How to send an invoice reminder in MYOB

Reminders only go to customers who have them switched on. You can turn them on for everyone with a default schedule in Sales settings, then override the timing and tone for particular customers in their contact record, or leave some customers out altogether.

Think about tone before you set the schedule. MYOB's tips are to use Friendly or Neutral for regular customers and early reminders, and keep Firm or Urgent for invoices that are well overdue or large. For a customer who pays on a set cycle, such as at the end of each month, match the timing to that cycle. If you're in a dispute or already talking to a customer about an invoice, consider switching their reminders off until it's sorted.

1. Open the settings menu, choose Sales settings and click the Reminders tab.
2. Select Send reminders to all customers.
3. Click the pen icon on the first reminder to edit it.
4. Choose when it goes out, such as a set number of days before or after the due date.
5. Choose a tone: Friendly, Neutral, Firm or Urgent.
6. If you like, edit the email subject and message, and use Tags to drop in details such as the customer's name or the invoice number.
7. Click Save.
8. Repeat for each reminder in the schedule. Click the trash icon to remove one you don't want, or Add reminder to add another, up to five in all.

To remind someone straight away, go to the Sales menu, choose Invoices and click the Overdue tab. Next to the invoice, click Send reminder, adjust the message if needed and click Send. The Overdue tab also shows each customer's reminder status, days overdue and average days to pay, and a Suggested action such as Send reminder, Contact customer or Watch and wait.

Once your settings are saved, MYOB emails each reminder on its schedule without you doing anything more. When you create or open an invoice, Reminders on appears under the customer's name, and clicking it lets you check or change that customer's schedule. Reminders that have gone out show in the invoice's activity on the Overdue tab.

Your customer receives an email reminder about the invoice. Separately, MYOB can send unpaid invoice summaries, a monthly email listing a customer's outstanding invoices. A link at the bottom of that email shows the customer how overdue each one is and lets them pay on the spot, and with online invoice payments they can select several invoices and pay them together.

Reminders are easy to stop. To turn them off for everyone, go back to the Reminders tab in Sales settings, clear Send reminders to all customers, click Confirm and then Save. For one customer, open their contact record, clear Send reminders to this customer and click Save.

If a reminder isn't going out, open the invoice and check its terms. MYOB skips invoices set to Prepaid or Cash on delivery. Change the terms if a reminder should apply, or email the invoice from the Share menu instead. To change the reply-to address on reminder emails, use the Email defaults tab in Sales settings.

If you use AccountRight on the desktop, your company file has to be online and you must email directly from AccountRight. Click Invoice Reminders in the Sales command centre, or on the Emailing tab under Setup menu, Preferences. Your file opens in the browser version at the Reminders tab, where the setup is the same. The reply-to address is set once for the whole company file, on that Emailing tab.