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Help centre

Automatic invoice chasers

Polite chase emails fire on day 14, 21, and 28 past due. You can turn them off.

When chasers fire

Once an invoice passes its due date and gets marked OVERDUE by the nightly cron, Sessional watches it for three automatic chase moments:

  • Day 14 past due: first polite chase, PDF attached
  • Day 21 past due: second chase
  • Day 28 past due: third chase

After day 28 the automation stops. Further chasing is manual from that point — you click Chase on the invoice yourself, or take it offline.

What’s in the chase email

The chase email is sent from your email address (reply-to) with Sessional in the envelope. It includes:

  • A polite message naming the invoice number, amount, and how many days past due
  • The original invoice PDF as an attachment
  • Your bank details (if you’ve set them in your profile)
  • The same 30-day workplace access link as the original invoice email, so the practice can Mark Paid or Raise a Dispute in one click

Turning it off

Go to Notifications and toggle off “Automatic invoice chasers”. The cron still tracks overdue invoices and still moves them to OVERDUE status for your dashboard, but no automated email is sent. You can still chase manually from any invoice with the Chase button.

The preference applies to all your invoices uniformly. There’s no per-invoice toggle today — if you want a specific invoice chased and others not, disable auto-chase globally and chase that one manually.

Cooldown + safety

Note

Chasers are cooldown-protected.Once a chase email goes out for an invoice, another chase on the same invoice is blocked for 72 hours — whether automated or manual. This prevents the cron from firing twice if it runs during an error/retry cycle, and prevents you and the cron accidentally both chasing the same invoice on the same day.

The 72-hour cooldown is deliberate: long enough that the practice doesn’t get pestered, short enough that a founder firing two chases over a long weekend still works.

What pauses the chasers

  • The practice raises a dispute via the workplace link. The invoice moves to DISPUTED and chasers stop until you resolve.
  • The practice claims payment via Mark Paid. You’ll see an amber banner on the invoice; if you dismiss the claim chasers resume on the next threshold.
  • You mark the invoice VOID.
  • You mark the invoice PAID manually.
  • Plan downgrade: automatic chasing is a Plus+Pro feature. Basic tier accounts don’t get auto-chase; the cron skips them.

Frequently asked questions

What if the practice has no email on file?
The cron skips the invoice entirely. Add a primary contact email on the organisation record and the next threshold will chase.
Can I customise the chase wording?
Not the automated chase — it uses a tested, polite template. Manual chases (from the invoice page) let you add a custom message.
Will it chase on weekends / bank holidays?
The cron runs every hour. If day 14 past due lands on a Sunday, the chase fires on that Sunday. The wording is polite and practices are used to automated finance emails arriving at awkward hours.
Does it fire on Basic tier?
No. Auto-chase is a Plus and Pro feature. Basic tier users chase manually.
Does it chase if the invoice is in DISPUTED state?
No. As soon as a dispute is raised from the workplace link, chasers pause. They resume if you reject the dispute.

Related

Invoicing · Workplace access · Notification preferences