Summary
Xero has no native setting that automatically emails a payment-received thank you when an invoice is marked paid; a receipt can only be sent manually from the payment screen. Paidnice adds the automation as a Xero App Store add-on: connect Xero, create an Email Policy with the trigger Invoice Marked Paid, and the email sends itself.
- The gap: Xero's Send Receipt option is a manual, one-off action on each payment, and the open Xero ideas-board request to send it automatically has not been built.
- The fix: In Paidnice, create an Email Policy with the trigger Invoice Marked Paid and a thank-you template that uses dynamic fields for the customer name, invoice number and amount.
- Timing: Send it on the date marked paid, immediately or at a set time of day, or a set number of days after payment for a follow-up or survey.
Does Xero send an automatic payment received email?
Xero does not send an automatic payment received email. When an invoice is marked paid or a payment is reconciled, nothing goes to the customer unless someone opens the payment and chooses Send Receipt, one payment at a time. At 150 paid invoices a month, the volume the Paidnice Essentials plan covers, that is 150 manual receipts or none.
The request comes up on Xero Central every month, in the same words: "I could not find a way to set up an automated 'Thank you for payment message' email that gets sent out once a payment is allocated." (Samantha H., Xero Central.) Xero has not built an automatic receipt email.
The email matters for a plain reason: a customer who gets no confirmation sends a "did you get my payment?" email, and someone on your team answers it. An automatic thank-you closes the loop, cuts those queries, and shows the customer that a prompt payment was noticed.
Free: Payment reminder email templatesCopy the reminder emails for before, on and after the due date.How to set up an automatic thank you for payment email in Xero with Paidnice
An automatic thank-you email for a paid Xero invoice is set up in Paidnice as an Email Policy with the trigger Invoice Marked Paid. Connect your Xero organisation, create the policy, choose a template and a send time, and every invoice that is marked paid from then on gets the email. Four steps:
1. Create your Email Policy
Log into Paidnice and go to Default Group → Email Policies → + New Email Policy. Select "Invoice Marked Paid" as the trigger event. The Default Group covers every contact and every future invoice, so one policy is enough to start.
2. Customise your "thank you for payment" message
Paidnice provides a default thank-you template. Edit it to add:
- Your company logo.
- Dynamic fields that fill themselves in: customer name, invoice number, amount paid.
- A thank-you in your own words.
- Optional: a link to your customer portal or a note on what happens next.
Templates are type-restricted, so a thank-you template can only be used on a paid-invoice trigger, never on a pre-due reminder by mistake.
3. Set your timing
Choose when the email sends: immediately on payment, or at a set time of day. For reconciled payments, "On The Date Marked Paid" delivers it the same day. The trigger also runs a set number of days after the date marked paid, which is how a one-week follow-up or a short survey is scheduled.
4. Test before going live
Use the preview to see exactly what your customer will receive, and send a test to yourself. Policies can run in Manual mode first, where each send waits as Pending for your approval, and switch to Auto once you are happy with the output.
Does the thank-you email send from my own address?
On the Pro plan and above, Paidnice sends the thank-you email from your own domain, authenticated by DNS records you publish once, with no login to your Gmail or Outlook mailbox. That is a different setup from a Zapier or Make chain that connects to a personal mailbox: there is no per-mailbox OAuth connection, the mailbox provider's daily sending limit does not apply, and any bounce lands on the sending domain's reputation rather than on the everyday inbox of the person who set it up. Delivery is tracked per email: delivered, opened, clicked and bounced.
What else can the Invoice Marked Paid trigger do?
The Invoice Marked Paid trigger can attach files, send a delayed follow-up, and vary the message by customer group. Once the basic thank-you is running, the options that get used most are:
- Attachments: the invoice PDF from Xero, any ledger attachments, and custom files from your Files library such as a receipt template or terms. Keep each file under 5MB and the total under 10MB.
- Different messages for different customers: contact groups each carry their own policies, and tags include or exclude a customer from a policy inside a group, so key accounts or a second language get their own template.
- A delayed follow-up: a second policy on the same trigger, set to a number of days after the date marked paid, for a "thank you for your business" note or a survey.
Signing up is free with no credit card, and the Xero connection takes two clicks. Set up the first policy with the steps above, then start sending automatic payment thank-you emails.
FAQ: Xero payment confirmation emails
Can I send payment confirmation emails natively in Xero?
No. Xero does not send an automatic email when an invoice is marked paid or reconciled. Send Receipt is a manual action on each payment, and the ideas-board request for an automatic version is still open. Paidnice's Xero integration adds the automation.
How quickly does the confirmation email send after payment?
On the immediate setting, the email goes out as soon as Paidnice sees the invoice marked paid in Xero. You can instead set a time of day, so payments reconciled overnight get their thank-you during business hours.
Can I customise emails for different customer types?
Yes. A customer sits in one contact group, and each group has its own policies and templates. Tags handle the exceptions inside a group, so a policy can include or exclude tagged customers without a new group.
Can I include the invoice or a receipt?
Yes. A policy can attach the invoice PDF from Xero, the invoice's ledger attachments, and custom files from your Files library, within the 5MB per file and 10MB total limits. The customer portal link in the email gives them their paid invoices for download at any time.
Can I see if the customer opened the thank-you email?
Yes. Every email records delivered, opened, clicked and bounced, and the figures show in your Paidnice reporting.
Related Articles:
- Solved: How to Automatically Send Statements in Xero
- Xero Invoice Reminders: Email, SMS and Escalations
- Xero Accounts Receivable Automation
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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.
Ashley is a co-founder and lead developer of Paidnice and has built accounting software for more than 10 years. He builds the ledger connections that put reminders, late fees and payments into Xero, QuickBooks and ERPs such as NetSuite and Business Central. Before Paidnice he co-founded A2X, ecommerce accounting software for Xero and QuickBooks.
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