Built-in automated reminders only come with QBO Plus and above, and even then they're template emails. Unpaid sits on top of any QBO tier — Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, or Advanced — with AI-written escalation.
Works with any QuickBooks Online tier. Setup in under 10 minutes.
QuickBooks Online has automated reminders, but two things limit them. First, the feature is tier-gated — it's only available on Plus and Advanced plans, not Simple Start or Essentials. If you're on a lower tier, automated reminders aren't available at all, and your only options are manual follow-up or upgrading your entire QBO subscription.
Second, even on Plus and Advanced, the reminders are template emails. You write the body once, QBO swaps in customer and invoice details, and the same template fires every time. No escalation in tone, no AI, no awareness of replies. The same architectural limitations as Xero's built-in feature, with the added constraint of being paywalled behind a more expensive QBO plan.
Unpaid sits on top of QuickBooks at any tier. AI-composed reminder emails at A$29/month, regardless of whether you're on Simple Start or Advanced. QBO stays your source of truth — Unpaid just handles the follow-up communication layer.
Automated invoice reminders are not available on QuickBooks Simple Start or Essentials. To access the built-in feature, you have to upgrade to Plus — which costs more per month than Unpaid's entire Starter plan. For a small business that doesn't need Plus's other features (inventory, project tracking, multi-user roles), that upgrade is paying for a lot of capacity you don't want, just to access automated reminders. Unpaid provides AI-written automated reminders at A$29/month on top of any QBO tier, including Simple Start.
Even on Plus and Advanced, QBO sends the same email template with the customer name and invoice number inserted. Clients recognise the template after a reminder or two and start treating it as background noise. Unpaid uses Claude AI to compose each email from scratch using the customer's history and the current escalation stage. Day 3 reads differently from day 30. The day-3 nudge to one customer reads differently from the day-3 nudge to another, because the AI draws on each customer's individual payment history.
If a customer replies to a QBO reminder saying "we're disputing this invoice", QBO has no idea — the next scheduled reminder sends anyway. Same outcome if a customer asks a question, promises payment for next Tuesday, or has already paid but the bank feed hasn't caught up. Manual intervention is the only solution. Unpaid's AI reads replies, classifies them (dispute, promise, question, general acknowledgement), and pauses the sequence automatically based on the classification.
QuickBooks is a US product with Australian localisation. The core invoicing works in AUD with GST, but there's no native PTRS lookup to risk-check large prospective clients, no ABN verification, no Security of Payment Act wording for construction payment claims, and no detection of Commonwealth government clients eligible for 5-day payment terms. For Australian tradies, consultants, and small businesses, those aren't edge cases — they're structural to how you accept work and protect cash flow.
For some businesses, the built-in feature is sufficient. Worth being honest about who that is.
| Feature | Unpaid | QBO built-in |
|---|---|---|
| Price | A$29/mo | Plus tier and above |
| Available on Simple Start / Essentials | ||
| Reminder rules | 5-stage AI escalation | Time-based, manual setup |
| Email composition | AI-written each time | Single template |
| Tone variation by stage | ||
| Pause on reply | ||
| Reply detection (dispute / promise / question) | ||
| Trusted-customer suppression | ||
| Customer self-service portal | Basic portal | |
| Bulk reminder send | Manual | |
| PTRS risk checking | ||
| ABN / GST verification | ||
| Security of Payment (SOPA) tools | ||
| Reminder analytics & insights | Limited |
Feature information based on QuickBooks Online's public documentation and may change. Verify current details in your QBO account settings. Plan availability may vary by region.
This isn't a migration — QBO stays in place as your source of truth. Unpaid layers on top using QuickBooks' OAuth API. The whole setup takes under 10 minutes.
If you change your mind, switching back is just as easy — cancel Unpaid and re-enable QBO's automated reminders (or revert to manual follow-ups on Simple Start or Essentials). Nothing in your QBO data changes.
QuickBooks Online's automated reminder feature is tier-gated — it's only available on Plus and Advanced plans, not on Simple Start or Essentials. Even on Plus, the reminder system is template-based: you write the email body once, QBO inserts the customer name and invoice number, and the same template fires on the schedule you set. There's no escalation in tone, no awareness of replies, and no AI in the loop. For Australian small businesses on Simple Start or Essentials, automated reminders aren't available at all — you'd have to upgrade your entire QBO subscription just to get this one feature.
Unpaid sits on top of QuickBooks. QBO remains the source of truth for your invoices, customers, payments, and accounting. Unpaid reads invoice data through QuickBooks' OAuth API, runs the AI-written reminder sequences, captures replies, and lets QBO handle everything else. You don't change anything about how you use QuickBooks — Unpaid just takes over the follow-up communication layer.
Yes. Unpaid works on any QuickBooks Online tier — Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, or Advanced. You don't need to upgrade your QBO subscription to access automated reminders, because Unpaid provides them at the A$29/month Starter tier regardless of which QBO plan you're on. For businesses on Simple Start specifically, this is often cheaper than upgrading QBO to Plus just to access the built-in reminder feature.
Unpaid integrates with QuickBooks Online via OAuth. If you're on QuickBooks Desktop, the integration isn't available at this time. Most Australian businesses have moved to QBO at this point, but if you're still on Desktop, your built-in reminder options are even more limited than QBO's — you'd typically be looking at manual follow-up workflows or migrating to QBO first.
Yes, if you have them switched on. Running both Unpaid and QBO's built-in reminders means customers receive two emails for the same overdue invoice. Disable the automated reminders in QBO's invoice settings (the location varies slightly by region but is usually under Settings → Sales → Reminders) and Unpaid takes over the schedule. Most operators do this on day one of activating Unpaid.
QBO sends the same template every time, with just the customer name and invoice number changed. Unpaid composes each email at send time using Claude AI — the model reads the customer's payment history, the invoice context, and the current escalation stage (day 3 friendly, day 30 firm), and writes a unique email from scratch. The cumulative effect over a 5-stage sequence is that clients read each reminder as if you wrote it personally, because no two emails look the same. Template recognition is what trains clients to ignore reminder emails. Removing the template removes the recognition pattern.
Works with any QuickBooks Online tier — Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, or Advanced. AI-written reminders. Smart reply handling. PTRS risk checking. No need to upgrade your QBO plan.