Set up an AI payment chasing agent with Xero

The outcome of this guide is an invoice-chasing agent that works while you sleep. SMS365 watches your Xero organisation for overdue invoices, texts each debtor a reminder with the real pay link, dedupes so nobody is nagged twice for the same invoice, and lets an AI assistant handle the replies, including recording a promise to pay. By the end you will have this connected, tested, and running in the mode you are comfortable with.

The Xero connection and reminder engine work on every plan. The AI assistant that answers the replies is a Premium feature, and it is what turns a reminder into a conversation that actually collects.

What you need first

• An SMS365 workspace, and admin access to the Xero organisation you want to chase from. A workspace connects its own Xero, so make sure you are in the right workspace before you start.
• Mobile numbers on your Xero contacts. A reminder can only go where there is a mobile number, so this is the single biggest factor in your coverage.
• A dedicated number under Add-ons so debtors can reply and the assistant can answer. Roughly $10 per month.
• Prepaid credit topped up under Billing.

Step by step setup

1. Connect Xero. Open Connections and connect Xero. You authorise SMS365 to read your invoices and your contacts, including their phone numbers. It needs read access to invoices and contacts, nothing that can change your books.
2. Fix your contact numbers. Before you turn anything on, run down your top twenty debtors in Xero and confirm each has a mobile number. This is the step most people skip and then wonder why half their invoices never get a reminder. A mobile in the right field is what makes a debtor reachable.
3. Choose the mode. The Xero connection offers review, auto, and selected, with an enable switch. In review mode every reminder waits for your approval before it sends. In auto mode matching invoices are chased without you touching them. In selected mode you pick which invoices are in scope. Start in review so you can see exactly what would go out and to whom.
4. Write the reminder. Use the merge fields for the customer name, invoice number, amount outstanding, and the Xero pay link. The pay link is the important one: it is the genuine link Xero generates for that invoice, so the customer taps it and lands on the hosted payment page for that exact bill.

   Hi Priya, invoice INV-2231 for $455.00 is now overdue. You can pay it securely here: [Xero pay link]. Thanks, Northside Electrical.

5. Rely on the per-invoice dedupe. You do not have to build guardrails against double-sending. SMS365 dedupes reminders per invoice, so a given invoice will not fire the same reminder twice even if Xero reports its overdue state repeatedly or a sync runs twice. This protects the relationship as much as your credit control.
6. Turn on the AI assistant for replies. Go to Settings and then AI assistant, and set it to Suggest replies to begin with. Add a short business context and a knowledge base covering your payment terms, what bank details or methods you accept, and how you handle disputes. The assistant can look up the customer's invoice and, when they name a date, record a promise to pay so the follow-up schedules itself.
7. Enable and watch the first run. Flip the enable switch. In review mode, approve the first batch by hand and watch them go out in your message history. Read the replies as they come back on your dedicated number.
8. Move to auto when you trust it. Once a batch or two have gone out cleanly and the replies read well, switch the mode to auto. Now overdue invoices chase themselves, and the assistant fields "what was this for" and "I can pay Friday" without you.

What the customer sees

An overdue invoice becomes a text the customer actually reads, because it is SMS and not another email in a full inbox. They tap the link and pay, or they reply. A common reply is a query or a stall:

Sorry, cash is tight this week. Can I pay it next Friday?

The assistant looks up the invoice, confirms the amount, and records the promised date so the follow-up is scheduled for then:

No problem Priya. I have noted you will pay INV-2231, $455.00, by Friday 20 September. We will send a friendly reminder that morning with the same pay link. Thanks.

If the customer disputes the amount or complains, the assistant does not argue. It hands the thread to a person so a human handles the sensitive part.

Test it before you rely on it

Create a dummy contact in Xero with your own mobile number and a small test invoice, or point the reminder at yourself first. Confirm three things on a real phone: the reminder arrives, the pay link opens the correct hosted payment page for that invoice, and a reply lands back in your workspace. Then test a stall reply such as "can I pay next week" and check the assistant records the promise to pay against the right invoice. Never launch a reminder rule you have not watched arrive on a handset.

Choosing your timing

Chasing only after an invoice is overdue leaves money on the table. A nudge three days before the due date lifts on-time payment more than any overdue message, because it reaches people while the invoice is still in mind. The full breakdown of when to send is in setting up automatic overdue invoice reminders from Xero, and the wider walk-through of the connection itself is in Xero payment reminders by text. For the wording that turns a promised date into an actual payment, see the promise to pay follow-up.

An honest word on delivery and money

SMS365 marks a message "sent" when it has been handed to the carrier, and "delivered" only when a genuine delivery receipt returns. Because production is prepaid, each reminder draws on your topped-up credit, so a large debtor run needs enough credit in the tank. The upside is there is no lock-in, which means you can trial the whole thing on your worst payers first.

Once this is live, chasing invoices stops being a Friday-afternoon job and becomes a rule that runs itself, with an assistant that turns replies into scheduled payments. To see the running cost against the debtor days it saves, the prepaid pricing page lays it out.