Daily

Remind customers about overdue PayPal invoices

Overdue customers get PayPal's reminder at most once a week, and you see who was nudged.

Runs: Daily
Apps: PayPal
AI: Not needed
Access: REST app with invoicing (write)

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every day at 10am, send a PayPal reminder for any invoice more than 7 days overdue, no more than once a week per invoice, and email me who was reminded.

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

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Why use it

Why teams use this automation

Chasing late invoices is awkward, so many freelancers and small businesses put it off. An invoice goes past due, a week passes, then a month, and the client who simply forgot never hears a word. Cash flow suffers, and the owner spends evenings scrolling through PayPal to work out who owes what and when they were last nudged.

Every day, PayPal is searched for overdue invoices. Any that have already received a reminder in the last seven days are skipped, so clients are not pestered, and the rest receive a reminder through PayPal. You then get an email listing exactly who was reminded, so you know the follow-up happened without having done it yourself.

It works well for service businesses with a handful of unpaid invoices at any time, where a polite nudge is usually all that is needed.

What you get out of it

Late payments get a nudge on time
Most overdue invoices are forgotten, not disputed. A reminder the day after the due date prompts payment from the many clients who simply lost track. Waiting weeks costs far more than a single polite notice sent on time.
No more awkward chasing
The reminder goes out as a standard PayPal notice, so you do not have to write an uncomfortable message yourself. Clients receive it without the personal tension of being asked directly.
Clients are not hounded
Skipping invoices reminded in the last seven days prevents repeated pings. The client receives a reasonable cadence, which keeps the relationship friendly and the reminders effective. Respecting a client's inbox protects goodwill that took months to build.
A list of who was chased
The email shows which customers were reminded, so you can follow up personally on large or repeat late payers. You always know where each overdue invoice stands. That visibility lets you spend your effort where a human conversation helps most.
Steadier cash flow
Collecting a week or two earlier on many invoices adds up to meaningful working capital. For a small business, that can cover payroll or software bills without dipping into a credit line.

How it works

What happens, step by step

Once a day, ClickRuntime finds your PayPal invoices that are past their due date.
It skips any invoice it already reminded in the last 7 days, so customers are not chased every day.
PayPal sends a reminder to each remaining customer.
You get an email listing which invoices were reminded and to whom.

Before it runs live

Connect PayPal

What you get

RunsDaily

Remind customers about overdue PayPal invoicestoday, 9:00Succeeded

Email · Invoice reminders sentSent 2 PayPal invoice reminders - INV-0038: ap@acme.example

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 PayPal 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.

send_paypal_invoice_reminders_automatically.pyexample

from datetime import date, timedelta
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, state, notify

API = "https://api-m.paypal.com"

def paypal_headers():
    resp = http.post(f"{API}/v1/oauth2/token", data={"grant_type": "client_credentials"},
                     auth=(credentials.secret("PAYPAL_CLIENT_ID"), credentials.secret("PAYPAL_CLIENT_SECRET")))
    resp.raise_for_status()
    return {"Authorization": f"Bearer {resp.json()['access_token']}"}

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    headers = paypal_headers()
    cutoff = (date.today() - timedelta(days=7)).isoformat()
    invoices = http.post(f"{API}/v2/invoicing/search-invoices", headers=headers, params={"page_size": 100},
                         json={"status": ["SENT", "PARTIALLY_PAID"], "due_date_range": {"end": cutoff}}).json()
    reminded = state.get("reminded") or {}
    week_ago = (date.today() - timedelta(days=7)).isoformat()
    lines = []
    for inv in invoices.get("items", []):
        if reminded.get(inv["id"], "") > week_ago:
            continue
        http.post(f"{API}/v2/invoicing/invoices/{inv['id']}/remind", headers=headers,
                  json={"note": "A friendly reminder that this invoice is overdue."}).raise_for_status()
        reminded[inv["id"]] = date.today().isoformat()
        lines.append(f"- {inv['detail']['invoice_number']}: {inv['primary_recipients'][0]['billing_info']['email_address']}")
    state.set("reminded", reminded)
    if lines:
        notify.email_me(f"Sent {len(lines)} PayPal invoice reminders", "\n".join(lines))
    return {"reminded": len(lines)}

FAQ

Common questions

What does PayPal count as an overdue invoice?

An invoice becomes overdue when its due date passes without full payment while it is still in a sent or partially paid state. Paid, canceled and draft invoices are not reminded, so only real outstanding amounts are covered. Disputed invoices follow PayPal's own dispute process instead.

How does it know a reminder was sent recently?

It keeps a record of the invoices it reminded and the dates, then skips any with a reminder inside the last seven days. If you remind someone manually elsewhere, that is not tracked unless it goes through this setup.

Can I wait several days after the due date before reminding?

Yes. Add a grace period such as three days and only invoices past that point will be included. Tell your AI assistant for the number of days and approve the updated version before it goes live.

What permissions does it need?

REST app with invoicing (write). 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.

Weekly