Summary
Credit control software automates invoice tracking, reminders and escalation, while a manual process relies on a spreadsheet, email and memory. A spreadsheet copes with a few dependable customers. Switch once chasing takes 2 to 3 hours a week or invoices pass 30 to 50 a month, and keep a person on disputes.
- The failure point: UK statutory interest is base rate plus 8% (11.75% from 1 July to 31 December 2026), accrued daily per invoice, plus a £40, £70 or £100 fixed sum: arithmetic a spreadsheet cannot keep current.
- Paidnice: Best for Xero and QuickBooks Online businesses that want reminders, statements and statutory interest applied automatically, from £49 a month, priced by invoice volume, not revenue.
- Chaser: Best for larger firms that want bureau credit checks, letters and calls alongside chasing, priced on annual revenue, with Compact at £199 a month for revenue under £4m and Core from £599.
- Satago: Best for Sage 50 or Xero businesses that want bureau credit scores and invoice finance alongside chasing, from £45 a month (£25 inside Sage 50).
Credit control software guide▾
Is credit control software better than a manual process?
Credit control software is better than a manual process once chasing has to happen on a schedule without a person driving it. Software reads the ledger, sends reminders, escalates on silence and keeps an audit trail; a manual process depends on a spreadsheet, email and one person's memory.
- A spreadsheet copes with a few dependable customers and a short overdue list, because the file is small. On NetSuite the same list is a saved search for overdue invoices, and it also stops at a list.
- The switch pays back at 30 to 50 invoices a month, or when chasing takes 2 to 3 hours a week.
- At that point follow-up turns inconsistent and an invoice goes a month without a reminder.
- Paidnice connects to Xero and QuickBooks Online, Satago to Sage 50 and Xero.
- Most businesses keep a person on disputes and key accounts and let the software run the routine chasing.
Run reminders and late fees together. Businesses that run reminders and late fees together have a DSO of about 27 days. With no automation switched on, DSO is about 39 days.
How long can you run credit control from a spreadsheet?
A spreadsheet can run credit control for as long as the overdue list fits on one screen, one person owns it, and you have no plan to charge interest.
- Excel is enough if you can name every overdue invoice without opening the file.
- Excel is enough if one person does all the chasing and never hands it over.
- Excel is enough if most customers pay after a single polite email.
- Excel is enough if you do not charge interest or a fixed sum.
- You have outgrown the spreadsheet when chasing takes 2 to 3 hours a week, every week (a rule of thumb).
- You have outgrown the spreadsheet when you raise 30 to 50 invoices a month or more.
- You have outgrown the spreadsheet when you have calculated an interest charge manually, even once.
- You have outgrown the spreadsheet when a customer went a month past due without hearing from you.
Our page on Xero reminders versus a credit control app covers where Xero's own reminders stop. Late payment benchmarks are in credit control statistics.
How much time does manual credit control take?
Manual credit control takes a fixed slice of every week, because each overdue invoice needs a due-date check, an email, a note of the reply and a diary entry for the next chase.
Count it: hours a week × 52 ÷ 12 × the hourly cost of the person. Say three hours a week at £35 an hour: 13 hours a month, or £455 a month, against a subscription from £49 a month.
What are the steps in manual credit control?
Manual credit control is the same six-step loop for every invoice, run by a person from a spreadsheet and an inbox: record, check the due date, remind, log the reply, escalate, report.
- Copy each invoice, due date and balance into the spreadsheet.
- Check for invoices past due and log payments.
- Send a reminder and note the date it went.
- Record the reply: a promise to pay, a dispute, or silence.
- Escalate on silence: a firmer email, a call, a letter.
- Total the overdue balance for the month-end report.
The audit trail is whatever was typed into the notes column.
What a spreadsheet cannot do: statutory interest manually
UK statutory interest is Bank Rate plus 8%, accrued daily per overdue invoice, plus a fixed sum of £40, £70 or £100. A spreadsheet can hold the formula but cannot keep the answer current for every invoice every day.
The right comes from the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. The gov.uk guidance sets the fixed sum at £40 under £1,000, £70 from £1,000 to £9,999.99, and £100 at £10,000 or more, once per invoice.
The Bank of England base rate in force on 30 June or 31 December sets the statutory late-payment rate for the following six months. The Bank Rate was 3.75% on 30 June 2026, so the statutory rate for the second half of 2026 is 11.75%.
| Statutory rate: 8% + 3.75% base rate | 11.75% |
| Interest for a year: £5,000 × 11.75% | £587.50 |
| Interest per day: £587.50 ÷ 365 | £1.61 |
| Interest at 30 days late: £1.61 × 30 | £48.29 |
| Fixed sum, £1,000 to £9,999.99 band | £70.00 |
| Total chargeable at 30 days late | £118.29 |
The statutory interest on a £5,000 invoice changes every day it stays open, and every other overdue invoice has its own day count and fixed-sum band.
Software applies the right rate and fixed sum and posts the result. Paidnice does this on the Xero or QuickBooks Online ledger, from £49 a month. Try our UK statutory interest calculator, and read how much you can charge for late fees.
Paidnice applies the base rate locked for each six-month block, as the Late Payment Order sets it, or following the Bank Rate as it changes. Statement interest is recalculated at the moment the statement is sent, and the charge lands in Xero or QuickBooks Online as a Draft or Approved invoice.
How we compared Excel and credit control software
We compared the two on three groups of rows in the table below, plus the interest section above it. We give no weights, because the right mix depends on how many invoices you raise.
- Tracking and reporting: what a spreadsheet can hold, against the aged receivables and DSO reports in Xero and Paidnice.
- Reminders, escalation and disputes: the six-step manual loop in this post, against a reminder schedule that runs on its own.
- Interest (section above): the statutory interest sum, from the Late Payment Act 1998 and the Bank of England Bank Rate.
- Scale and cost: the rules of thumb in this post (2 to 3 hours a week, 30 to 50 invoices a month) and the published software price.
The comparison table: Excel against credit control software
Excel wins on licence cost and loses on everything that has to happen on a schedule: reminders, escalation, promises to pay, reporting and Days Sales Outstanding, and the chases that get missed. Software wins every row except licence cost.
| Area | Manual process (spreadsheet) | Credit control software |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice tracking | Manual entry. Accurate on the day it was last updated. | Reads the ledger directly, so balances are current. |
| Payment reminders | None. A person checks due dates and sends each email. | Scheduled by customer group, escalating in tone, by email and SMS, plus statements. |
| Follow-up consistency | Depends on who is in that week. Fine at low volume. | Every invoice gets the same sequence on the same days. |
| Escalation | A judgement call, when someone notices the silence. | Triggered at a set number of days overdue: letter, call task, interest, hand-off. |
| Promises to pay | A note in a cell and a diary entry. | Logged against the invoice; a broken promise restarts the chase. |
| Disputes | A row highlighted manually, easily chased by mistake. | Held out of the sequence while the rest of the account is chased. |
| Reporting and DSO | Whatever pivot table someone built. | Aged receivables, Days Sales Outstanding and expected payments, read from the ledger. |
| Scale | Manageable at 20 overdue invoices, not at 200. | The same schedule runs for 20 invoices or 2,000, without extra headcount. |
| Cost | The licence you already have, plus the hours of whoever maintains it. | From £49 a month, priced by invoice volume, not revenue. |
| Risk of missed chases | High on holidays and at month-end, when nobody opens the file. | Low: the schedule runs whether or not anyone logs in. |
Can you keep people on disputes and key accounts?
Yes, most businesses that move off a spreadsheet run a hybrid model, where software handles routine, schedule-driven chasing and people handle disputes, key accounts and genuine hardship.
In Paidnice the "Include Invoices with Reference" filter takes a disputed invoice out of a policy without switching the policy off. Calls made from Paidnice are recorded and transcribed, and notes and call outcomes sync to the invoice in Xero: one audit trail.
What replaces the spreadsheet: three tools for UK businesses
Three tools cover most UK businesses leaving a spreadsheet: Paidnice for Xero and QuickBooks Online, Chaser for larger firms, Satago for Sage 50 and Xero users who want bureau credit scores with invoice finance.
Paidnice applies reminders, statements and statutory interest automatically from £49 a month, priced by invoice volume, not revenue. Sign-up is free with no card, and the first 20 actions are free (see every plan and how Paidnice replaces the spreadsheet).
Before choosing, read credit control software compared, what to set up at each stage, invoice chasing software for Xero, which tools you can try first, and free late fee calculators.
Is credit control the same as accounts receivable?
Credit control is not the same as accounts receivable: accounts receivable is the ledger balance customers owe and the function that records it, and credit control is the one stage that chases the overdue part. Credit control software automates that final stage.
Common questions
The questions a spreadsheet user asks next are how credit control differs from credit management, what Excel can still calculate, and what Xero covers. Xero has had no native interest charge since the ideas-board request of 29 March 2012.
What is the difference between credit control and credit management?
Credit management is the policy that decides who gets credit, on what terms and up to what limit; credit control is the daily work of collecting what is owed under those terms.
Can Excel calculate late payment interest?
Excel can calculate late payment interest for one invoice on one day: balance × (Bank Rate + 8%) ÷ 365 × days late. Excel cannot rerun that daily for every open invoice, switch blocks on 1 January and 1 July, or post the result to your ledger.
Are Xero's reminders enough instead of a spreadsheet?
Xero's built-in reminders are enough instead of a spreadsheet for a short overdue list, with up to five email stages on one schedule. Xero has no native interest: the request to add interest to late invoices has sat on Xero's ideas board since 29 March 2012 with 1,118 votes.
Read the transcript: Credit control software vs Excel: when to switch
Take a £5,000 invoice, 30 days late. By law, it carries £118.29 in interest and fixed sum. A spreadsheet can do that sum once.
It will not redo it daily for every overdue invoice. Paidnice does, and it is the best way off the spreadsheet for Xero and QuickBooks Online. The video has four chapters. First, when a spreadsheet is enough and where it stops.
Second, the three signs you have outgrown it. Third, statutory interest done manually. Fourth, the apps people move to with Paidnice first as the best option.
Chapter one. Credit control software beats Excel once the reminders and the interest charges need to go out without a person doing The first job is tracking who owes what and since when. A spreadsheet does that well.
The second is reminding on a schedule. A person still has to open the file and send every email. The third is charging interest and the fixed sum on each invoice every day.
The spreadsheet stops here. A spreadsheet is enough while the overdue list fits on one screen and one person looks after it. Ask four questions. Can you name every overdue invoice without opening the file?
Does one person do all the chasing? Do most customers pay after one polite email? Do you charge no interest or fixed sum?
Chapter two. You have outgrown a spreadsheet when you see any one of three signs, and they are time, gaps, and fees. Time means chasing has its own slot in your diary every week.
Gaps means an invoice went unchased because nobody opened the file. Fees means you have raised an interest charge manually even once. Fees settle it because the spreadsheet has become a calculator someone Chapter 3 In the UK, you can charge 8% above the Bank of England base rate on an overdue invoice plus a fixed sum.
The base rate is 3.75, so the rate is 11.75%. On a £5,000 invoice, the interest is £1.61 a day. 30 days late is £48.29.
Add the £70 fixed sum and the total is £118.29. The day count changes every day the invoice stays open, and every overdue invoice has its own count. 12 overdue invoices means 12 sums a day. Excel wins on cost and loses on everything that has to happen on a Excel costs the license you already have plus the hours.
Software costs from £49 a month priced by how many invoices you send. Excel sends no reminders. Software sends them by customer group, by email and text message plus statements.
In Excel, a fee is a formula someone types. Software posts the charge to your ledger. Chapter 4, the apps. Paidnice is the best option for a Xero or QuickBooks Online business leaving a spreadsheet at any size up to 50,000 invoices a year. It sends reminders and statements by customer group.
It puts statutory interest and the fixed sum on one charge and posts it to the ledger. The Essentials plan is £49 a month for 150 invoices. Sign up is free with no card.
Reminders and statements alone are a complete use and fees are optional. Chaser is for larger firms that also want credit checks, letters, and phone calls. Chaser is £199 a month and up. Satago is for businesses on Sage 50 or Xero that want credit scores.
Satago is £25 a month inside Sage 50 or £45 standalone. Can Excel calculate late payment interest? Yes, for one invoice on one day.
Not daily for every open invoice and not posted to your ledger. Are Xero's own reminders enough? For a short overdue list, yes.
Xero has no built-in interest or late fee feature. The request has sat on the Xero ideas board since 2012 with no committed plans. Do you have to charge the fee? The software applies it and you can waive it with the reason on record.
A spreadsheet tracks the debt and leaves the reminders and the interest to a The day you calculate an interest charge manually is the day you have outgrown it. The full comparison is in the article on the Paidnice blog.
Paidnice features in this article
About the editorial team
Denym started Paidnice in 2022 after customers paying late left his own business short on payroll. He has led it to $1 billion collected on time across more than 1 million invoices, and writes about credit control, late fees and getting paid on Xero and QuickBooks.
App of the Year