How payment reminders are handled has a direct impact on cashflow; therefore, Google Sheets offers an automated solution to resend reminders without much hassle. This way, both time and effort are saved while ensuring that clients are kept in the loop. Below describes how to set up and manage automated payment reminders.
1. How to Resend Payment Reminders Manually
If you are tasked with sending out reminders manually, follow these steps:
- Open the Google Sheet: This is the sheet from which you would be handling payment reminders, click on the ‘CEOITBOX’ tab.
- Reset Status: From the dropdown option, select the ‘Clear Status’ option to change the reminder status.
- Select Clients: Tick the “Select” column against the client names to whom you need to send the reminders.
- Send the Reminder: Go back to the “CEOITBOX” tab and select the ‘Send Reminder’ option.
- Following this method will eliminate the chance of your clients receiving multiple reminders from you, which fosters good communication.
2. Setting Up Automated Payment Reminders
The payment reminder process can also be set to send reminders on a daily or weekly cycle automatically.
Let’s configure it:
- Open the Google Sheet and navigate to the “CEOITBOX” tab.
- Select “Setup Triggers” from the dropdown.
- Click on the “Add Schedule” button underneath Schedule Settings. You can add many schedules as per your needs.
- Choose either “Daily” or “Weekly” from the dropdown in the “Send Email” section.
- Indicate the time using the 24 hour clock format for when you wish for the reminders to be sent.
- If you selected a weekly schedule, make sure you select the day of the week you want the reminders to be issued.
- Click “Save” to set the schedule.
- You can also set up triggers to resend reminders. If you want to delete the pre scheduled reminder set for the client who has already paid, proceed to click on the “Delete” button in Schedule Settings.
- Messages may or may not be sent on the dot due to Google’s scheduling system policies.
3. Ensuring Copies of Reminders are Sent
You will be informed of the payment reminders you set about through the Status Page of the payment reminder Google Sheet document. It automatically resets the basics columns ‘Send Status Email’ and ‘Send Status WA’ at 6 AM altogether.
Below are examples of what the status page may display:
Emails Sent: Tracks the total amount of email notifications that have been sent out.
Invalid Emails: Displays all the emails that failed to receive the notification.
WhatsApp Sent Messages: Counts the number of messages sent via WhatsApp.
Errors: Describes what went wrong during the reminder procedure.
This single page will enable you to look at the efficiency of the payment reminder system and adjust it accordingly.
By applying these steps, you can:
- Make workflows that will send out payment reminders automatically.
- Reissue reminders to clients with a single click, avoiding confusion from multiple messages.
- View the status page to check if reminders were sent out and react to issues accordingly.
Using automated reminders together with status monitoring can simplify your payment collection processes, which will improve your cash inflow and reduce the work needed.
