Paidnice named Innovation App of the Year finalist in the Xero Global App Awards 2026

Xero announced the Global App Awards 2026 finalists this week, and Paidnice is one of four apps shortlisted for Innovation App of the Year, alongside ShiftCare, Weel, and XBert. Winners are announced later in August.

The recognition reflects the work we have done since 2022 to build Paidnice into a mission-critical credit control system for businesses on Xero and QuickBooks: one that handles up to 90% of the busy work finance teams would otherwise do by hand. Rather than take our word for it, this post pairs each claim with what customers have written on the Xero App Store, where Paidnice holds a five-star average.

What the Innovation category recognises

Xero's Innovation App of the Year celebrates apps taking breakthrough approaches to how work gets done across the Xero App Store. Four apps made the 2026 shortlist.

The busy work, handled

Credit control is repetitive work that has to happen every day for a business to be paid on time: the reminder that goes out on schedule, the statement at month end, the late fee applied exactly as the payment terms say, the payment plan that keeps a struggling customer paying. Most small businesses never hire a credit controller, so that work lands on the finance team, and it gets done in the gaps between everything else.

Paidnice does that work automatically, and finance teams using it reduce manual chasing by up to 90%. In practice, that feels less like a tool and more like headcount:

Payment terms, applied consistently

The second thing a credit control system has to be is consistent. A person chasing invoices between other jobs applies the rules unevenly; the customer who pushes back gets left alone, and the polite one gets chased. Paidnice applies your payment terms the same way every time: late fees and interest to your rules, with UK statutory rates indexed automatically, reminders on schedule from your own domain, and escalation when the rules say so. Firm on the money, fair to the customer, because the same terms apply to everyone:

Built for real-world complexity

The part of the system advisors most often call rare is the configuration depth. Group companies that need consolidated parent and child statements. Reminders routed to the right contact at the right account. Chasing restricted to the windows a customer's accounts payable team actually works to. These are the setups that break simpler reminder tools:

The result across the customer base: manual chasing down by up to 90%, and the average wait for payment cut in half within 30 days.

The view across a whole client base

The strongest test of a credit control system is an advisor who has to make it work for many businesses at once, each with its own requirements. Irene Bennetts, founder and CEO of the bookkeeping firm Admin Army, has implemented Paidnice across her client base. Her review covers the whole span of what this post describes: the busy work, the consistent enforcement, and the complex setups.

IB

Irene Bennetts

🇳🇿 New Zealand

★★★★★

A standout in the Xero ecosystem

Paidnice has genuinely earned its spot as a standout in the Xero ecosystem. From day one, the integration was seamless. We were up and running with minimal fuss, which is exactly what you want when you're adding a new tool to the stack.

What set them apart early on was the onboarding experience. The team didn't just hand us a login and wish us luck. They walked us through setup properly, making sure we got the most out of the platform from the start.

They also actually listen. We've suggested features and seen them implemented. That's rare, and it matters. It tells you the team behind the product cares about building something that works in the real world, not just on a demo screen.

The feature set itself fills genuine gaps that Xero users have been frustrated by for years. Automated statement sending alone is worth the entry price. But it goes further: prompt payment discounts that apply automatically, late fees and interest that take care of themselves, and payment plans where every decision is clearly documented. For anyone who has ever had to chase a client for money, that documentation removes friction from what is already a difficult conversation.

Where Paidnice really shines is in its flexibility for complex setups. We've implemented it for clients who had written off finding a tool that could handle their specific needs. Parent companies receiving communications for all child accounts, chasing restricted to a specific 10-day window each month. These aren't edge cases to Paidnice. They're just configuration options.

It's practical, well-built, and backed by a team that keeps making it better.

Read all Paidnice reviews on the Xero App Store →

Last year's award set a high bar

In 2025, Paidnice won 🏆 Xero Global Small Business App of the Year, along with the Australian award in the same category. Different year, different category, and finalist isn't winner. But for a small bootstrapped team, recognition two years running is a strong signal that the work matters.

Congratulations to ShiftCare, Weel, and XBert. Good company to be in.

What happens next

Xero names the winners later in August 2026. I shared the announcement on LinkedIn if you'd like to follow along.

Whatever the result, the job stays the same: close the gap between invoice and payment. If you're new here, see how Paidnice works with Xero.

About Paidnice

Paidnice is accounts receivable automation for small and mid-sized businesses on Xero and QuickBooks. It closes the gap between invoice and payment by automating reminders, late fees, statements, payment plans, escalations, and customer self-service.

The company is headquartered in Auckland, with team members across New Zealand, Australia, and the Netherlands. In 2025 Paidnice was named Global Small Business App of the Year and Australia Small Business App of the Year at the Xero Global App Awards. Learn more at paidnice.com.

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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