Chasing money is the job nobody signed up for. You did the work, you sent the invoice, and now you are the one who has to send the uncomfortable reminder, make the awkward call, and feel like you are nagging a customer you would like to keep.
So most businesses just let it slide. An invoice goes a week overdue, then a fortnight, then it is a month later and you are out of pocket on materials you paid for up front. Late payment is one of the biggest killers of small-business cash flow, and the main reason it festers is simply that chasing it is unpleasant and easy to put off.
Here is the fix: take yourself out of the chasing entirely. In Axiom Blue you can build an automation that nudges the customer the moment an invoice is overdue, waits a week, and then, only if it is still unpaid, escalates it to you. Polite, persistent, and completely hands-off. Let us build it.
What we will set up
- Trigger an automation the moment an invoice becomes overdue
- Send the customer a friendly email and a text reminder
- Wait seven days to give them a chance to pay
- Check whether the invoice is still unpaid
- Escalate to you only if it needs a human, then switch it on
Workflows -> New Automation -> Add node
Open a blank automation
Open Workflows from the sidebar, choose New Automation, and click Add to open the node palette.
Most automations are a straight line of when this happens, do that. This one is smarter: it does something, waits, checks a condition, and then chooses what to do next. Those last two ideas, waiting and choosing, are what the Logic nodes are for.
Concept
This automation uses more of the palette than most. Alongside the trigger and actions, you will use a Delay to wait and a Branch to make a decision, both from the Logic group.
Advantage
You are building a workflow that stretches across a week and makes its own decision at the end, and you are doing it by dropping a few labelled boxes onto a canvas.
Event Trigger node -> Event type
Trigger it when an invoice goes overdue
From the palette, under Triggers, add an Event Trigger and set the Event type to Invoice Overdue.
That is the watcher in place. Every invoice you raise is now quietly monitored, and the day one becomes overdue, this workflow takes over.
Concept
An Event Trigger listens for a business event. Set its event type to Invoice Overdue and Axiom Blue watches your due dates for you, firing the automation the day an invoice tips past its due date.
Advantage
You never have to scan the debtors list to spot who is late. The system already knows, and it starts the chase the moment it happens.
Send Email and Send SMS nodes
Send a friendly first reminder
From the palette, under Actions, add a Send Email node and a Send SMS node. The email is your formal reminder; the SMS is the gentle nudge that actually gets seen.
Notice the message is written with placeholders like the customer name, invoice number and amount. Those fill in automatically for each invoice, so one short, warm template covers every customer without you typing a word.
Concept
Two action nodes run off the trigger: a Send Email with a polite reminder, and a Send SMS for a short nudge. Both pull the customer’s details and the invoice number and amount straight from the trigger.
Advantage
A text gets read in minutes where an email can sit unopened for days. Sending both, automatically and in a friendly tone, often gets the invoice paid before a human is ever involved.
Delay node -> Fixed 7 days
Wait a week before doing anything more
From the palette, under Logic, add a Delay node. Set the Delay type to Fixed, the Value to 7 and the Unit to Days.
This is the breathing room. Most customers pay within this window after a nudge, in which case you never hear about it. The automation only carries on for the ones who do not.
Concept
A Delay node pauses the workflow. Set it to a fixed wait of seven days, giving the customer a reasonable window to pay after that first reminder.
Advantage
The automation is patient on your behalf. It does not pester someone who is about to pay, and it does not forget to follow up either. Seven days later, it picks the thread back up on its own.
Branch node -> Condition
Only escalate if it is still unpaid
From the palette, under Logic, add a Branch node. Its condition asks a simple question of your data: is this invoice still overdue? The helper text spells out the rule, rows matching go to yes, non-matching go to no.
If the customer has paid, the no path ends the workflow and you never think about it. If they have not, the yes path is where the escalation lives.
Concept
A Branch node splits the workflow in two based on a condition. Here it checks whether the invoice is still overdue. Matching invoices take the yes path; everything else takes the no path and simply ends.
Advantage
This is what keeps the automation polite. Customers who paid during the week never get chased again, because the branch quietly drops them. Only genuine non-payers come back to you.
The finished automation
Escalate to the owner and switch it on
Connect the chain: Invoice Overdue, send the email and SMS, wait seven days, branch on whether it is still unpaid, then on the yes path notify the owner and tag the invoice as escalated. Drag from each node’s handle to the next to join them.
Name it, Save, and run it once with Test. New automations start Paused, so flip it to active when you are happy. From here, late payers get chased automatically, and the only ones that reach you are the handful that genuinely warrant a personal call.
Concept
On the yes path, a Notification alerts the business owner and a Modify Entity tags the invoice as escalated. Connect the nodes in order, Save, and switch the automation from Paused to active.
Advantage
You only ever see the invoices that truly need you, already chased twice and clearly flagged. Everything else is handled before it reaches your desk.
The reason overdue invoices pile up is not that business owners are lazy. It is that chasing them is a job you have to choose to do, over and over, and it never feels good.
An automation does not mind doing it. It chases every overdue invoice the same way, on time, in your tone, and it only ever escalates the ones that need a human. You get the cash flow without the confrontation, and your week back as a bonus.
Try it in Axiom Blue
Want your overdue invoices to chase themselves?
Explore the live demo or start a free trial to build this automation yourself, then see how Axiom Blue connects quoting, jobs, invoicing and follow-up so the admin runs itself, all without code.