Xero Only Sends 5 Invoice Reminders. Here's How to Chase Past That.

Xero's automatic invoice reminders are genuinely useful — until you hit the fifth one and they stop. If you've gone looking for a sixth, you've probably also found the request thread on Xero's own product forum, where businesses have been asking for unlimited reminders since 2022. You're in good company, and the limit is real.

Here's how Xero's reminders work, and what to do when five runs out.

Setting up invoice reminders in Xero

1. In Settings, go to Invoice settings.
2. Select Reminders.
3. Turn on Email reminders.
4. Set each reminder by number of days before or after the due date.
5. Edit the message template, and choose whether to include a link to the online invoice.
6. Save.

You get up to five reminders. A common pattern: one before the due date, one on it, then three spaced out afterwards.

Why users keep asking for more

The complaint on Xero's forum is consistent, and it's been repeated for years: five is too few for the businesses that need chasing most. One user put it plainly — more than 80% of their invoices are paid late, and they sometimes send up to ten reminders over three or four months. Another asked whether Xero thinks they stop caring about getting paid after the fifth.

There are two limits stacked here, not one. First, the count stops at five. Second, Xero's reminders are one-way emails — when a customer replies, the reply goes to whatever inbox is on the account, and it's easy for it to be missed. The chasing isn't really a conversation; it's five scheduled emails and then silence.

What to do when five isn't enough

• Send manual reminders. You can email an overdue invoice by hand from within Xero as many times as you like — the limit is only on the automatic sequence.
• Add statutory interest to later chases. UK business invoices carry a legal right to interest and compensation once overdue. Referencing it in a sixth or seventh chase changes the tone from a nudge to a notice. (See our guide on charging interest on late invoices.)
• Layer a dedicated chasing tool on top. Xero records your invoices well; it does comparatively little to chase them once the five are spent.

Where Execore fits

Execore chases until the invoice is paid — there's no cap at five. Because each chase opens in your own mailbox and sends from your own address, replies come back to you, not into a tool nobody's watching. You keep using Xero for the ledger; Execore does the persistent follow-up Xero stops doing after the fifth reminder.