Chase overdue invoices from Zoho Books

Every month the same chore: open Zoho Books, filter for overdue invoices, and write a polite reminder to each customer, adjusting the amount, the invoice number and the tone. In this recipe the agent lists what is overdue, and writes every reminder into your Zoho Mail Drafts in one go. You read them and send them yourself.

What you need

• Zoho Books and Zoho Mail set up in XataWorks. Bring your Zoho apps into XataWorks does both.

1. See what is overdue

With Zoho Books open and signed in beside the chat, ask:

Which invoices are overdue? Group them by customer, with the total each one owes and how many days late the oldest is.

The agent reads the overdue invoices and their totals, per currency, from the organisation you have open. Reading never asks.

2. Decide the tone, then draft

Draft a reminder to each of these customers from my Zoho Mail. Friendly for anything under 30 days late, firmer past 60. Name each invoice, its amount and its due date, and sign it from me.

Open Mail in the same chat first (View ▸ Mail ▸ All Mail). The agent saves the reminders straight into your Zoho Mail Drafts folder as one batch, each personalised. You are asked once for the whole batch, with every recipient listed. No compose windows open, and nothing is sent.

3. Read and send

Open Drafts, read each reminder, change what you like, and press Send on the ones you want to go.

4. Note the promises

When a customer replies with a date, tell the agent: “Harbour Café will pay invoice INV-0042 on the 30th”. It adds an internal note to the invoice in Zoho Books, with the expected payment date. It asks first, unless you have allowed changes on Books. Customers never see these notes.

Where this recipe stops

• Nothing is sent for you. No agent can send mail, and nothing here sends or emails an invoice from Zoho Books. Every reminder goes out when you press Send.
• Up to 100 drafts at a time. A longer list goes in more than one batch.
• Payments are recorded in Zoho Books. The agent can note a promise, but recording a payment stays in Zoho Books, where you can see what it changes.

Read more

• Mail: drafts, and what no agent can do with your mail.
• Page tools: how the agent works in a site you have open.