How to Review Open Invoices and Send Payment Reminders

You may be asking “Why is there a need to review open invoices”? 

You want to get paid of course! There is, however, more to it than being able to pay your bills. If you let overdue payments pile up, it can greatly impact the way you run your business. Keeping a close eye on open invoices benefits you greatly when it comes to getting paid faster and on time.  

Things you can do to stay on track:

• Stay organized with your accounts receivable
• Assign this task to a trusted team member
• Have a review process in place
• Create a plan on how to handle late payments 

Today, I want to show you how QuickBooks Online automates this process for you through the different tools and techniques you can incorporate into your daily workflow. My goal is to help you feel confident in managing any open or overdue payments by the end of this article!

Let’s get started with reviewing open and overdue invoices! This is super important as it allows you to see how much is due and highlight any overdue invoices that may require a follow-up. 

First, you’ll want to navigate to the Sales tab in the left-hand corner. From there, you’ll go to the All Sales section where you’ll be able to view all open invoices. The total number of open invoices and total amount owed to you are displayed in the orange and grey header boxes.

If you want to sort invoices chronologically, you can do so by going to “Status” from the “Invoices” tab on the top bar. Doing this allows you to quickly identify where you should focus your efforts first or in a way that makes the most sense for your business.

Another option for viewing open invoices is through a report. First, go to the Reports tab. From there, find the search bar and type in “Open Invoices”. You’ll then want to set the report criteria to “All Dates” and “Current” so you see all current outstanding invoices. 

 Pro Tip: To help streamline this whole process, you can schedule this report on a regular basis so you don't even have to do any extra work to see who owes you money. 

To schedule the report, click the “save customization” button in the corner. Give the report a name and decide who gets access to the data.

Nicely done! After saving your customization, you can go back to the Reports Tab and open your Customer Reports sub-tab. Your new report will be at the top of the list. Click the edit button next to the report. 

Enable the “Set email schedule” option and set the recurrence for how often you’d like this report emailed to you and your team.

You’re all set!

Now let’s take a look at how to go about Sending Payment Reminders and Balance Forward statements as Batch Actions.   

It’s important to remember that you want to maintain positive relationships with your customers. So being gentle and empathetic when managing this process is key! 

 Let’s first start with an email:

While you’re on the Customers sub-tab, sort the list by clicking the orange “Overdue” or grey “Open Invoice” boxes in the header. This filters for customers with open or overdue invoices. Check the boxes next to each customer you want to contact, and then click the Batch Action drop-down at the top. Lastly, select “Email.”

Pro tip: Craft your email with care. Be professional but firm if it is a recently overdue invoice. Make sure to add the word “Overdue” somewhere in the subject line. 

Another option is to send reminder messages:

You can edit your default email reminder message by clicking the Gear Icon in the top right-hand corner and selecting Accounts and Settings. Then navigate to the “Sales” Tab and scroll down to “Reminders”. 

To then send the reminder message, you’ll want to go back to the Customers Tab and filter the list for “Overdue invoices” again. On each customer line, on the right-hand side, you will see a “Send Reminder” action. Do this for every customer with an overdue invoice.

Great job! 

If your emails and reminder messages go unanswered, you can send a “Balance Forward” statement for a stronger message. I do recommend you only use this as a last resort after trying both of the options shown above.  

For more info on these statements, check out this article on how to Create and send Balance Forward statements in QuickBooks Online.

Lastly, make sure to review your invoices on a regular basis, use reports and reminder messages if needed, and ask yourself if the processes you have in place are working. If you keep these tips in mind, you will start getting paid faster and be more successful in running your business! 

I hope this was a helpful guide for you when it comes to reviewing open and overdue transactions, as well as sending payment reminders. Like always, feel free to ask any questions you may still have here in the Community.