The problem
Domestic customers forget and commercial customers wait. An electrician sending 25 invoices a month who has 6 running late spends about 15 minutes on each chase, 90 minutes a month. If your time is worth £45 an hour, that's £68 of time plus the cash sitting with someone else.
What the AI does
Accounting software can email a reminder when an invoice goes overdue, and customers can pay straight from the invoice with a Pay now button if you connect a payment provider. You write the reminder wording once. You still decide when to phone someone about a real problem.
A worked example
A sole-trader electrician in Glasgow sends about 25 invoices a month, mostly £200 to £600. He moves invoicing into Xero Grow, switches on reminders and adds a card payment button.
Before
6 of 25 invoices late each month, each chased by hand
After
Reminders go out on their own; he phones only the 1 or 2 that stay unpaid
What it's worth
About 1.5 hours a month of chasing saved, worth around £68 if your time is worth £45 an hour, with cash arriving sooner.
How to set it up
- Pick a Xero plan: Ignite (£18) covers 20 invoices a month, so 25 invoices means Grow (£39).
- Move your invoice template and customer list into Xero and send future invoices from there.
- Set up reminders for overdue invoices and edit the wording so it sounds like you.
- Connect a payment provider so customers can pay by card or Direct Debit from the invoice.
- Check which invoices are still outstanding once a week and phone anyone who has ignored two reminders.
What goes wrong
- Xero's pricing page doesn't list reminders per plan, so check yours includes them before paying.
- Prices exclude VAT, and new customers' first-6-months discount ends after that, when Grow is £39.
- Payment providers charge their own fees on each card payment.
- A reminder sent to the wrong person is embarrassing. Check customer email addresses are right first.