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Daily

Send overdue invoice reminders from a sheet

Clients with unpaid invoices get a polite reminder, then firmer ones after 14 and 30 days, and the sheet records when each was sent.

Runs
Daily
Apps
Gmail, Google Sheets
AI
Optional
Access
Sheets read+write; Gmail gmail.send

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every weekday, check my Invoices sheet for unpaid invoices past due, email the client a reminder (firmer after 14 and 30 days) and log the reminder date.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

A freelance designer tracks invoices in a spreadsheet. Most clients pay on time. A few do not, and chasing them is awkward enough that she puts it off, so a 30-day invoice turns into a 90-day one. Cash flow suffers, and the eventual email is more uncomfortable than an early nudge would have been.

This automation sends the reminders for her on a sensible schedule, starting friendly and getting firmer, so late payments are chased every time without her having to write each email.

What you get out of it

  • Paid sooner

    A reminder on the day after the due date catches the invoices that were simply forgotten, which is most of them.

  • No awkward emails to write

    The tone steps up at 14 and 30 days on its own, so you are never deciding how firm to be with a client.

  • A record of every chase

    The sheet shows which reminder went out and when, which helps if you later need to escalate or charge late fees.

  • Consistent with every client

    Every overdue invoice is followed up the same way, so no client is chased harder than another by accident.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. Every weekday morning ClickRuntime reads your Invoices sheet.

  2. It picks out unpaid invoices whose due date has passed and works out how many days overdue each one is.

  3. It skips any invoice that has already had the reminder for its stage.

  4. It emails the client a reminder from your Gmail, firmer after 14 and 30 days, with optional AI help on the wording.

  5. It writes the reminder stage and date back into the sheet.

Before it runs live

  • Connect Google through your own Google app (a one-time, 10-minute setup), so it works with your own Gmail
  • Connect your Google Sheets account and pick the spreadsheets it may use

What you get

RunsDaily
Send overdue invoice reminders from a sheettoday, 9:00Succeeded
Email · Sent to clientInvoice INV-1042 is 15 days overdue. Following up again: invoice INV-1042 for £1,800 was due on 3 Oct.

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.
  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

  • Run it at a different time, more or less often, or only on weekdays
  • Change what the AI looks for, or how it writes the result
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
  • Combine it with other Gmail and Google Sheets steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.
overdue_invoice_reminders_from_a_sheet.pyexample
from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
import base64
from datetime import date
from email.mime.text import MIMEText
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials

SHEET_ID = "your-spreadsheet-id"
TONE = {1: "Just a friendly reminder that", 2: "Following up again:", 3: "Final reminder:"}

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    creds = Credentials(credentials.connection("google", "work"))
    sheets = build("sheets", "v4", credentials=creds, cache_discovery=False).spreadsheets()
    gmail = build("gmail", "v1", credentials=creds, cache_discovery=False)
    rows = sheets.values().get(spreadsheetId=SHEET_ID, range="Invoices!A2:G").execute().get("values", [])
    sent = 0
    for i, r in enumerate(rows, start=2):
        num, client, email, amount, due, status = r[:6]
        stage_done = int(r[6]) if len(r) > 6 and r[6] else 0
        late = (date.today() - date.fromisoformat(due)).days
        stage = 3 if late >= 30 else 2 if late >= 14 else 1 if late > 0 else 0
        if status == "Paid" or stage <= stage_done:
            continue
        msg = MIMEText(f"Hi {client},\n\n{TONE[stage]} invoice {num} for {amount} was due on {due}. Could you let me know when it will be paid?\n\nThanks")
        msg["to"], msg["subject"] = email, f"Invoice {num} is {late} days overdue"
        gmail.users().messages().send(userId="me", body={"raw": base64.urlsafe_b64encode(msg.as_bytes()).decode()}).execute()
        sheets.values().update(spreadsheetId=SHEET_ID, range=f"Invoices!G{i}:H{i}", valueInputOption="RAW",
                               body={"values": [[stage, date.today().isoformat()]]}).execute()
        sent += 1
    return {"reminders": sent}

FAQ

Common questions

Which invoices get a reminder?
Rows where the status is not Paid and the due date has passed. Mark an invoice Paid in the sheet and the reminders stop.
Will a client get the same reminder every day?
No. Each stage is sent once: a first reminder after the due date, a firmer one at 14 days overdue and a final one at 30 days.
Do the emails come from my own address?
Yes. They are sent from your Gmail account, so replies come straight back to you and the thread sits in your Sent folder.
What permissions does it need?
Sheets read+write; Gmail gmail.send. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
No, but you can ask for an AI step (for example a summary). It then uses ClickRuntime's built-in AI allowance.
How many runs does it use?
One run each time it runs (daily). Checks that find nothing to do and stop right away aren't counted.
Can I change how it works?
Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

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