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 credit checks, letters and calls alongside chasing, priced on annual revenue from $259 a month (£199 on its UK price list).
- Satago: Best for Sage 50 or Xero businesses that want credit scores and invoice finance alongside chasing, from £25 a month inside Sage 50 or £45 standalone (published GBP prices).
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.
- 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.
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 by hand, 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.
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 by hand
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.
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 by hand, 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. |
The risk of missed chases with a spreadsheet is high on holidays and at month-end, when nobody opens the file; software runs the same schedule 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, 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 credit scores.
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 the product overview).
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 1,114 votes and no committed plans.
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