Summary
An overdue invoice usually goes unchased for one of eight reasons: it is frozen, it is paid or not approved, the customer is in a group the rule does not cover, there is no email address, a payment promise or an open query is holding it, Safe Mode is on, or the rule is still in Draft. Each one has a quick check and a fix.
- Check the hold first: Frozen invoices and contacts, payment promises and open queries all pause chasing on purpose.
- Then the rule: Safe Mode, a Draft or Inactive policy, the wrong group, or a start date after the invoice was due.
- Then the timing: Reminders are not sent late. If the send date passed before the invoice arrived, it is skipped.
A customer calls to say they never got a reminder, and the invoice is well past due. You check and they are right: nothing went out.
We see this question often in support, and the answer is rarely a bug. A setting, a hold or a gap in the data stopped the reminder, and it did exactly what it was told.
Here are the common reasons an invoice was not chased, how to spot each one in a minute, and how to fix it so the next reminder goes.
Free: Payment reminder email templatesCopy the reminder emails for before, on and after the due date.The quick check: eight reasons and their fixes
Work down this list in order. The first four are holds that pause chasing on purpose. The rest are settings or data.
| Reason | How to spot it | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| The invoice or customer is frozen | A padlock or "frozen" banner on the invoice or contact | Unfreeze it, after checking why it was frozen |
| It is paid, or not approved | Status in Xero or QuickBooks is Paid, Draft or Voided | Nothing to chase, or approve the invoice |
| A payment promise is open | A promised date on the invoice | Wait for the date, or close the promise |
| A query is open | A dispute or query flag on the invoice | Resolve the query |
| The customer is in another group | The contact's group has no reminder rule | Move the customer, or add the rule to that group |
| No email address | The primary contact has no email | Add the email in your accounting system |
| Safe Mode is on | A Safe Mode banner or toggle in the header | Turn it off when you are ready to send |
| The rule is in Draft or Inactive | Actions waiting on the Draft tab, or no actions at all | Approve the drafts, or set the rule to Active |
Why is my invoice frozen?
An invoice is frozen when someone froze it manually, when its customer was frozen, or when the system froze it to protect you. Frozen means no policies apply: no reminders, no fees, no escalations.
Customers often find frozen invoices by surprise. We have seen tickets about all invoices showing as frozen and old paid invoices still frozen.
In Paidnice, a paid invoice that becomes unpaid again, usually because a payment was reversed in the ledger, is frozen automatically so the customer does not get a reminder out of the blue. It stays frozen until someone unfreezes it.
Paidnice can also freeze an invoice until its expected payment date if you switch that setting on, and a failed direct debit freezes the invoice until you fix it. Filter the invoice list by frozen status to see every frozen invoice in one list.
Was it paid, promised or disputed?
A reminder rule stops when the invoice is paid, and it waits when the customer has promised a date or raised a query, if the rule is set to skip those. That is usually what you want.
- Paid: reminders stop. If the payment is not in Xero or QuickBooks yet, the invoice still looks unpaid and will be chased.
- Promised: with "skip when payment promised" on, the reminder waits until the promised date.
- Queried: with "skip while a query is open" on, nothing goes until the query is resolved.
Our guide to a broken promise to pay covers what to do when the promised date passes with no payment.
Is the customer outside the rule's group or dates?
A customer only gets the rules attached to their own group. If a customer was moved into a group with no reminder rule, or into a group set up as a "do not chase" list, nothing goes. Moving a customer drops the old group's rules straight away.
Dates are the other half. A rule can have a start date, a due date range, a minimum amount or a contact tag filter that leaves the invoice out. In Paidnice, new late fee and discount policies start with "Applies to invoices due from" set three months back, so older invoices get nothing until you move it.
Did the send date pass before the invoice arrived?
Reminders are not sent late. If an invoice reaches your chasing tool after the date a reminder was due, that reminder is skipped, and the next one in the sequence goes as normal.
This catches backdated invoices and invoices approved a few days after they were raised. In Paidnice, a rule set to Days (or later) or Weekdays (or later) sends anyway, up to 30 days late, and reminders counted from the issue date get two days of slack.
Is Safe Mode on, or the rule in Draft?
Safe Mode holds every automatic send in the account, and a Draft rule holds its own sends until someone approves them. Both are easy to forget once setup is finished.
We saw a statement interest policy fail to run on the 1st of the month because the account was still in Safe Mode. The drafts are the other trap: Paidnice sends no notification when new drafts arrive, so they sit on the Actions page until someone looks.
Is there anyone to send it to?
A reminder needs an email address on the primary contact, or a valid mobile number for SMS. If "only send to primary contact" is on and that person has no email, nothing goes to anyone else at the customer.
Missing addresses usually start in the accounting system, so fix them there and let the next sync bring them across. For a whole group, Paidnice flags how many customers have a primary contact with no email or no mobile.
What if Xero or QuickBooks sent it, not your tool?
Sometimes the question is the other way round: a customer got a reminder you did not expect. If it is not on your tool's actions list, it came from Xero or QuickBooks. One customer with Safe Mode on reported reminders going out; they were Xero's own default reminders, switched on in Xero's settings.
Xero has its own reasons for skipping a reminder, such as an invoice not marked as sent. See why a Xero invoice reminder did not send for that list.
How Paidnice tells you why an invoice was not chased
Open the invoice in Paidnice and go to Preview Policies. The Applicable Policy results table lists every policy in the customer's group with a tick or a cross and the reason. The Actions page shows anything that failed, with a note saying why, such as "Contact has no email address" or "Invoice is frozen".
You can also ask the Paidnice assistant in plain words, such as "why didn't INV-1042 get a reminder". It checks each policy against the invoice and tells you the reason: a policy that is inactive, a customer in a group the policy is not attached to, a grace period that has not passed, or a frozen invoice.
If the reason is not clear from what it can see, it says so. Read more about AI in Paidnice's accounts receivable tools, and set up automated reminders once the cause is fixed.
💡 Paidnice insight
Most "not chased" invoices were held on purpose by a freeze, a promise or a query. Check the holds before you change a rule, or you may switch chasing back on for a customer someone agreed to leave alone.
Frequently asked questions
Does Safe Mode override an Active policy?
Yes. Safe Mode holds every automatic send in the account, including Active policies and approved drafts. A one-off send from an invoice still goes.
Why are all my invoices frozen?
Check whether the contact is frozen, which stops every invoice for that customer, and whether payments were reversed in the ledger. In Paidnice, nothing unfreezes on its own, so a frozen invoice stays frozen after it is paid.
Will a skipped reminder catch up later?
No. A reminder whose date has passed is not sent late, unless the rule is set to "or later". The next reminder in the sequence still goes on its own date.
Why did the reminder go to only one person at the customer?
Reminders go to the primary contact, plus other contact people only if they are set to be included in emails. Check the contact people on the customer record.
Can I send a reminder now for an invoice that was skipped?
Yes. Open the invoice and send a reminder manually. In Paidnice a one-off send goes even when the invoice is frozen or Safe Mode is on, though a frozen contact blocks it. Check why it was held first.
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About the editorial team
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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