Customers pay without an account
One link opens the customer's own open invoices and takes card, EFT or ACH. There's nothing to register and no password to reset, and the only thing they can see is what they owe you.
The invoice goes out the day it's issued, reminders escalate on your schedule, and the customer pays from a link in the invoice.
Invoices go out the day they're issued
Smartbills builds the invoice from your billing data with the terms, tax and payment link already on it and sends it as soon as it's issued, rather than waiting for someone to work through a batch on Friday.
- Line detail, terms and tax calculated on issue
- A payment link on the invoice, no reply needed
- Delivery confirmed, missing invoices noticed early
Reminders on a schedule you set
A polite note on the due date, a follow-up a week later, a firmer one after three weeks. You decide the schedule and the wording, and Smartbills does the sending. It no longer depends on someone remembering.
- Multi-step schedules with escalating tone, set per customer group
- Stops the moment an invoice is paid, including part-payments
- Every reminder recorded against the invoice it chased
Accounts receivable aging that tells you who to call
Balances are split into current, 1 to 30, 31 to 60 and 61-plus days, by customer as well as by bucket. Days sales outstanding (DSO) is tracked as a trend. You can see whether collections are actually getting better month to month.
How accounts receivable works
Send the invoice
Smartbills builds it from your billing data, with your terms, the tax and a payment link included.
Reminders go out
They start on the due date, get firmer as the invoice ages and stop the moment it's paid.
The customer pays online
From the link, they see their invoices, choose what to settle and pay by card, EFT or ACH. No account needed.
Applied and posted
The payment is matched to its invoice and posted to your ledger, with no separate reconciliation.
Keep exploring
See all products- ProductInvoicingBuild an invoice with the taxes worked out for you, email it as a PDF, and let customers pay online by card or pre-authorized debit.
- ProductCash applicationApply incoming customer payments to the right open invoices, using remittance advice pulled from email, customer portals, EDI and bank files.
- ProductAccounting automationAccounting automation software that codes each transaction and posts the journal entry to your accounting software the day it happens.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What people ask us before they sign up.
Accounts receivable automation software handles everything between issuing an invoice and the cash arriving: sending it, reminding the customer, giving them an easy way to pay and recording the payment against the right invoice. Done by hand, that's a person, a spreadsheet and a recurring calendar reminder, which holds up until the number of invoices grows. In Smartbills, Invoicing builds and sends each invoice with its taxes and PDF, and Accounts Receivable keeps the open balances moving after that.
DSO (days sales outstanding) is the average number of days between issuing an invoice and getting paid for it. It matters because it's working capital: every extra day of DSO is a day your own cash is funding your customers. It's also the number an AR team is usually judged on, which is why Smartbills tracks it as a trend rather than a single monthly figure.
No. The link in the invoice is the access: it shows only that customer's open invoices, and they can pay one or several without registering. That's deliberate, because asking for a login is one of the surest ways to delay a payment.
Yes. You set the schedule, the wording and the escalation, and they can differ by customer group, since a strategic account and a small overdue balance shouldn't get the same message. Reminders stop on payment, partial payments included. Nobody gets chased for money they've already sent.
Accounts receivable is about getting paid; cash application is about recognizing the money once it lands. AR covers issuing, reminding and collecting, while cash application reads the remittance advice, matches the payment to the right invoices and explains any short-pay. They're separate products because a single payment often covers several invoices, with a remittance document that has to be interpreted.
Yes. Invoices, customers and payments sync with QuickBooks, Xero, Sage and NetSuite, and your ledger stays the system of record. Smartbills handles issuing, reminders and collection, and the entries land where your accountant already looks for them.
The amount received is applied and the invoice stays open for the balance, with reminders continuing on what's left rather than the original total. When there's a reason behind the shortfall (a credit, a dispute or a deduction), Cash Application is what identifies and codes it.
Look at how invoices are delivered, whether reminders follow a schedule and tone you control, whether customers can pay from a link without creating an account, and whether the aging report shows who to call next. Each one shortens the time between sending an invoice and getting paid.
Get started
Hand the Friday collection calls to a reminder schedule.
Set the schedule once, then watch what it does to your 31 to 60 and 61-plus buckets over the next few months.