Payment Reminders

Payment Reminders

Chasing payments is nobody's idea of fun. TrailerBase automates reminders so you can set a reasonable cadence, step back, and only get involved when an invoice truly warrants a phone call.

Where to configure

Open Settings > Invoicing > Reminders. You will find a handful of knobs:

• First reminder — how many days after the due date to send the first nudge (N days).
• Follow-up cadence — how often to send subsequent reminders (M days). Common choice is weekly.
• Maximum reminders — the cap. After this many, automated sending stops and the invoice goes into a manual-review queue.
• BCC address — optionally BCC the account owner or an accounting inbox on every reminder. Handy for keeping a paper trail outside TrailerBase.
• Send window — limit reminders to business hours in your workspace timezone.

Changes apply to all future reminders; already-queued ones are recalculated.

The cadence in practice

Here is a typical setup:

• Day 0 — invoice due.
• Day 3 — first reminder (gentle, "we haven't seen payment yet").
• Day 10 — second reminder (firmer).
• Day 17 — third reminder (includes late-fee warning).
• Day 24 — fourth reminder (mentions collections).
• Day 30 — stop automated sending; invoice flagged in the Overdue tab for manual handling.

You can tune every step to your business.

Reminder templates

Each reminder pulls from a template. TrailerBase ships with three — Friendly, Firm, and Final — tuned for different tones. You can customize each in Settings > Invoicing > Templates:

• Subject line (with {{invoice_number}} and {{days_overdue}} placeholders)
• Body copy
• Signature

A well-written friendly reminder often gets the payment without needing the firmer ones.

Pause per-invoice

Sometimes you negotiate an exception — a renter is traveling, a commercial account is on a different payment schedule, a dispute is being resolved. Open the invoice, click Pause reminders, and optionally pick a resume date. The invoice will skip the automated cadence until the pause expires or you manually resume.

Paused invoices show a grey pause icon in the Overdue tab so it is obvious nothing is going out automatically.

Per-renter overrides

For commercial accounts with negotiated terms, you can set a reminder profile at the renter level that overrides workspace defaults. For example, "don't send reminders to commercial accounts until 14 days overdue." Profiles live on the renter's Financials tab.

What each reminder contains

Every reminder email includes:

• A greeting using the renter's first name.
• A one-line summary: "Invoice INV-1042 for $1,250 is 10 days overdue."
• A Pay Now button linking to the public invoice page.
• The invoice PDF attached.
• Your configured signature.

The more reminders sent, the more prominent the total due and the due-date language become. By the final reminder, the subject line is direct: "Final notice — Invoice INV-1042 is 24 days overdue."

Tracking

Every reminder sent is logged to the invoice's activity feed with the timestamp and the template used. Event tracking (Viewed, Paid) continues to fire, so you can see which reminder finally got the renter's attention. This data rolls up into a Reminder Effectiveness report — useful when deciding whether to tighten or loosen the cadence.

Stopping all reminders

If you decide a specific invoice shouldn't be chased anymore (a write-off, a concession), open the invoice and choose Mark uncollectible. All queued reminders cancel and the invoice moves out of active AR.

A good reminder cadence is fire-and-forget. Configure it once, trust it, and enjoy the quiet of a month-end where most invoices came in without a single phone call.