Paying suppliers late costs more than it seems. The supplier who was flexible last month puts you on a credit hold this month. The early-payment discount you negotiated quietly expires. And the bill nobody chased because it was "only one invoice" turns out to be one of eight from the same supplier, the oldest now two months past due.
Payment Reminders watches the other side of the ledger too. Every supplier you owe money past the due date gets a reminder case, and the case keeps reminding your own team until the bill is paid. It never contacts the supplier — it exists so that nobody on your side forgets.
Switching it on
Supplier watching is one switch in the Payment Reminders settings, Watch supplier payables too, and it uses the same rules as the customer side: how many days past due before a case opens, how often to remind, after how many reminders to escalate, and a minimum amount so rounding differences never open a case. The owner of each case is the default owner you choose, and escalations go to the person you name.
| Customer cases | Supplier cases | |
|---|---|---|
| What it watches | Sales and project invoices past due | Supplier invoices and expenses past due |
| Who is contacted | The customer, by email or WhatsApp if you switch it on | Nobody outside — only your own team |
| Who is reminded | The case owner | The case owner |
| Escalation | After the set number of reminders | After the set number of reminders |
| Closes when | Nothing is past due any more | Nothing is past due any more |
Everyone you owe, on the dashboard
The Supplier Payables panel lists every supplier with a balance, biggest overdue first. Each line shows how much is overdue out of what is outstanding, how many documents are late and how old the oldest is, and when the next bill falls due for anything still within terms. At the top: how many suppliers you owe, and the totals.
One supplier's position
Open a supplier from the panel and you get their whole position in one window:
- Open invoices — everything outstanding, and how many documents.
- Unallocated payments — money you have already paid them but not yet matched to a bill.
- Net payable — what you actually owe once those payments are taken off.
- Not yet due, and Overdue split into age bands — by default the first 30 days, 31 to 60, and over 60, following the company's past-due interval.
Below that, every open document: your reference and theirs, the date, the due date, how many days late it is, the total and the balance. Two buttons sit at the bottom: Set payment reminder, which opens an internal case for this supplier, and Pay supplier, which goes straight to the payment.
The same window for all suppliers shows the whole payables book at once: suppliers with a balance, total outstanding, total overdue, and for each supplier the oldest document, the next due date and whether a reminder case is already open.
The payables desk
Purchasing › Reminders is the same collections desk the customer side uses, pointed the other way. The cards count open cases, what is due for attention today, and escalations, and total what is overdue to pay. One row per supplier: overdue, outstanding, documents, the oldest, which reminder cycle it is on, the last note, the next reminder and who owns it.
Following up on a supplier case
The follow-up window shows the supplier's overdue bills and the history of the case. Here the useful entries are internal: a note that the payment is waiting on approval, that the supplier has agreed to wait until month end, or that the bill is disputed because the goods came short. Set the next reminder date to the day you intend to pay, hand the case to whoever releases payments, and the reminders follow that date.
A disputed bill pauses the case so nobody is nagged to pay something that is being argued about. Closing a case by hand keeps the scan from reopening it for one cycle.
The nightly run
Every night the engine opens cases for suppliers who have newly fallen overdue, closes any case where nothing is past due any more, and for each case that is due, moves the next reminder on by the cycle and notifies the owner: Supplier payment overdue — how much, how many documents, how old the oldest is. After the number of reminders you set, the case escalates, the reminders stop, and the escalation user is told instead.
A worked example
Rules: open a case the day after the due date, remind every 7 days, escalate after 3.
| Date | What happens | Status | Reminder no. | Next reminder |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Sep | A supplier bill for ₹1,16,572 falls due | — | — | — |
| 11 Sep | Nightly run opens a case; the accounts owner is notified | Open | 1 | 18 Sep |
| 12 Sep | The owner notes the payment is waiting for the purchase manager's approval and sets the next reminder for 15 Sep | Open | 1 | 15 Sep |
| 15 Sep | Still unpaid; reminder 2 to the owner. The case stays open, because the last entry was a person's note rather than silence | Open | 2 | 22 Sep |
| 22 Sep | Still unpaid; reminder 3, and the case escalates to the finance manager | Escalated | 3 | — |
| 23 Sep | The payment is made and allocated to the bill | Escalated | 3 | — |
| 24 Sep | Nothing is past due, so the nightly run closes the case as paid | Paid | 3 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Will my suppliers receive reminders?
No. Supplier cases never contact the supplier. They remind the people on your side who have to pay.
Why is the net payable lower than the outstanding total?
Because some payments have been made but not yet matched to bills. The net figure takes them off, so you do not pay the same bill twice.
Do I have to close a case after paying?
No. Once the payment is allocated and nothing is past due, the next nightly run closes it.
Can I stop reminders for a bill we are disputing?
Yes. Record the follow-up as disputed and the case pauses until someone changes it.