Here's how to set up the second kind of automatic invoice e-mails within FreeAgent, which send reminders to your clients that invoices are due, or overdue, for payment.
How does this work?
You can set up one or more reminder rules to use. You can disable reminder rules if you no longer want to use them, for instance if your payment terms change, but otherwise if you opt on your invoice to use the reminder rules, that invoice will use all the active rules. You can't decide just to use one of the active rules for any one invoice.
Setting up a new reminder rule
Click Settings at the top right of the screen, and choose Email Templates.
Reminders is the second of the three tabs. Click the Add Reminder button to set up a new rule.
Timing of the reminder
Choose when you want to send this reminder, that is, how many days, before or after, the invoice due date. If you choose to send the reminder after the invoice is due, you can also tick this box here and choose to send it again at intervals. This lets you send, for example, a weekly reminder to slow payers. These reminders will automatically stop once the invoice has been paid in full.
Wording
Because you can set up more than one reminder rule, you could have one to remind clients just before payment is due, and another to remind them once the invoice goes overdue. You may well choose to word the second one more strongly!
Building the reminder
Use the tags in the list over on the right-hand side to build the content for the To, Subject and Text boxes.
From / To
The From e-mail can be any one of the users who are set up in FreeAgent. Choose the user from the drop-down menu. You can also tick the box under the From e-mail box to send a copy of this e-mail, and the invoice, to the sender. This is useful if you're a bookkeeper and you need to show the finance manager that you've sent the invoice.
The To e-mail, by default, is your client's contact e-mail that you set up under Contacts, but you can amend this to the billing e-mail for that contact which can also be set up under Contacts. To amend the tag, simply type in an extra _billing into the tag, so that it matches the tag in the list on the right.
If you put "[contact_billing_email],[contact_email]" in the To field, the e-mail will go out assuming that the contact has one or other of the e-mail addresses entered, and if you use the tag [billing_or_contact_email] in the To field, then if you've put in a billing e-mail address that will be used, but if there's no billing e-mail, FreeAgent will use the contact's main e-mail address.
Subject
The Subject field already has the reference tag in it, so the subject of the e-mail will include the reference number of the invoice. You can of course change this if you wish.
Invoice as attachment
The invoice that you're reminding the client about will be sent attached to this e-mail as a .pdf, in case the client lost or deleted the original invoice.
Other default attachment
You can also attach other files to your invoice reminders, if you wish. To do this, click the Attach Files link, and choose the file from your Files store that you want to attach, or you can upload a new file.
Remember that this file will be attached to all your reminder e-mails.
Body text
Build the body text using the tags. There is some sample text for you to use and edit as you wish.
Once you're happy with this reminder rule, click Create Reminder, or click Cancel to close without saving.
How does the reminder work once it's set up?
As you set up a new invoice, or edit an existing invoice that's in draft, you can tick the second of the three Invoice Emails boxes under More Options, to use all the active reminder rules when sending this invoice. Remember to save your changes if you're editing an existing invoice.
The reminder rules will start sending automatically from FreeAgent on the appropriate dates once you have sent this invoice to your client and marked it as sent.
When you open that invoice, you can see that FreeAgent tells you that the reminder rules are operating, and when the invoice will be sent. The reminder e-mails will only start when the invoice has been marked as sent. Reminder e-mails are not sent for draft invoices.
Can I see which invoices have reminders set?
Yes.
Go to Work > Invoicing and filter the list to show only invoices "With active reminder emails".
FreeAgent can also send other e-mails for you, including sending a new invoice and thanking your client for paying.
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