Xero announced the Global App Awards 2026 finalists this week, and Paidnice is a finalist in four categories. We are one of four apps shortlisted for Innovation App of the Year, alongside ShiftCare, Weel, and XBert. We are also a finalist for Small Business App of the Year in the United Kingdom, the United States, and New Zealand. 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 manually. 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.
Free: Payment reminder email templatesCopy the reminder emails for before, on and after the due date.What the Innovation category recognizes
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.
Finalist in three regional Small Business categories
The Small Business App of the Year awards are judged market by market. Paidnice is a finalist in three of them:
- United Kingdom Small Business App of the Year
- United States Small Business App of the Year
- New Zealand Small Business App of the Year
Three markets, three separate shortlists, one product. That is the part we are proudest of, because getting paid does not work the same way everywhere. The UK has statutory interest and compensation set in law. The US and New Zealand run on the terms written into your contract. A credit control system has to enforce whichever set applies, in the customer's currency and language, without the finance team rebuilding the process each time.
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 half as many late invoices in the first 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.
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. This year the same category puts us on the shortlist in three more markets, and Innovation is new ground. Finalist isn't winner. But for a small bootstrapped team, recognition two years running, in four categories, is a strong signal that the work matters.
Congratulations to ShiftCare, Weel, and XBert, and to every finalist in the regional Small Business categories. 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.
Paidnice features in this article
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.
App of the Year