Debtor management software in NZ: 6 tools compared (2026)

Where does Xero's own debtor management run out in New Zealand?

Xero's own debtor management runs out once you need scheduled statements, a fee on your terms of trade, or escalation to a named person. New Zealand small businesses were paid in 23.2 days on average in June 2026, 5.1 days past the due date, according to Xero Small Business Insights. By world standards that is prompt, and it is why many Kiwi businesses never look past Xero's built-in reminders.

The sector spread tells a different story. Manufacturing waited 33.7 days in the same month and hospitality 13.2, a gap of 2.5 times. Our own breakdown of the same dataset is in accounts receivable statistics for New Zealand, by industry and by region.

The question is whether your customers pay late. A manufacturer on 20th of the month terms with a debtor book that runs at 34 days has a cash flow problem the national average hides.

Xero gives every New Zealand organisation four debtor management tools. Each does one job, and each stops in the same place.

• Aged Receivables report. Tells you who is late and by how long, in 30, 60 and 90 day buckets. It does not act on any of it.
• Invoice reminders. Up to five emails on a single organisation-wide schedule, fired at every invoice marked as sent. The same sequence for your best customer and your slowest payer.
• Customer statements. Accurate, and sent by hand. There is no schedule, so somebody has to remember on the first of the month.
• Credit limits. A cap per contact that can block new invoices. There is no credit data behind it, so the number is a guess.

What none of them do: charge a fee or interest, escalate to a named person, pause on a disputed invoice, or take payment on a plan. The Xero product idea Add interest to late invoices has been open since 29 March 2012, carries 1,114 votes with a status of Accepted, and Xero's latest reply, on 7 July 2025, said there were no committed plans.

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.

What does a debtor management tool have to do?

A debtor management tool has to do four things in a New Zealand business: send from your own domain, write back to Xero, run statements on a schedule and vary its rules by customer group. Automated reminders are the base. These four decide whether the rest works.

• Your domain in the From line. Reminders from a generic app address get ignored, and replies go somewhere nobody reads.
• Writes back to Xero. A payment at 9am has to stop the 10am chase on its own. A 24-hour sync cannot do that.
• Statements on a schedule. A statement is what your customer's accounts payable person works from on the 20th. Sending it by hand never survives a busy month.
• Rules that vary by customer. A retainer client and a 60-day trade account should not get the same email on the same day.

Those four make a tool usable. What makes it worth buying is everything Xero cannot do at all: posting a fee or interest charge to the ledger on your terms of trade, 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 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 between the two.

Which debtor management software is right for your situation?

The right debtor management software is decided by your ledger, your invoice volume and whether the bottleneck is chasing, credit risk or old debts. The six tools below are not competing for the same job, so start here rather than with the list.

If this is you	Start with
Larger business, happy to sign a longer contract, and you need credit checks as well as chasing
You want a person on the phone to your debtors, and you are already in the CreditorWatch world
Steady invoice volume on Xero, statements going out on the 20th, and you want reminders, fees and escalation in one plan
Distributor or wholesaler with MYOB or an ERP in the stack
Accounting or legal practice chasing fee notes, with fee funding alongside
A handful of old debts you want run through a fixed collection process, without an agency commission

Debtrak also appears in New Zealand searches for this category: its target is enterprise and government collections, its integration is banking and government systems rather than Xero, and its key feature is workflow automation, so it is a different purchase from the six below.

How was this list put together?

This list places each tool against the job it does best, rather than scoring it out of ten. A $700k trades business and a $40m distributor are buying different products, so a single winner would be wrong for most readers.

1. The size the pricing is really built for, read from the vendor's own tier structure rather than their marketing.
2. The one capability the tool leads on, whether that is credit data, a human calling team, enforcement or a collection process.
3. Ratings weighted by review count, using the Xero App Store first because those reviewers are verified Xero users.
4. What it does not do. Every entry carries a limitation, including ours.

Prices come from each vendor's own published materials. Prices change; verify current pricing before you buy.

Chaser

If you are a larger business and credit checks matter as much as chasing

Chaser is credit control software with credit checks built in, best for businesses past about £4m turnover, from NZ$399 a month. Founded in the UK in 2014, it is the most established suite here, with pricing tiers built for businesses well past the typical New Zealand small business.

• Fits: businesses from about £4m turnover upwards. The Compact entry tier caps at £4m, and the tiers that unlock the useful limits are £599 and £899 a month
• Regions: UK founded and UK led, sold internationally, including New Zealand
• Entry cost: NZD 399 a month (NZD 359 on an annual plan) for turnover to £4m, from Chaser's own NZD price list, priced on company revenue rather than invoice volume
• Rated: 4.98/5 from 374 Xero App Store reviews, the deepest review base in the category
• Runs on: Xero, QuickBooks, Sage 50, 200 and Intacct, NetSuite, Dynamics 365, SAP
• Statutory late fees: none exist in New Zealand. Chaser can apply a contractual fee as a fixed amount, a percentage or a daily percentage, as one global rule that cannot vary by customer group. It syncs the fee as a line item to Xero
• The one thing it does best: credit checking and monitoring, payer ratings and a late-payment predictor, sold as metered credits alongside the chasing

The limitation. It is the oldest product on this list and the least configurable. The late fee rule is global. Statements go monthly on a fixed day, with recipients and senders you cannot change.

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 about £4m that want credit data and chasing in one product and can absorb a rigid configuration.

CreditorWatch Collect

If you want a person on the phone to your debtors

CreditorWatch Collect is reminder software with a New Zealand-based calling team you can add on top, best for owner-operators who want the phone work done for them; price on request. It is the former Debtor Daddy, founded in Canterbury in 2012 and acquired by the Australian credit bureau CreditorWatch in 2022.

• Fits: owner-operators who want chasing done for them, and businesses already using CreditorWatch for credit reports
• Regions: Australia led, listed on the New Zealand Xero App Store
• Entry cost: Not published. The pricing page shows a free trial and a custom plan
• Rated: 4.89/5 from 91 reviews on the New Zealand Xero App Store, many of them from the Debtor Daddy era
• Runs on: Xero on a 24-hour sync, MYOB and QuickBooks
• Statutory late fees: none exist in New Zealand, and Collect cannot apply a contractual fee or interest either. No fee feature appears in its features page or help centre
• The one thing it does best: the human layer. AR Specialists who call as if they were your credit control team, and a call console for running your own calling queue

The limitation. No late fees or interest, so the leverage side of debtor management is missing. The Xero sync runs once a day, so a payment this morning can still be chased this afternoon. Review activity has been thin since the rebrand.

Best for: businesses that want phone calls made on their behalf and are happy to take a custom quote for it.

Paidnice

If you send a lot of invoices and statements, and you live in Xero

Paidnice is debtor management software for New Zealand businesses on Xero or QuickBooks, running reminders, statements, fees and payment plans from NZ$109 a month plus GST. It automates invoice reminders by email and SMS from your own domain, scheduled statements, late fees and interest on your terms of trade, payment plans, a customer payment portal and escalation, in one plan. Built in Auckland, natively on Xero, and the value option when you send steady volume.

Paidnice is best for New Zealand businesses on Xero with steady invoice volume who want reminders, statements, fees and escalation running from one plan.

• On Xero: see how Paidnice runs debtor management for Xero
• Fits: any size up to $50m turnover, or 50,000 invoices a year, on Xero or QuickBooks Online, priced on invoice volume rather than company revenue
• Regions: New Zealand, Australia, UK, US, Canada and South Africa
• Entry cost: NZD 109 a month excluding GST for 150 invoices (US$69), Pro from NZD 149. SMS reminders included at NZD 0.15 each. No per-seat fees, unlimited users on Pro, and no contracts
• Rated: 5/5 from 83 Xero App Store reviews; 4.9/5 on Capterra
• Awards: New Zealand Small Business App of the Year, Xero Global App Awards 2026; 2025 Xero Global Small Business App of the Year 🏆
• Runs on: built natively on Xero and QuickBooks Online, plus Stripe, Pinch, HubSpot, Pipedrive and Zapier
• Statutory late fees: none exist in New Zealand, so the fee is whatever your terms of trade say. Paidnice applies it as a flat amount, a percentage or compounding interest, per customer group, with a grace period, and posts it to the Xero invoice as a Draft or Approved invoice
• The one thing it does best: volume at the entry price. Scheduled statements with 30, 60 and 90 day ageing, reminders, fees, payment plans, escalation and a portal are all in the base product

The limitation. Credit checks run through Creditsafe on the Custom plan only. On Essentials and Pro there is no bureau data, no risk score from a bureau and no monitoring feed, so vetting new accounts otherwise has to happen somewhere else. Native support is Xero and QuickBooks Online only; MYOB and other ledgers are a Custom-plan conversation.

Paidnice is built for two ledgers rather than eight. That is why the Xero integration goes deeper than a sync, and why a MYOB business should look at ezyCollect on this list. Customers cut their average wait for payment in half, within 30 days.

Best for: New Zealand businesses on Xero with steady invoice and statement volume that want the whole receivables process in one plan. Paidnice's own debtor management software for New Zealand page has the local detail.

ezyCollect

If you are a distributor on MYOB or an ERP

ezyCollect is accounts receivable software for the mid-market, best for distributors and wholesalers on MYOB or an ERP, from A$275 a month plus A$900 setup. Long established in Australia and New Zealand and now owned by Sidetrade, it is strongest where the ledger is MYOB or an ERP rather than Xero alone.

• Fits: Australian and New Zealand wholesalers and distributors with a large debtor book
• Regions: AU and NZ led
• Entry cost: not listed on ezycollect.io. ezyCollect's own Xero pricing page lists ezyStart at A$275 a month plus a A$900 setup fee on an annual contract, monthly billing 20% more, then ezyGrow at A$950 and ezyScale at A$2,350
• Rated: 4.94/5 from 35 Xero App Store reviews in Australia; 4.7/5 from 25 on G2
• Runs on: Xero, QuickBooks Online, MYOB AccountRight and Exo, NetSuite, SAP Business One, Pronto
• Statutory late fees: none exist in New Zealand, and no contractual fee or interest automation appears anywhere in ezyCollect's help centre. Card surcharging is the only charge it adds
• The one thing it does best: credit insights, demand letters and a collection referral across a long ERP integration list, with a pay-now portal

The limitation. An annual commitment plus a setup fee is a barrier for a business that wants to try before it buys, and there is no late fee or interest automation. Demand letters and collection referrals are charged on top.

Best for: AU and NZ distributors with an ERP in the stack and a debtor book in the hundreds.

FeeSynergy Collect

If you are an accounting or legal practice chasing fee notes

FeeSynergy Collect is debtor management software for accounting and legal firms, best for practices on MYOB AE, MYOB AO or GreatSoft; price on request. Fee funding, engagement letters and identity verification are sold alongside the debtor management. Headquartered in Melbourne and Auckland.

• Fits: Australian and New Zealand accounting firms and law firms, sold to partners and practice managers
• Regions: Australia and New Zealand
• Entry cost: Not published. No price on the website, the MYOB listing or the Xero App Store listing. A free trial without a card is offered
• Rated: 5/5 from 4 Xero App Store reviews in Australia, a small sample
• Runs on: Xero on a one-way sync, MYOB AE and AO, GreatSoft. No QuickBooks Online
• Statutory late fees: none exist in New Zealand, and no late fee or interest feature is stated on the FeeSynergy site or its app listings
• The one thing it does best: practice management integration. MYOB AE and AO and GreatSoft are ledgers a general debtor management tool does not touch, and the fee finance module lets a client pay a large bill by instalment

The limitation. The product reads as reminders plus payments, with no scheduled statements, fees or escalation described in public materials. Pricing is opaque and the review record is thin, so ask for references from firms your size.

Best for: practices on MYOB AE or GreatSoft that want fee funding and debtor follow-up from one vendor.

iCollect

If you have a handful of old debts and want a fixed process, not an agency

iCollect is a New Zealand self-service debt recovery platform, best for a handful of debts already past 30 days, from NZ$39 a month plus GST. It is a recovery tool rather than a receivables tool: you load a debt that is already overdue, a 21-day collection process runs, and the money is paid to you directly with no commission taken.

• Fits: New Zealand small businesses, bookkeepers and accountants with a small number of debts past 30 days
• Regions: New Zealand only
• Entry cost: from NZ$39 plus GST a month, per the Xero App Store New Zealand listing. Additional packages are offered
• Rated: 5/5 from 8 Xero App Store reviews in New Zealand
• Runs on: Xero only. It pulls invoices 30 or more days overdue, pre-fills the debtor and reconciles back to Xero
• Statutory late fees: none exist in New Zealand, and no late fee or interest feature is stated in the Xero listing or on the iCollect site
• The one thing it does best: a fixed 21-day collection sequence with demand letters drafted through an aligned collection agency, at a flat fee with no commission on what is recovered

The limitation. It only starts once an invoice is 30 days over. There are no pre-due reminders, no statements, no payment plans and no fees, so it does nothing to stop the next invoice going 30 days over.

Best for: a business with a few stubborn debts and no appetite for an agency's commission.

How do the 6 debtor management tools for New Zealand compare?

The six tools compare on entry price, the size of business each fits, the ledgers it runs on, what it is best for, and whether it posts a charge back into your ledger. The best-for column separates a tool that sends better emails from a platform that runs the process.

A cell reads "not published" where the vendor documents nothing either way, rather than where a capability is known to be absent. Chaser's row reads "one global rule" because the fee exists but cannot vary by customer group.

The fees column is the one worth a second look. Reading your ledger and marking an invoice paid is a sync. 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.

Can you charge interest on a late invoice in New Zealand?

You can charge interest on a late invoice in New Zealand if your terms of trade say so. New Zealand has no statutory late payment interest rate for business-to-business invoices, so there is no default rate to fall back on. The charge stands on the terms of trade your customer accepted, and the amount should be reasonable.

That is why the fees column above matters. A tool cannot look up a rate for you, because there is none. It has to apply the fee you agreed, at the level you agreed, and put it somewhere your customer will see it. For what counts as reasonable and how to word the clause, see how much you can charge for late fees in New Zealand.

If a debt goes all the way to a claim, the Disputes Tribunal now hears claims up to $60,000, up from $30,000 since 24 January 2026, according to the Ministry of Justice. A fee already sitting on the ledger is part of the evidence.

How do you set up debtor management software?

Debtor management software is set up in three phases: audit the Xero organisation, configure the timing, fees and customer groups, then switch the automation on in approval mode. Whichever tool you choose, most of the value arrives in the first phase, before any email is sent.

1. Audit. Connect the Xero organisation and let the tool read the open invoices. Note your current debtor days and your oldest ageing buckets, because those are the two numbers you will judge it against in 30 days. Tag the accounts that need special handling: disputed invoices, retainers, your three largest customers.
2. Configuration. Set the reminder timing before and after the due date, and set the grace period, the days overdue before a fee or reminder applies. Write the fee and interest policy from your terms of trade, per customer group. Set your own domain as the sender and decide who statements go to on the 20th.
3. Automation. Turn on the pre-due and overdue triggers. Run the first fortnight in approval mode so someone signs off each send, then let it run. Set the escalation rule for a named person at 21 days, and check debtor days and ageing again a month in.

How do you choose debtor management software by size and situation?

Choose debtor management software by answering two questions: how big the ledger is, and what the problem is. Five common New Zealand situations and where they land.

For the general shape of the category, and the tools that serve other markets, see debtor management software. For the native-versus-app decision on its own, see Xero invoice reminders vs a credit control app: what changes.

What should you check beyond the feature list?

Six questions separate debtor management tools in a demo: how the tool sends as you, where the fee lands, whether the price is on invoices or turnover, whether rules vary by customer group, whether one disputed invoice can be excluded, and how often it syncs. None of them appear on a pricing page, and feature grids look identical because every vendor writes to the same checklist.

1. How does it authenticate to send as you? Some apps sign into one person's mailbox and relay through it, which borrows that account's daily send limit and puts chasing bounces on the mailbox your team uses all day. Authenticating your domain avoids both.
2. Where does the fee land? A late fee only creates leverage once it is a posted invoice, because that is what enters your customer's accounts payable and their payment run.
3. Is the price on invoices or on turnover? Revenue-based pricing means a low-volume, high-value business pays enterprise money for a small problem.
4. Can you vary rules by customer group, or is there one global setting? Retainer clients and 60-day trade accounts should not get the same treatment.
5. Can you exclude a single disputed invoice without switching the whole customer out of automation?
6. How often does it sync? A once-a-day sync means a payment this morning can still be chased this afternoon, and that is the email customers remember.

Ask us which one fits

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 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.

Common questions

What is debtor management?
Debtor management is the process of making sure customers who owe you money pay on time: setting terms of trade, sending invoices and reminders, tracking accounts receivable by age, applying any agreed fees, and escalating overdue accounts. Debtor management software automates the reminders, statements and follow-up from the invoices already in your accounting software.

What is the best online accounting software for small businesses in New Zealand?
Xero is the ledger every tool on this list connects to, and the source of the New Zealand payment data in this guide. MYOB and QuickBooks Online are the other cloud options, though QuickBooks Online is not localised for New Zealand tax. Debtor management software sits on top of whichever one you use.

How much do collection agencies charge in NZ?
Rates vary by agency, by the age and size of the debt, and by whether they charge a commission on what is recovered or a fixed fee per debt. None of the six tools above is a collection agency. Two of them, CreditorWatch Collect and ezyCollect, can refer a debt to one, and iCollect works alongside one for demand letters.

What are some good debt collection apps?
For recovering a debt that is already overdue, iCollect runs a fixed collection process from Xero, and CreditorWatch Collect and ezyCollect can hand a debt to a collection partner. For stopping invoices reaching that point, Paidnice and Chaser automate reminders, statements and fees from the ledger so fewer debts need collecting at all.

Can I charge late payment interest in New Zealand?
Yes, if your terms of trade provide for it. New Zealand has no statutory late payment interest rate for business-to-business invoices, so the charge stands on your terms of trade and the amount should be reasonable. Paidnice applies the fee or interest to the Xero invoice once it is in your terms. Clause wording is in late fees in New Zealand.

Is there a free trial?
Paidnice has a free action period rather than a timed trial. Signing up is free, the first 20 actions are free with no time limit, and no card is needed. An action is anything Paidnice performs: an email or SMS sent, an escalation created or a late charge generated. Chaser, CreditorWatch Collect, ezyCollect and FeeSynergy each offer a time-limited trial.

Written by

Denym Bird

Co-founder & CEO of Paidnice

Denym is a software entrepreneur and writes about accounts receivables management for small business.

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