Xero's in-built credit controls are great when you are getting started, and they become limiting quickly as you grow. You need a dedicated credit control add-on for Xero once you want to automate statements, apply late fees and create payment plans.
This guide covers which of those add-ons fits your situation and your business best.
Xero's own credit control is enough while your overdue list stays under about five invoices. Turn the reminders on, send a statement by hand each month, and spend the budget elsewhere.
Each of the four does one job, and each stops in the same place.
What none of them do: charge interest, escalate to a named person, pause on a disputed invoice, or take payment on a plan.
Xero's own setup guide points readers at the Xero App Store once they need more than that.
Two signs you have hit the ceiling: the overdue list stops shrinking between runs, and someone is chasing by hand after the fifth reminder. At that point an app costs less than the hours it replaces.
Credit control software automates accounts receivable management and invoice chasing, and shortens the time it takes to get paid. Four capabilities decide whether it works.
Those four make a tool usable. What makes it worth buying is everything Xero cannot do at all: posting interest and late fees to the ledger, taking payment on an instalment plan, escalating to a named person, pausing on a disputed invoice, and giving the customer a portal to settle in.
That is the real dividing line in this category. A chasing tool sends better emails. An automation platform enforces the terms you already agreed, and the six below are split fairly evenly between the two.
The six tools below are not competing for the same job. Start here rather than with the list, because the right answer is decided by your size, your ledger and what your real bottleneck is.
| If this is you | Start with |
|---|---|
| Larger UK business, happy to sign a longer contract, and you need credit checks as well as chasing |  |
| Enterprise B2B running many entities and wanting one system that does everything |  |
| High invoice volume on Xero, statements going out constantly, and you want it all in one plan |  |
| You want to finance an invoice as well as chase it |  |
| You want AI-driven order-to-cash, and matching payments is the real bottleneck |  |
| Australian or New Zealand distributor with an ERP in the stack |  |
Each tool is placed against the job it genuinely does best, rather than scored out of ten. A £700k builder and a £40m distributor are buying different products, so a single winner would be wrong for most readers.
Checked against vendor materials in August 2026. Prices change; verify before you buy.
If you are a larger UK business and credit checks matter as much as chasing
The most established suite here, founded in 2014, and the one to pick if vetting customers matters as much as chasing them. The pricing tiers are built for businesses well past the typical Xero small business.
The honest limitation. It is the oldest product on this list and it shows in how little bends. The late fee rule is global. Statements go monthly on a fixed day, with recipients and senders you cannot change. Payment plan chasing follows the invoice due date rather than the instalment dates, which their own documentation tells you to work around by hand.
Pricing on company revenue is the other thing to model carefully. A low-volume, high-value business can land on a £599 tier for a handful of invoices a month.
Best for: businesses past £4m that want credit data and chasing in one product and can absorb a rigid configuration.
If you are an enterprise B2B running many entities
The enterprise answer in this list. Built for large B2B finance teams running many entities who want one system covering collections, analytics and payments, rather than a chasing tool with reporting attached.
The honest limitation. No late fees, no payment plans beyond promise-to-pay, and pricing has moved entirely to contact-sales, which usually signals a move upmarket. The free tier reports and does not act.
Best for: enterprise B2B teams with several entities who want one platform rather than a chasing tool plus three add-ons.
If you send a lot of invoices and statements, and you live in Xero
Built natively for Xero, and the value option when you are sending a lot of invoices and statements. Every primary receivables automation sits in one plan: chasing by email and SMS, scheduled statements, late fees and interest, payment plans, a portal and escalation.
The honest limitation. No credit checks. There is no bureau data, no risk score and no monitoring feed, so vetting new accounts has to happen somewhere else. Native support is Xero and QuickBooks Online only; other ledgers are a Custom-plan conversation.
Being built for two ledgers rather than eight is the trade. It is why the Xero integration goes deeper than a sync, and why a Sage or NetSuite business should look elsewhere on this list.
Best for: Xero businesses pushing real invoice and statement volume that want the whole receivables process in one plan.
If you want invoice finance alongside the chasing
Half credit control software and half lender, with credit reports and single-invoice finance in the same subscription. Strongest inside the Sage 50 ecosystem, where it is bundled cheaply.
The honest limitation. Roughly half the product serves the lending side, so a business that only wants chasing pays for a finance product it may never use. UK only, and the review record is thin enough that you should ask for references.
Best for: UK businesses that want to vet customers, chase them and fund the invoice in one place.
If you want AI-driven order-to-cash
An AI order-to-cash platform where chasing is one module beside reconciliation, remittance parsing and credit risk.
The honest limitation. Per-user pricing punishes the setup that works best, which is several named senders escalating an invoice as it ages. No late fee automation found, and the product has moved upmarket from small business credit control.
Best for: larger finance teams whose real problem is matching payments, not sending reminders.
If you are an Australian or New Zealand distributor on an ERP
Long established in the Australian and New Zealand mid-market, strongest where the ledger is MYOB or an ERP rather than Xero alone.
The honest limitation. An annual commitment plus a setup fee is a real barrier for a business that wants to try before it buys, and no late fee or interest automation appears anywhere in the help documentation.
Best for: AU and NZ distributors with an ERP in the stack and a large debtor book.
What each one automates, whether it can post a charge back into your ledger, and what it costs. The automates column is the one to read first: it separates a tool that sends better emails from a platform that runs the process.
| Tool | Fits | Automates | Posts fees to the ledger | Entry cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chaser | £4m to £200m | Chasing, credit checks, letters and calls | No | £199/mo |
| Upflow | Large B2B, by ARR | Chasing, collection analytics | No | Not published |
| Paidnice | £500k to £10m | Chasing, statements, fees, plans, portal | Yes | £49 / US$69/mo |
| Satago | UK, Sage 50 or Xero | Chasing, credit checks, invoice finance | Not published | £25 to £45/mo |
| Kolleno | Above US$1m | Chasing, cash application, credit risk | Not published | US$650 per user/mo |
| ezyCollect | AU and NZ | Chasing, debtor risk scoring | Not published | About A$275/mo |
Row order follows the list above, not a ranking. A cell reads "not published" where the vendor documents nothing either way, rather than where a capability is known to be absent.
The fourth column is the one worth a second look. Most of these read your ledger and mark an invoice paid, and Chaser and Upflow both state plainly that they do not create invoices. Posting a fee into Xero is a deeper integration, and it is why a charge raised in Paidnice reaches your customer's accounts payable rather than sitting on a dashboard.
Most shortlists collapse once you answer two questions: how big is the ledger, and what is the actual problem. Five common situations and where they land.
| Your situation | What to look at |
|---|---|
| Under £500k, fewer than 25 invoices a month | Stay on Xero's own reminders and a monthly statement run. Automating twenty minutes of work is not a saving. |
| High invoice volume on Xero, statements going out weekly or monthly | Look for scheduled statements, fees and plans in the base product rather than as paid add-ons. |
| Extending trade credit to accounts you cannot vet | Credit data. This is the one job the cheaper tools genuinely do not do. |
| Several entities, and a board asking about DSO every month | An enterprise platform with multi-entity reporting, not a chasing tool with a dashboard bolted on. |
| Payments arrive but nobody can match them | Cash application and reconciliation. Your problem is not chasing, and a chasing tool will not fix it. |
Two situations sit outside this list. If you run several Xero organisations, start with credit control across multiple Xero companies. If your team lives in Google or Microsoft, the sending setup matters more than the feature list, and that is covered in credit control software for Xero, Gmail and Slack and the Outlook and Teams version.
Feature grids look identical across this category because every vendor writes to the same checklist. Six questions separate them in a demo, and none of them appear on a pricing page.
The question that changes the most demos is the second one. Ask the vendor to raise a late fee during the call and then show you that fee sitting in Xero as an approved invoice against the customer. Plenty of tools will show you a fee on a dashboard. Fewer will show you one on the ledger, and only the ledger version reaches your customer's payment run.
Most of this decision comes down to two questions: how much of the process you want automated, and what your ledger looks like. If you have read this far and still cannot tell, ask us.
We would rather point you at the right tool than sell you the wrong one. Three of the six above do things Paidnice does not, and we will tell you when one of them is the better answer.
What is the best credit control software for Xero?
It depends on your situation rather than a single winner. Chaser suits larger UK businesses needing credit checks, Upflow suits multi-entity enterprises, and Paidnice suits high-volume Xero businesses wanting every automation in one plan.
Does Xero have credit control built in?
Xero has credit control features rather than a module: Aged Receivables, up to five automated reminders per organisation, manual statements and per-contact credit limits. There is no interest, no statement schedule and no escalation.
How much does credit control software for Xero cost?
Entry pricing runs from under US$100 a month at the small end to US$650 per user a month at the enterprise end. Most Xero small businesses land under US$250 a month, depending on invoice volume and what is bundled.
Which credit control apps charge late fees and interest automatically?
Paidnice applies flat, percentage or compounding charges per customer group, with the UK rate indexed to the Bank of England base rate. Chaser offers four calculation types but applies them as a single global rule. The rest do not automate fees.
Which one has credit checks?
Chaser and Satago. Chaser sells credit checking and monitoring as metered credits alongside chasing; Satago bundles credit reports with invoice finance. If vetting new accounts matters, those are the two to look at.
Where do I find credit control apps for Xero?
In the Xero App Store, under the debtor management and accounts receivable categories. Filter by your region, because availability and payment integrations vary by country, and read the review count as well as the score.
Is there free credit control software for Xero?
Not meaningfully. Xero's own reminders, statements and credit limits come with your subscription and are enough for a short overdue list. Beyond that the category is paid, though most tools offer a trial rather than a free plan.
Is there a credit control software Xero download?
No. Every credit control tool for Xero runs in the browser and connects through the Xero App Store using your Xero login. There is no installer and nothing is added to your desktop.
What if I use Sage or QuickBooks instead of Xero?
Four of these six run on QuickBooks and four run on some version of Sage. The two most Xero-specific are Paidnice, which is Xero and QuickBooks Online only, and Satago, which is strongest inside Sage 50.
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