In short
Xero payment follow-ups is a JAX feature announced in August 2026: per-customer collection plans built from payment history, with the channel, timing and tone chosen for each customer and no five-reminder cap. Xero has not published a release date. Until it ships, Xero chases with up to five scheduled reminder emails.
Key takeaways
- Today, Xero invoice reminders are up to five emails on one schedule for every customer, and replies land in someone’s inbox.
- JAX payment follow-ups promise a plan per customer that keeps chasing until payment, but Xero has not said when, in which regions or at what price.
- Xero businesses whose overdue balance is growing faster than the team can chase usually need AR automation that reads replies, takes payment and writes it back to Xero.
If you run receivables on Xero, the August 2026 Xerocon announcements raised an obvious question: will Xero soon chase invoices well enough that you do not need anything else? This guide sets out what Xero payment follow-ups are, what Xero’s invoice reminders do today, how both compare with AR automation software, and how a CFO or AR manager on Xero can decide.
What are Xero payment follow-ups?
Payment follow-ups is a feature of JAX, Xero’s AI agent. Xero’s Xerocon US media release of 20 August 2026 said JAX “will also power new Payment follow-ups” to bring money in faster. At the Denver event, Xero described how the plans would work: from the moment an invoice is sent, JAX builds a plan around that customer’s past payment behaviour, picks the channel they actually respond to, and leaves the plan with you to review and edit.
The clearest statement of scope is on Xero’s own product ideas board. Replying to a four-year-old request for more reminders, Xero’s community manager marked it in development on 31 August 2026 and said the multi-step plans would go well beyond the current five-reminder limit, with persistent chasing until payment.
Is it available yet?
Not as far as Xero’s own sources show. The release uses the future tense, the product idea says Xero will share more as the feature is released, and coverage of Xerocon London in July listed it as coming soon with no regional dates. Pricing has not been announced either. If you are planning around it, plan around Xero’s release notes for your region, not the keynote.
What Xero invoice reminders do today
Until payment follow-ups ship, chasing in Xero means invoice reminders. According to Xero Central, this is how they work:
| Setting | What Xero does |
|---|---|
| How many | Up to five per organisation; three defaults come set up |
| Channel | |
| Timing | A set number of days before the due date, on it, or after it |
| Which invoices | Only invoices marked as sent, for contacts with a current email address |
| Per customer | No. Settings such as the minimum amount apply to every reminder |
| Replies | Go to the login email of whoever turned reminders on, unless you change it |
| After the last one | Nothing further is sent |
For customers who simply forgot, that is often enough, and it costs nothing extra. The gaps show up with the customers who did not forget. A reply asking for a purchase order number sits in an inbox while the next reminder goes out. A customer who paid half gets the same email as one who paid nothing. And after the fifth reminder, an invoice that is 60 days overdue gets no further contact unless someone on your team picks it up.
Xero invoice reminders vs JAX payment follow-ups vs AR automation
Three options, compared on scope. The middle column is based only on what Xero has said publicly; where Xero has not described something, the table says so rather than guessing.
| Xero invoice reminders | JAX payment follow-ups (announced) | AR automation software | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Available now | Yes | No release date published | Yes |
| Who decides the cadence | You, once, for everyone | JAX, per customer; you review and edit | Depends on the tool: your rules, or an agent within your policy |
| Channels | The channel each customer responds to, including text | Email, and SMS or calls on many tools | |
| Replies, disputes, promises to pay | Land in an inbox for a person | Not described by Xero yet | Read and handled, or routed to your team |
| Taking payment | Through Xero's online invoice payment options | Not described by Xero yet | Usually a payment page on your existing provider |
| Extra cost | Included in Xero | Not announced | A monthly subscription |
The honest reading is that JAX payment follow-ups, once released, should close much of the gap between Xero’s reminders and a reminder-led collections tool. What Xero has not yet described is the work that starts after a customer answers: the dispute, the short payment, the promise to pay on Friday that has to be checked on Friday.
When Xero’s own tools are enough
Be wary of anyone, including us, who says every Xero business needs AR software. You probably do not if most of these are true:
- Most invoices are paid within a week or two of the due date.
- You have a few dozen customers and know the slow payers by name.
- Disputes are rare, and someone has time to answer replies the same day.
- Chasing takes a few hours a month, not a few days.
In that case, set up all five reminders, write them in your own voice, and watch for what Xero releases next.
Signs a Xero business has outgrown invoice reminders
The reminders keep working. The trouble is the work they leave to people. These are the signs a finance director or CFO on Xero usually notices first:
- DSO is drifting up even though reminders go out on time.
- Someone spends days a month chasing, and the next step being discussed is a hire.
- Replies go unanswered because the inbox they land in belongs to someone with another job.
- Write-offs are creeping in from invoices that went quiet after the last reminder.
- Cash flow forecasts miss because nobody knows which promises to pay are real.
Each of these is a cost that does not show up in a software budget. Our guide on how to reduce DSO covers the measurement side.
What to look for in accounts receivable software for Xero
The Xero App Store lists dozens of reminder, credit control and debtor apps, and most of them sync with Xero. These are the questions that separate them:
- Does it write payments back to the invoice? If a payment is collected in the tool but has to be matched in Xero by hand, you have moved the reconciliation, not removed it.
- Who handles replies? A tool that only sends smarter reminders still leaves disputes and promises to pay to your team.
- Does it use your payment provider? A payment link should land money in the account you already use, at the fees you already pay.
- What access does it ask for? Xero is moving apps to granular scopes such as invoices and payments, with broad scopes available until September 2027. A tool should ask only for what it uses.
- How fast is it live? On Xero, days rather than weeks is a fair expectation. Our AR automation implementation guide covers what a rollout involves.
The tools differ most in who does the work. Chaser, for example, syncs two ways with Xero and runs reminder-led chasing on a cadence your team configures, from $259 a month in the US. Others put an AI agent on the replies and payments as well. Our AR automation software guide compares the main options on scope.
Where Finero fits on Xero
Finero is an autonomous accounts receivable platform. On Xero it reads sales invoices and contacts, and its AI agent, Fin, decides which customer to contact and how, answers replies, and puts a card and ACH payment page in every message. Payments go through the provider you already use, such as Stripe or PayPal, and are written back to the Xero invoice they settle. Finero never holds funds and never collects, stores or transmits card data.
Finero Core is built for Xero and QuickBooks teams: $399 a month, billed monthly, for one ERP and one payment provider, with 200 successfully paid invoices a month included. It connects in minutes, goes live the same day and starts with a 30-day free trial. See Xero accounts receivable automation with Finero for how the sync works, or the pricing page for the full plans.