing on the table and get nothing wrong.

What it earns you in time and money

The effect sits in two places. First your time: tracking who still owes what, drafting reminders, calling people, that largely disappears into the background. For a business with a few dozen invoices a month, that is quickly a few hours a week you get back. Second your cash flow: invoices followed up consistently on day one get paid measurably faster. Software vendor Visma reports that automated receivables management can shorten the average payment term by around 25%. Every day an invoice comes in earlier is a day the money works for you instead of for your customer.

When you should deliberately not automate it

Here we are honest, because not every invoice belongs in an automated sequence. If you have a handful of big customers with whom you have a personal bond, an automatic reminder can actually do harm, there, one phone call from you works better than five polite emails from a system. The same goes during an ongoing dispute about the delivery: then a reminder is fuel on the fire. And with a customer who structurally does not pay, no reminder helps anymore; that case belongs with a collections party, not in an email sequence.

How it connects to your bookkeeping

The nice part is that you rarely need to buy anything new for this. Most accounting packages, think Moneybird, e-Boekhouden, Exact or AFAS, already know which invoices are open and which are paid. The automation reads that, decides who needs a reminder and sends it in your house style and your tone. When a payment comes in, the system sees it and stops the sequence by itself. You keep the overview; the work underneath runs itself.

How to start

• First look at how many invoices you send per month and how many of them come in late, it is often higher than you think.
• Set your own rules: after how many days the first reminder, after how many the second, and from what amount or which customer you want to handle it yourself.
• Start small: automate the first, friendly reminder and keep the rest manual for now. That way you see the effect without risk.
• Make sure your invoice and terms contain the right wording about interest and costs, so you stand legally strong.