Send reminders to a client who does not pay

When an invoice is past its due date, To Bill can send the reminders for you, firmer each time. Each reminder goes out by email with a PDF and a QR-bill that asks for what is still owed, fees included.

The three reminder levels

Level	Tone	Fees
Friendly reminder	A polite reminder: the payment is late.	None
Formal reminder	A second, firmer reminder.	The ones you set
Final notice	The last warning before debt collection.	The ones you set

Set up the reminders

1. Open Settings, then Invoice, and scroll down to Reminders.

2. Turn on Enable payment reminders so that To Bill sends the reminders automatically.

3. For each level, enter After how many days overdue it goes out. The days are counted from the invoice’s due date, not from the previous reminder.

4. Turn the Formal reminder and the Final notice on or off, and enter their Fee in CHF. The Friendly reminder never has a fee.

5. Click Save, at the top right.

   

These levels and their fees apply to all reminders: the ones To Bill sends automatically and the ones you send yourself. So you can still set them when automatic reminders are turned off.

Fees do not add up

A level’s fee replaces the previous level’s: the client only owes the fee of the last reminder sent. So for the Final notice, enter the total fees you are claiming. In the example above, the client owes CHF 20 after the formal reminder, then CHF 30 in all after the final notice.

Automatic reminders

When reminders are turned on, To Bill checks the overdue or partially paid invoices every morning. For each one, it sends the next level as soon as its number of days is reached, one level at a time. If the Formal reminder is turned off, the Final notice follows the friendly reminder directly. After the final notice, To Bill sends no more reminders.

The reminder goes to the email address of the client’s first contact, or failing that to the client’s email address. A client without an email address gets no automatic reminders.

No reminders are ever sent for invoices that are pending (not sent yet), cancelled, written off or imported, nor for invoices already settled.

Send a reminder yourself

1. Open the overdue invoice. Its main button is Send a reminder. It appears from the day after the due date, as long as an amount remains to be paid. For an invoice payable in several parts, the due date that counts is that of the oldest instalment still owed.
2. Choose the contact to send it to, or keep the client’s main address. The window shows the reminder that goes out, with its level and its fee, for example “Formal reminder — reminder fee CHF 20.00”.
3. Click Send reminder.

The reminder takes the level that follows the highest one already sent, among the levels turned on in your settings, with that level’s fee. If the Formal reminder is turned off, the Final notice follows the friendly reminder. Once all levels have been sent, a new reminder repeats the last level turned on.

This works even if automatic reminders are turned off. From the invoice list, tick one or more Overdue invoices, then click Send a reminder: each invoice gets its next level. To Bill then tells you how many reminders went out and which invoices it left aside: not yet due, nothing to pay, client without an email address, or imported invoice.

If the email cannot go out, the reminder does not count: it is not recorded, its fee is not claimed and the next reminder does not move up a level. Try again later.

What your client receives

• A Reminder, 2nd reminder or Final notice email, with the amount owed, the fees and a Pay Now button to their client portal.
• The reminder’s PDF: the invoice, the reminder fees and the interest on separate lines, the payments already received, the Remaining amount and a QR-bill for that total. The client pays everything in a single payment, with the invoice’s reference.

Follow an invoice’s reminders

On the invoice’s page, the Reminders section lists each reminder sent (1): its level, its date, its fee and the PDF to download. Next reminder shows the level and the date of the next automatic sending.

Each reminder shows whether its fee is To pay, Paid or Superseded by a later reminder. To give up the fee, open the reminder’s menu and choose Waive these fees. In the invoice list, a bell shows the number of reminders sent.

Default interest

A client in default owes late payment interest. To Bill calculates it day by day on the amount still owed.

1. Open Settings › Invoice, then Differences and default interest.

2. Annual rate: keep 5%, the statutory rate. It is owed even if your contract provides for a lower rate. Only enter a higher rate if you have agreed it with the client, for example in the contract or your terms and conditions.

3. The client is in default from: The first reminder (the general rule) or The due date (only if the due date was agreed as a fixed date).

4. Turn on Add interest to reminders so that each reminder claims the accrued interest on a separate line.

5. Click Save.

   

A reminder that does not go out

If a reminder’s email fails, the reminder is not recorded, and the interest it claimed is taken back with it: removed if it was not yet booked, reversed (reason “Reminder not sent”) if it was. Your client does not owe interest claimed by a reminder they never received. A reminder that was sent keeps its interest.

To claim the interest on a single invoice: on its page, under Receivable, click Actions › Default interest. To Bill shows the calculation, period by period, then Claim adds it to the amount owed. It appears on the next reminder. The same period is never claimed twice.

Fees and interest without VAT

Reminder fees and default interest are compensation, not a supply: they are claimed without VAT. If accounting is turned on, To Bill books them for you.

Legal basis

• The debtor is in default once the creditor has demanded payment, which as a rule means the first reminder. If a fixed payment date was agreed, the debtor is in default as soon as it has passed: Art. 102 CO.
• A debtor in default owes default interest of 5% a year, even if the contract provides for a lower rate. If the contract provides for a rate above 5%, that rate is also owed during the default: Art. 104 CO. No interest is owed on default interest: Art. 105 para. 3 CO.
• The law sets no reminder fees. They are only owed if you have agreed them with the client, for example in your terms and conditions. Otherwise, you can only claim them as damage exceeding the default interest, and you must prove that damage: Art. 106 CO.
• Damages are not part of the consideration subject to VAT: Art. 18 para. 2 let. i VAT Act.