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Daily

Send polite payment reminders by email and text

Customers or tenants with overdue payments get polite reminders by email and text, stepping up gently over time.

Runs
Daily
Apps
Gmail, Twilio
AI
Not needed
Access
gmail.send; Twilio

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every morning, read my overdue list; send a friendly email and text at 3 days overdue, a firmer reminder at 10 days, and a final one at 21 days, and record which reminder each has had.

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

Small landlords and service businesses hate chasing money. Reminders get sent late or not at all, and the conversation becomes awkward when it finally happens.

Sending polite reminders on a fixed schedule, by email and text, keeps payments coming in without anyone having to write a single chasing message, and the steps make clear the reminders are routine, not personal.

What you get out of it

  • Paid sooner

    Prompt, regular reminders shorten the time money is outstanding.

  • No awkward chasing

    The messages are routine and polite, sent for you.

  • Escalates gently

    Reminders get firmer only as time passes.

  • Never sent twice

    Each reminder stage is recorded per invoice.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. Every morning it reads your overdue list.

  2. For each item, it works out how many days overdue it is and which reminder stage applies.

  3. If that stage hasn't been sent yet, the person gets the matching email and text.

  4. The stage is recorded so each reminder is only sent once.

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 Twilio

What you get

RunsDaily
Send polite payment reminders by email and texttoday, 9:00Succeeded
SMS · TenantHi Charlie, this is a friendly reminder that £950 rent for Flat 2, Acme House was due on 2026-10-15. Pay here: link

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
  • Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
  • Combine it with other Gmail and Twilio 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.
payment_and_rent_reminders_by_email_and_sms.pyexample
from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from twilio.rest import Client
import base64
from datetime import date
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, state

OVERDUE = "https://billing.example.com/api/overdue"
STAGES = [(3, "a friendly reminder"), (10, "a second reminder"), (21, "a final reminder")]
FROM = "+15005550006"

def sms(to, body):
    return Client(credentials.secret("TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID"), credentials.secret("TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN")).messages.create(to=to, from_=FROM, body=body)
gmail = lambda: build("gmail", "v1", credentials=Credentials(credentials.connection("google", "work")), cache_discovery=False).users()

def send_email(to, subject, text):
    gmail().messages().send(userId="me", body={"raw": base64.urlsafe_b64encode(f"To: {to}\r\nSubject: {subject}\r\n\r\n{text}".encode()).decode()}).execute()

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    items = http.get(OVERDUE, headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {credentials.secret('BILLING_TOKEN')}"}).json()
    sent = 0
    for it in items:
        days = (date.today() - date.fromisoformat(it["due_date"])).days
        stage = max((i for i, (d, _) in enumerate(STAGES) if days >= d), default=-1)
        if stage < 0 or (state.get(f"stage:{it['id']}") or -1) >= stage:
            continue
        text = f"Hi {it['name']}, this is {STAGES[stage][1]} that {it['amount']} was due on {it['due_date']}. Pay here: {it['pay_url']}"
        send_email(it["email"], f"Payment reminder: {it['amount']}", text)
        if it.get("phone"): sms(it["phone"], text[:300])
        state.set(f"stage:{it['id']}", stage); sent += 1
    return {"sent": sent}

FAQ

Common questions

Where does the overdue list come from?
Any accounting tool, rent system or sheet that can provide overdue items at a web address, with name, email, phone, amount and due date.
Can I change the wording and timing?
Yes. Set the days and write the message for each stage.
What happens once they pay?
They drop off the overdue list, so no more reminders are sent.
What permissions does it need?
gmail.send; Twilio. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's 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.

Set up “Send polite payment reminders by email and text” from your assistant

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