Auto-chasers for overdue invoices

Chasing payment is the least enjoyable part of locum admin, especially across workplaces and agencies that pay on different timelines. Auto-chasers handle follow-up for eligible overdue invoices. The daily check looks for invoices in set windows after the due date. It does not require a recorded first-send date, so review issued invoices even if you have not emailed them through Sessional.

The chase email goes to the workplace contact, not to you. It reads as a reminder from you (your name, your invoice number, your bank details), with Sessional simply doing the sending. Your own address is set as the reply-to, so if the workplace replies, the conversation lands in your inbox.

Sessional runs an automated check daily. Once an invoice is past its due date, that check can move an Issued or Acknowledged invoice to Overdue. From there, the auto-chaser looks for three moments measured from the original due date:

• Day 14 to 15 past due: the first reminder window
• Day 21 to 22 past due: the second reminder window
• Day 28 to 29 past due: the final reminder window

After the final reminder window, automated chasing stops. Anything still outstanding from that point is yours to handle: you can send a manual chase from the invoice, pick up the phone, or escalate however you prefer. Each daily check looks for invoices between 14 and 15, 21 and 22, or 28 and 29 days past due. Delivery depends on the check running in that window, your plan and notification preferences, a saved workplace contact email and the 72-hour cooldown.

Each automated reminder attaches the stored invoice PDF where one exists. If that stored file cannot be retrieved, the reminder fails rather than replacing it. For an invoice without a stored PDF, the software can generate and retain one before sending. Review the invoice details before issuing it, and keep your own copy with any payment correspondence.

The reminder email itself includes:

• Your name and the invoice number, so it is unmistakable which invoice is outstanding
• The total amount in AUD and how many days past due it is
• Your bank details (BSB and account), if you have saved them on your billing profile
• The invoice PDF as an attachment

While its access link remains valid, the workplace can use the original invoice email to view the invoice, report a payment or raise a dispute without an account. A payment report needs your confirmation before settlement. See workplace access for how those links work.

Chasing has a cooldown for each invoice. Alerts to you use a separate grouping rule.

A 72-hour cooldown per invoice. Manual and automatic chase emails share this cooldown. The send process checks and claims it before sending. On a PDF or reported email failure, it attempts to restore the previous cooldown state. A failed send is not a promise of a later retry outside the reminder windows.

Grouped alerts to you. If several invoices become overdue in the same check, your alert is grouped into a digest when Invoice reminders is enabled. Workplace chase emails are sent separately for each eligible invoice.

Automatic chasing is included on Plus and Pro. On Free you can create and send invoices within your monthly allowance and see eligible invoices become Overdue. Manual chase emails through Sessional also require Plus or Pro, and an Issued, Acknowledged or Overdue invoice.

If your account loses paid-plan access, both automatic and manual chase emails are unavailable. See billing and subscription for what each tier includes and agency versus direct billing for when raising your own invoice (and therefore chasing it) applies.

Auto-chasers are governed by a single notification preference. To switch them off, go to your notification preferences and toggle off Automatic invoice chasers. With it off, the daily check still tracks your invoices and still moves eligible ones to Overdue on your dashboard, but no automated reminder is emailed to any workplace.

The preference is account-wide: there is no per-invoice switch today. If you want one specific invoice chased and the rest left alone, turn the automation off and send the manual chase on that one invoice yourself. Manual chases also let you add a short custom note, which the automated template does not.