Enforce Your Payment Terms Automatically: The Scale Get-Paid System
Full accounting, powerful payments, and automation that enforces your payment terms.
Time saved
8-10 hrs/week
Est. money saved
$1,000 to $3,000/mo recovered
Estimated, not a guarantee
Setup time
1-2 days
Faster if experienced, longer if new to the tools
Monthly cost
$65/mo
Software only, plus any card fees
Escalation, late fees, and reconciliation all run without manual work
Estimated cash recovered from escalating reminders and automatic late fees applied across a growing team's invoice volume
Escalating reminders and automatic late fees get more invoices paid, on time
Save Money and Grow Revenue figures are estimates based on typical late-payment recovery, not measured client results.
System Summary
The Problem
You are invoicing fine, but you have no deep view of your finances, no way to enforce your own payment terms, and reminders that never escalate.
The System
This system pairs full accounting in Xero with powerful Stripe payments and Make automation, so invoices chase, escalate, and apply late fees on their own while you get proper financial reporting.
Why this version
This is the right choice for a growing team that needs deep financial reporting and automation strong enough to enforce payment terms, escalate reminders, and apply late fees automatically.
Tools in this system
The exact tools this build runs on. Each one links to its full review, and where we are an affiliate the link supports our free guides.
How the system works
How the tools connect and hand off to each other, step by step. Follow them in order, and each one links to the tool that does the work.
You invoice from Xero
Send a branded invoice from Xero with your payment terms, backed by full accounting and reporting behind the scenes.
- › Set up your chart of accounts properly before sending your first invoice. Retrofitting categorisation later is far more painful than a day of setup now
- › Configure default payment terms and a late-fee or interest policy at the organisation level in Xero's invoice settings, so it applies consistently without manual repetition per invoice
- › Connect your real bank feed in Xero so reconciliation is automatic rather than a manual monthly chore
Make escalates the chase
Make runs a sequence that gets firmer over time, from a gentle nudge to a final notice, and applies your late-fee rules automatically.
- › Build the Make scenario with clear escalation tiers: polite at 3 days overdue, firmer at 14 days, a final notice at 30 days, each with distinctly different wording, not the same email repeated
- › Define your late-fee rule explicitly in the scenario (for example 1.5% after 30 days), and only use a rate you are actually prepared to enforce, since inconsistent enforcement is noticed
- › Add a Slack or email alert to yourself, not just the client, when an invoice crosses the final-notice threshold, so a genuinely stuck invoice gets a human phone call, not just another automated email
The client pays globally
Stripe takes card, wallet, or bank payment from anywhere in the world through a pay-now link on the invoice.
- › Enable the specific payment methods your client base actually uses, not just card: bank transfer, wallets, and local payment methods if you invoice internationally
- › Set up multi-currency invoicing in Xero for overseas clients, so the amount they see matches what they expect, which reduces payment delays caused by currency confusion
- › Check your Stripe payout schedule against your own cash-flow needs. Standard payouts can take a few business days, which matters if you are relying on that cash landing by a specific date
It reconciles and reports
The payment reconciles in Xero, the reminders stop, and your reporting shows exactly where cash is, what is overdue, and where the risk sits.
- › Build a simple weekly cash-flow report in Xero, or ask your accountant to: total outstanding, average days overdue, and total overdue by client, so you are managing the number, not just reacting to individual invoices
- › Review which clients consistently trigger the escalation tiers. That is a signal to renegotiate terms with them specifically, for example an upfront deposit, rather than tightening policy for everyone
- › Audit the Make scenario's run history monthly to confirm it is actually firing. An automation that silently stops running is worse than no automation, since you stop manually checking
Before vs After
❌ Before
✅ After
Reporting
No real view of cash flow or what is at risk
Full financial reporting and a live cash-flow picture
Follow-up
One reminder, then silence
An escalating sequence that gets firmer until paid
Payment terms
Late fees you never actually apply
Late fees applied automatically by rule
Payments
Limited or local payment options
Global card, wallet, and bank payments
What not building this costs you
At scale, a weak follow-up process is not one forgotten invoice, it is a pattern of late payment across dozens of clients, and no reporting to see the cash-flow hole it creates until it hurts.
The catch — be aware
This is the most involved build here. Xero is full accounting software with a subscription to match, and Make automation needs designing to fit your escalation rules. The payoff is control and reporting, but it is a real setup, not a one-hour job.
Return on investment
For a team invoicing tens of thousands a month, shaving even a week off average payment time and enforcing late fees recovers far more each month than the roughly sixty-five dollars the stack costs.
Cost breakdown
Total monthly
$65/mo
Every tool this system runs on and what it actually costs, added up to one real monthly total.
Tool / Service
Plan
Cost
Xero
Full accounting, invoicing, reminders, reporting
Growing
$40/mo
Stripe
No monthly fee, about 2.9% + 30c per card payment
Pay per payment
$0/mo
Make
Advanced escalation, late fees, and alerts
Core
$10-25/mo
TOTAL
Scales with volume and automation operations
Combined
from $65/mo
Total
$65/mo
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Get this system as a PDF
A portable one-pager version of everything on this page: the tools, the steps, the costs. Downloads immediately, no waiting on an email.
Our guarantee
Xero offers a free trial, Make has a free plan, and Stripe costs nothing to set up, so you can build and test the full escalation flow before committing to the monthly cost.
Frequently asked questions
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