Why are my Xero invoice reminders not being sent?

Xero lists the causes itself: the invoice is not marked as sent, the contact has no email address, reminders were turned off for that customer or invoice, the reminder was turned on after its send date had passed, the invoice was recorded as paid by mistake, or the due date was changed so the reminder date had passed. The invoice history under History & Notes gives the date and time each reminder was scheduled or sent, and the Reminders column shows Email missing, Invoice not sent or Turned off.

Do Xero reminders catch up if I turn them on late?

No. Xero documents that a reminder switched on after its scheduled date is not sent, and that a day's reminders are not sent and do not catch up if reminders were turned off during the 4am to 8am sending window and switched back on later, even if the invoice due date is changed. The next scheduled reminder goes out as usual.

What time do Xero invoice reminders go out?

Every day between 4am and 8am in your organisation's time zone. Turn reminders on before 4am and that day's run goes out the same day; turn them on after 8am and it goes the following morning. Nothing in the schedule is instant, which is worth knowing before deciding a reminder is missing.

How many reminders can one organisation have in Xero?

Up to five, and Xero sets three up for you when you turn reminders on. They run on one schedule for every customer, and you can edit or delete any of them, including the defaults.

Does this app work with Xero?

No. There is no Xero integration: this app raises its own invoices and chases those. If your invoices are raised in Xero, they stay there and this app cannot send reminders for them. What it can hand over is a CSV export of the payments received, shaped for your BAS, so the bookkeeping still lands somewhere your accountant can use.

Should I change tools because the reminders are not going out?

Usually not. A reminder that is not going out is nearly always a setting, and the invoice history says which one. Fix that first. Moving your invoicing to a different product is worth doing when the chasing itself is what keeps slipping, not when one checkbox is off.

Xero invoice reminders not sending? What to check first

Most of the time a reminder has not been lost. It was never sent, for one of a small number of reasons that Xero records on the invoice itself. Here is where to look, in the order that finds the answer fastest.

Updated 3 October 2026

The short answer

In Xero, a scheduled reminder is only sent for an invoice that has been marked as sent, where the contact has an email address on file and reminders have not been turned off for that customer or invoice. Xero shows the reason on the invoice: the statuses are the number sent, All sent, Email missing, Invoice not sent and Turned off, and the invoice history gives the date and time each reminder was scheduled or sent. Turning reminders on after the reminder date has passed does not send the missed one, and it does not catch up.

Why a scheduled reminder does not go out

Xero documents the conditions and the reasons, and they are worth knowing before you start changing settings, because the cause is usually visible on the invoice. A reminder goes out for an invoice that has been marked as sent, where the contact has an email address, where the amount owing is above any minimum set in your reminder settings, and where reminders have not been turned off at the organisation, customer or invoice level.

Where one of those is not true, Xero shows it in the Reminders column on the Invoices screen, and its own list of causes reads like this:

The invoice is not marked as sent. The status reads "Invoice not sent", and marking the invoice as sent is what turns its reminders on.
The customer has no email address on the contact. The status reads "Email missing", because Xero cannot remind an address it does not hold.
Reminders were switched off for that customer or that invoice. The status reads "Turned off".
The reminder was turned on too late. Xero lists this as a cause: a reminder turned on the same day it was due to go out, or turned on after the invoice passed its reminder date, is not sent at all.
The invoice was recorded as paid by mistake, or its due date was moved so the reminder date had already passed.

What to check, in this order

Open the invoice and read its history. Sales, Invoices, the Awaiting Payment tab, then the invoice itself: the current reminder status sits under History & Notes, and Show History gives the date and time each reminder was scheduled or sent. That single screen answers the question most of the time.
Check the Reminders column on the Awaiting Payment tab for the other unpaid invoices, to see whether one invoice is a one-off or the whole schedule has stopped. The column only appears once Xero has tried to send a reminder, or when a customer has reminders turned off.
Check the contact. The reminder goes to the primary person on the contact, plus anyone else in the contact record with the Include in emails option ticked. A missing address, or a reminder going to an address nobody reads, both look like a broken app from the outside.
Check the three switches, because they are independent: the organisation setting under Sales settings, Invoice settings, Invoice reminders; the customer record; and the individual invoice. A single invoice can have reminders off while everything else is on, for instance on a partly paid invoice you have already spoken to the customer about.
If the history gives no reason, Xero's own advice is to contact Xero Support. At that point it is a support question rather than a setting you have missed.

The two timing traps that look like a fault

The second trap is the same fact seen from the other side. If a reminder was due on day 7 and reminders were off when the invoice was 6 days overdue, turning them back on at day 8 does not send the day 7 email. The day 14 and day 21 reminders then go out as usual. That is Xero's documented behaviour rather than a fault, and it is the answer to a lot of "why did my customer only get two of the four" questions.

One more thing worth knowing: the Reminders column is not live. It updates when Xero is next scheduled to send a reminder, so a change you make this afternoon may not show on that screen until tomorrow's run. The invoice history is the more reliable place to look.

What the reminder settings are built to do

These are the documented limits, and they explain the shape of the feature rather than a fault. Xero sets up three default reminders when you turn reminders on, and an organisation can have up to five. They run on one schedule shared by every customer, so a customer who needs pressing harder than the rest needs a different tool rather than a different setting. Replies go to the address of whoever switched reminders on, unless that is changed. And reminders are designed to stop: once the last one has gone out, the invoice sits until a person notices it.

None of that makes it a bad feature. It is a sensible default for a piece of bookkeeping software, where reminders are a setting rather than the job.

Where Xero is the better answer

If your problem is the books, Xero is the right tool and this page does not change that. Bank feeds, reconciliation, GST and BAS reporting, payroll, and the file your accountant wants to work in are all things it does and this app does not. Where a reminder is not going out, the honest advice is to fix the setting first: moving invoicing to a different product to solve a checkbox is an expensive way to spend an afternoon.

The case for a different tool is narrower than the comparison pages make out. It only applies if the chasing itself is what keeps being missed.

What changes when the chasing is the product

The invoice app at paychasey.com.au is built the other way around. The invoice and its schedule are the same record, so there is no separate reminder switch to leave off:

Four reminders after the due date, at 3, 10, 21 and 35 days. They go out on their own, and sending stops the moment the invoice is paid.
After the fourth, no further email goes to the client. The invoice moves to a phone list, so the last step is a short list of people to ring rather than another email nobody answers.
If a client asks to stop receiving reminders, that is recorded on the client as an opt-out rather than quietly ignored, so a stopped reminder has a reason attached to it.
Every message goes out to the address on the invoice, and the invoice carries a PDF and a payment link, so the reminder and the way to pay arrive together.
Card payments go into your own Stripe account. The app never holds your money and takes no cut of it.
Three invoices a month are free with no card, and $29 a month covers up to 1,000 invoices a month.

Before you move anything, two plain statements

This app is not accounting software and there is no Xero integration. It raises its own invoices and chases them; it does not read, import or chase the invoices already in your Xero file. If you invoice from Xero today, then chasing those invoices from here would mean raising them here instead, and handing your accountant the export of what came in.

And if your reminders are arriving and your clients are paying, leave it alone. The point of either tool is that the money arrives without you thinking about it, and whichever one does that for you is the right one.

If the chasing is the part that keeps slipping, the free plan is three invoices a month with no card.

Start free

Questions people ask

Why are my Xero invoice reminders not being sent?: Xero lists the causes itself: the invoice is not marked as sent, the contact has no email address, reminders were turned off for that customer or invoice, the reminder was turned on after its send date had passed, the invoice was recorded as paid by mistake, or the due date was changed so the reminder date had passed. The invoice history under History & Notes gives the date and time each reminder was scheduled or sent, and the Reminders column shows Email missing, Invoice not sent or Turned off.
Do Xero reminders catch up if I turn them on late?: No. Xero documents that a reminder switched on after its scheduled date is not sent, and that a day's reminders are not sent and do not catch up if reminders were turned off during the 4am to 8am sending window and switched back on later, even if the invoice due date is changed. The next scheduled reminder goes out as usual.
What time do Xero invoice reminders go out?: Every day between 4am and 8am in your organisation's time zone. Turn reminders on before 4am and that day's run goes out the same day; turn them on after 8am and it goes the following morning. Nothing in the schedule is instant, which is worth knowing before deciding a reminder is missing.
How many reminders can one organisation have in Xero?: Up to five, and Xero sets three up for you when you turn reminders on. They run on one schedule for every customer, and you can edit or delete any of them, including the defaults.
Does this app work with Xero?: No. There is no Xero integration: this app raises its own invoices and chases those. If your invoices are raised in Xero, they stay there and this app cannot send reminders for them. What it can hand over is a CSV export of the payments received, shaped for your BAS, so the bookkeeping still lands somewhere your accountant can use.
Should I change tools because the reminders are not going out?: Usually not. A reminder that is not going out is nearly always a setting, and the invoice history says which one. Fix that first. Moving your invoicing to a different product is worth doing when the chasing itself is what keeps slipping, not when one checkbox is off.