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Automated Invoice Reminders: QuickBooks vs. Modern Receivable
Modern Receivable offers many features to manage your invoice payment processing. One of the most popular features is automated invoice reminders, which are a laborious task for businesses to manage manually (if they tackle reminders at all). If you're waiting until the invoice is already past due to send a note to your customers requesting payment, you're too late.
Most invoice payment terms request payment 'Net 30,' which means payment is expected within 30 days from the invoice date. Net 30 terms are one of the most common invoice payment terms used by businesses. You can establish different payment terms depending on your business needs, but Net 30 is generally acceptable for both businesses and customers. With net 30 terms, your business is paid 30 calendar days after the invoice date. If you're still mailing paper invoices, this means your customers may not even be receiving the invoice until three weeks before it's due.
By utilizing automated invoice reminders, you can effectively communicate payment due dates with your customers to ensure they have appropriate notice to pay on time. With Modern Receivable, you can choose between various preset invoice reminder options or customize your own set of reminders at whatever intervals you choose.
Doesn't QuickBooks have this feature?
If you're already utilizing QuickBooks, you may be thinking you've seen invoice reminders in the platform. Unfortunately, the QuickBooks invoice reminder functionality is very limited. QuickBooks allows you to set up what they refer to as 'auto-invoice reminders,' but your options are limited. You are only able to schedule three invoice reminders, with timing pre-determined by the QuickBooks platform:
- Option 1: send an invoice reminder three days before the due date
- Option 2: send an invoice reminder on the due date
- Option 3: send an invoice reminder three days after the due date
While this approach could be better than no invoice reminder automation, it may not meet the needs of your business or your customers. Typically, a business will start to send invoice reminders 14 days ahead of the due date. This gives customers enough notice to process the payment via the method of their choosing and still complete payment by the due date. For example, most ACH payments take 3 business days at minimum for funds to arrive, unless your customer chooses to pay a rush fee which is unlikely. If they receive an invoice reminder on a Friday three dates before the due date, the payment will be late even if they jumped on it and paid as soon as they received the reminder.
How is Modern Receivable different?
With Modern Receivable, you can set unlimited email and SMS invoice reminders, which can be a great benefit to your business. You can choose from various preset invoice reminder cadences, like low-touch, standard, or high-touch, or you can create your own invoice reminder sequence that is customized to your business needs. These reminder sequences can include email, SMS and phone call reminders - whatever style of communication you feel will be most effective for your customers.
Benefits of Modern Receivable vs. QuickBooks
- Modern Receivable allows you to customize your email reminders with your brand colors and logo. QuickBooks does not - your invoice reminders will look exactly like every other business that uses QuickBooks, hurting your email performance and diluting your brand.
- Modern Receivable allows you to personalize your email templates with a wide variety of custom fields. QuickBooks only gives you two custom fields: Invoice Number and Company Name (not even contact name!)
- Modern Receivable supports email, SMS and phone call reminders. QuickBooks only offers email reminders.
- Modern Receivable allows you to set an unlimited number of reminders at any interval you choose. QuickBooks only allows you to choose from three preset invoice reminders (three days prior, day-of, three days past-due)
- Modern Receivable lets you group invoice reminders by customer so you can manage all reminders for a customer in one place. QuickBooks only lets you group reminders on an invoice level, which can lead to a poor client experience if they have multiple invoices outstanding and they receive separate reminders for each invoice.
While QuickBooks can be advantageous for certain functionality related to business finance like expense tracking and bill payment, it is limited when it comes to automated invoice reminders. If you want to provide your customers with a first-class experience when it comes to invoice processing, up your game with a service like Modern Receivable that has improved functionality and can support your unique business needs for one low monthly fee.
