How to Get Email Reminders for Xero Invoices That are Due Soon
Did you ever forget to pay an invoice and get riddled with complications afterward?
Even if you use first-class accounting software like Xero, you are not alone.
Xero doesn’t offer built-in email reminders for invoices and bills that are due soon, and this is obviously frustrating if we have multiple bills to monitor and not enough time or staff to do so.
Using Make, however, we can set up Xero invoice reminders for ourselves and receive emails like the one below when we need them the most:
Moreover, we can choose whether to receive reminders for all bills due this week, today, tomorrow or some other payment due date as well.
All we need to do to get these email notifications up and running is a Make account, a Xero account, and an email app like Gmail.
Join us for this tutorial as we cover how to set up email notifications for Xero invoices due this week.
We’ll also share how to adjust the reminder to alert you of invoices due either today or tomorrow.
1. Create a new Make scenario and add the Xero app
Log into your Make account and create a new scenario.
Then, add the Xero > Search for Invoices module to this scenario and connect your Xero account and organization to it.
Set the Search by dropdown setting to “user-defined condition,” then copy and paste this text into the Where condition field:
Type=="ACCPAY" && Status=="AUTHORISED" && AmountDue>0 && DueDate<=DateTime({{formatDate(addDays(now; 6); "YYYY, MM, DD")}})
Important note: “AUTHORISED” needs to be typed in upper case, and spelled as “AUTHORISED” instead of “AUTHORIZED.”
Check the image below for reference:
The “where” condition searches for Xero invoices that meet all of these conditions:
The invoice type is “ACCPAY” or “account payable,” which is another name for a bill.
The invoice status is “AUTHORISED” - in other words, the bill is not a draft but has been approved, and is also partially or fully unpaid.
The invoice has an outstanding, non-zero amount due.
The invoice’s due date is equal to or earlier than six days after the day the scenario is run. For example, if the scenario is run on Monday, January 1, it will search for invoices due on Sunday, January 7, or earlier - hence identifying all invoices due the week of Monday, January 1.
Tip: To search for bills due within certain other payment timeframes, replace the “where” condition’s “DueDate” field as follows:
Search for bills due the day the scenario is run (or today, in other words): Use DueDate=DateTime({{formatDate(now; "YYYY, MM, DD")}})
Search for bills due one day after the day of running the scenario (or tomorrow, in other words): Use DueDate=DateTime({{formatDate(addDays(now; 1); "YYYY, MM, DD")}})
Finally, fill out the Maximum number of returned accounts field with the maximum number of bills you want to search for at once.
We’ve set the limit as “15” for demonstration purposes, but the number you use should reflect the number of potentially due bills you have at any time.
Click OK to finish configuring this module.
2. Add the Text Aggregator module to compile the list of Xero invoices
Here, add the Tools > Text Aggregator module to the scenario. This module will help compile all the Xero bills found in the previous step into a list.
Enable the Show advanced settings switch at the bottom of the module settings, then configure the module like this:
Set the Source Module setting to Xero - Search for Invoices [1].
Set the Row separator setting to New row to list each bill in a new row.
Check the Yes checkbox under the Stop processing after an empty aggregation setting to prevent the scenario from continuing if there are no bills found.
Map data items from the Xero > Search for Invoices module to the Text field based on how you want the notification to display information on each bill. For example, to have the notification display the bill’s invoice number and outstanding amount, fill out the Text field with <li>{{1.InvoiceNumber}} - Amount due: ${{1.AmountDue}}</li>. (Here, we’re also surrounding each list item with the <li> and </li> HTML tags to help Gmail format our list in an email properly.)
Refer to this image for guidance:
Click OK when you’ve finished configuring the Text Aggregator.
3. Add a filter between the Xero and Text Aggregator modules
Since we don’t want to receive the email notification if we don’t have any Xero bills due soon, we’ll add a filter between the Xero and Text Aggregator modules.
The filter will stop the scenario from sending an email in this situation.
Click the wrench icon between these two modules, and select the Set up a filter option in the menu that pops up.
Label the filter with a descriptive name like “Proceed if Xero bill is found.”
Map the “Invoice ID” item from the Xero module to the condition’s first operator, then click the Text operators: Equal to setting and change it to Basic operators > Exists.
This way, the scenario will be allowed to continue only if at least one Xero bill that meets our due date condition has been found.
See this image for reference:
Click OK to finish setting up the filter.
4. Add the Gmail module that sends the email reminder
Now, add the Gmail > Send an Email module to the scenario (feel free to replace Gmail with any other email or messaging app like Microsoft 365 Email).
Click Add to connect your Google account to this module and add your email address to the To field.
Type your email notification subject into the Subject field.
After that, fill out the Content field with what you want the email notification to say. Surround your paragraphs with the <p> and </p> HTML tags to format your email content as paragraphs.
Also, map the text item from the Text Aggregator module at the part of the email where the list of Xero bills should appear.
Surround the text item with the <ul> and </ul> HTML tags to have Gmail format your list as an unordered (or bulleted) list. Alternatively, use the <ol> and </ol> HTML tags if you prefer a numbered list.
Check the image below for reference:
Enable the Show advanced settings switch if you want to add copy (CC) or blind copy (BCC) recipients to the email reminder.
Finally, click OK when you’ve finished configuring the module.
5. Test and activate the scenario
That’s the end of the setup! Your scenario should look like this:
Click the Run once button at the bottom left of the visual editor to test your scenario.
If you have Xero bills that meet the due date condition set up in Step 1 above, you should receive a list of them via email.
If none of your bills meet this condition, your scenario will finish running without sending you an email notification - which is to be expected. In this case, create and approve a test Xero bill that meets your due date condition.
For example, if today is January 1 and you’ve set up an email reminder for all Xero bills due this week, you could create a test bill that’s due on January 3.
Then, click the Run once button again to see if you receive an email notification about this test bill. If you do, your scenario works and you can void the test bill.
So, once you’ve confirmed your email notifications are in order, schedule the scenario and turn it on.
To receive a weekly email reminder every Monday, schedule your scenario to run every Monday at your preferred time - say, 8 AM.
See the image below for reference:
Alternatively, for daily email reminders of Xero bills due either today or tomorrow, schedule your scenario to run every day - again, at your preferred time.
Never pay a Xero bill late again
This Make scenario doesn’t take long to set up, and once we’ve done so, we can get on with our operations with full confidence that we’ll always know when a bill is due soon - and then pay on time to maintain our reputation as a trustworthy customer.
Make can also help us spend less time on finance-related tasks in ways like:
Sending our Xero invoices to multiple recipients the moment we’ve approved them in the platform,
Automating our invoices, including automatically notifying customers about unpaid ones.
Sign up for a Make account to put all these processes to work for your business!
