Summary
Xero cannot skip weekends or set a send time for invoice reminders. A reminder due on day 3 goes out on a Saturday if day 3 is a Saturday, at whatever time Xero's queue runs. Paidnice for Xero adds a Weekdays schedule option and an Action Time setting on every reminder policy to fix both.
- The gap: Xero's reminder schedule counts calendar days only and has no send-time setting, so reminders land on Saturdays, Sundays and at hours you did not choose.
- The fix: In Paidnice, set the policy schedule to Weekdays instead of Days and add an Action Time, for example 09:00, under the More Options and Filters tab.
- What Xero is building: Xero's product idea 'Invoice reminders - Custom date and time' holds 46 votes and moved to In development on 8 September 2026, with no release date given.
Can Xero skip invoice reminders on the weekend?
No. Xero's invoice reminders fire on every calendar day, including Saturday and Sunday, and Xero has no setting for the time of day a reminder is sent. The built-in feature does one job: "remind me X days before or after the due date". It has three structural gaps.
- No weekend skip. A reminder set to "3 days after due date" goes out on a Saturday if that is day 3.
- No send time. You cannot tell Xero "send at 9am" or "send during business hours". Xero decides when it processes the queue.
- No customer segmentation. Every overdue contact gets the same schedule, whether they are a long-standing client on a payment plan or a new account that is two months late.
Xero knows about the gap. The product idea Invoice reminders - Custom date and time holds 46 votes, and on 8 September 2026 Xero's community manager moved it to "In development", pointing to JAX follow-up plans that pick the "channel, timing and tone" for each customer. No release date was given, and the update describes an AI plan per contact rather than a plain weekday and send-time setting.
How do I stop Xero sending reminders on weekends without a third-party app?
Inside Xero there are two options, and neither is clean: turn the reminder schedule off by hand before each weekend and back on each Monday, or set a wider day count so fewer reminders fall on a Saturday or Sunday. A "7 days before" reminder instead of "3 days before" still lands on the weekend one week in seven, because Xero counts calendar days.
Turning the schedule off also stops every other reminder for every customer, and forgetting to turn it back on is the usual result. The reliable fix is a connected app that counts weekdays instead of days.
How to send Xero invoice reminders on weekdays only
Paidnice for Xero replaces the reminder layer with a policy editor that counts time in weekdays. You do not migrate invoices, customers or branding. Paidnice reads the data already in Xero and sends on top of it.
When you create or edit a reminder policy, a dropdown controls how the schedule counts time:
- Days. Calendar days, the same as Xero's default. Saturday counts.
- Weekdays. Monday to Friday only. The reminder skips the weekend automatically.
- Days (or later). Fires on day X, or the next available day if blocked.
- Weekdays (or later). Fires on weekday X, or the next valid weekday.
A "3 weekdays before the due date" reminder for an invoice due on a Tuesday fires the previous Thursday, not the previous Saturday. A "5 weekdays after the due date" reminder for an invoice that became overdue on a Wednesday fires the following Wednesday, never the weekend in between.
How to set a send time for Xero invoice reminders
Paidnice sets the send time per policy under Action Time, inside the More Options & Filters tab. You pick an hour from a dropdown (08:00, 09:00, 10:00, on through the working day) and the reminder fires at that hour in your company timezone.
Patterns Paidnice customers use:
- 09:00 for early reminders. Sent first thing, read with the morning inbox.
- 10:00 or 11:00 for overdue notices. Lands after the customer has cleared the first morning sweep, so it gets attention rather than an archive click.
- 14:00 for final notices and escalations. Lines up with after-lunch admin time.
With Weekdays and Action Time set, customers stop getting payment reminders at 6am on a Saturday. They get a professional message during business hours, on a working day.
Why do weekend reminders cost you money?
Weekend reminders are a deliverability problem and a relationship problem. Saturday and Sunday emails get buried by Monday's inbox sweep, so open rates drop. Customers tell us a reminder that lands on a weekend or evening feels pushier than the same wording on a Tuesday morning, and a reminder at the wrong moment is more likely to draw a "why are you hassling me" reply than a payment.
Paidnice customers cut their average wait for payment in half within 30 days, and cut overdue invoices by 70% in their first 30 days. The schedule change is one small piece of that, but it sets the tone for everything else in the reminder ladder. Paidnice was named 2025 Xero Global Small Business App of the Year and won New Zealand Small Business App of the Year at the 2026 Xero Global App Awards.
What else the same policy settings change
Once the weekend problem is fixed, the same policy editor tunes the rest of the reminder workflow without custom rules.
- Custom email and SMS reminder templates that send from your own domain, so they are less likely to land in spam.
- Automated SMS payment reminders for customers who do not open email.
- Automated customer statements that go out monthly without anyone touching Xero.
- Scheduled and customized invoice sends, so the original invoice lands at a sensible time too.
- Customer segmentation by group, tag, line item, reference or invoice age, so VIP clients and slow payers do not get the same treatment.
- Late fee automation that respects local rules (UK late fees auto-cap at Bank of England base rate plus 8% per annum).
If you are weighing alternatives, our Chaser alternative page walks through the differences, and our accounts receivable automation overview covers the full feature set.
Common questions
Does Paidnice replace Xero's reminders, or run alongside them?
It replaces them. Switch Xero's built-in reminders off once your policies are in Paidnice, otherwise customers can get two emails for the same invoice.
What timezone do the reminders use?
Your company timezone, set in Paidnice. If your business is in Melbourne, 09:00 means 09:00 AEST/AEDT, not 09:00 in your customer's timezone. Most teams want it that way: the reminder reads as "from us, during our hours".
Can I have different send times for different customers?
Yes. Each reminder policy has its own Action Time, and policies can be scoped to specific customer groups, tags or invoice references.
Does this work with QuickBooks too?
Yes. Paidnice supports both Xero and QuickBooks Online, and the Weekdays plus Action Time settings work the same way on both.
Close the gap, starting Monday morning
Setting up weekday-only reminders takes about five minutes inside Paidnice. The policy editor is the one shown in the screenshots above: pick Weekdays, add Action Time, save.
Signing up to Paidnice is free, with no credit card needed, and there is a one-click install on the Xero App Store. You do not need to migrate anything. Paidnice reads your existing Xero data and starts closing the gap between invoice and payment from the next reminder onwards.
Install Paidnice from the Xero App Store →
Stop chasing invoices.
Start getting paid.
Paidnice is accounts receivable automation that enforces your payment terms, trusted by thousands of businesses on Xero and QuickBooks. Credit control and debtor management, run for you.
Try it Now - It's FreeNo card required.
