Example project 02 · Automation
Invoices that chase themselves
Overdue invoices chase themselves. Every invoice that falls due is read, a reminder is written and sent, and the chase repeats on the schedule you set until the money arrives. Paid invoices file themselves away, and anything still unpaid after your limit goes to a person rather than another email.
- Invoice chasing
- Scheduled follow-ups
- Human in the loop
- n8n
01 · Register
One invoice register
You add them as they fall due
02 · AI
Read and checked
Who owes what, and when
03 · Draft
A reminder is written
Amount, due date, invoice attached
04 · Send
Sent and logged
Every chase on the record
05 · Watch
Waiting on payment
Checked against the register
06 · Paid
Logged and filed
Moved to the paid folder
06 · Person
Raised for a decision
Still unpaid after your limit
You set the rules
How long to wait between chases, and how many days of silence before a person is brought in, are yours to set. The wording is yours too.
01 · Register
One invoice register
You add them as they fall due
02 · AI
Read and checked
Who owes what, and when
03 · Draft
A reminder is written
Amount, due date, invoice attached
04 · Send
Sent and logged
Every chase on the record
05 · Watch
Waiting on payment
Checked against the register
Still unpaid
Wait the gap you set, then go back to step 03 and chase again.
Back to step 03
When it is paid
06 · Paid
Logged and filed
Moved to the paid folder
If it stays unpaid too long
06 · Person
Raised for a decision
Still unpaid after your limit
What changes
Three things it changes.
Nobody keeps a chase list
Due dates and amounts are read from the invoices themselves, so there is no spreadsheet of who to nudge and when.
The reminder goes out on time
The first one the day an invoice falls due, then again on your schedule, in the same words every time.
It stops when it should
A paid invoice files itself and the chasing ends. Anything still unpaid after your limit goes to a person, not another email.
* Estimated from a conservative model of 100 invoices a month, 40 of them paid late, not measured results. The percentage covers chasing and logging, not the rest of the bookkeeping, and the first reminder goes out on day one of the schedule you set. The assumptions behind these figures are available on request.
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