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# Dunning

Dunning is the sequence of reminder emails Tabs sends on unpaid invoices. You decide when each reminder goes out relative to the due date, write the email, and pick the attachments. Tabs sends them until the invoice is paid.

This page covers building your sequence, how Tabs decides which reminder to send and when, and how to stop reminders for a customer.

## How it works

* **One sequence for every customer.** You can turn reminders off for individual customers, but you can't give them a different sequence.
* **Checked once a day.** Every morning, Tabs checks each open invoice against the sequence and sends whatever is due that day.
* **Per invoice.** A customer with three overdue invoices gets three reminders.
* **Stops on its own.** Reminders only go out while an invoice is **Sent** or **Partially paid**. They stop when it moves to **Pending**, **Paid**, **Done**, or **Void**.

The invoice email itself isn't part of the sequence. It always goes out when the invoice is sent, and the sequence covers everything after it.

## Set up your sequence

### Add reminders

Go to **Settings → Dunning sequence**.

1. Click **Add reminder**.
2. Set **Timing**:
   * **Before due**: a set number of days before the due date.
   * **On due date**
   * **After due**: a set number of days after the due date.
   * **Repeating**: every N days, starting after all the other reminders have been sent.
3. Write the **Subject** and **Body**.
4. Choose a **Template**: **Branded** or **Plain text**.
5. Choose **Attachments**.
6. Click **Add reminder**, then **Save** at the bottom of the page.

Nothing changes until you click **Save**.

> **Note**
>
> New accounts start with no reminders. Until you add one, Tabs sends the invoice email and nothing after it.

### Write each reminder

**Variables.** Insert them from the list rather than typing them, so they're always formatted correctly.

| Variable             | What it inserts                                                                                                                     |
| -------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Customer name        | The customer's name, or the parent account's name if the customer bills under a parent.                                             |
| Primary contact name | The greeting name from the customer's invoice email settings, or the primary contact's first name. Falls back to the customer name. |
| Invoice number       | The invoice number, including your prefix.                                                                                          |
| Invoice total        | The invoice's full total. On a partially paid invoice, this is **not** the remaining balance.                                       |
| Due date             | e.g. March 15, 2026                                                                                                                 |
| Due date, weekday    | e.g. Sunday                                                                                                                         |
| Days until due       | Only in reminders on or before the due date.                                                                                        |
| Days past due        | Only in After due and Repeating reminders.                                                                                          |
| Pay invoice button   | Only in the body.                                                                                                                   |

Subject and body are plain text. HTML isn't supported.

**Pay invoice button.** It reads **Pay Invoice** for customers who can pay online, and **Notify of Payment** for customers who can't. If Tabs can't generate a payment link for an invoice, the reminder goes out without the button. In **Plain text** reminders the button shows as a link. **Branded** reminders also include a "powered by Tabs" footer.

**Attachments.**

* **Invoice PDF**: the invoice the reminder is about. On by default.
* **Contract PDF**: the contract the invoice was billed from.
* **Documents** uploaded in your billing settings, such as a W-9 or remittance instructions.

If the attachments are too large to send together, Tabs drops documents first, then contracts. The invoice PDF is kept.

**Recipients.**

* **To**: the customer's primary billing contact. If the invoice has its own recipients, those are used instead.
* **CC**: the customer's CC billing contacts, plus your own billing contacts.
* **From**: your verified sending domain if you've set one up through [email onboarding](/email-onboarding), otherwise `invoices@tabsplatform.com`. It's shown on each reminder but can't be edited there.

A customer's [invoice email delivery](/customer-record#invoice-email-delivery) setting decides who gets their reminders. With **Send to customer** (the default), reminders go to the customer's billing contacts. With **Send to [billing@yourcompany.com](mailto:billing@yourcompany.com)**, they go to your company's contact email from **Settings → Business information** instead.

### Test before you save

* **Preview.** The panel on the right updates as you type, using sample values.
* **Send test.** Sends the reminder to you, filled in with your most recent open invoice. Save first; you can't test unsaved changes. Test sends never reach customers and don't appear in activity logs.

### Rules

* Only one reminder per day. You can't have two reminders at "3 days after due date".
* Only one **On due date** reminder and one **Repeating** reminder per sequence.
* Day counts are whole numbers, 1 or more.
* Reminders are listed in the order they send, with the repeating reminder last.

## How Tabs decides what to send

Every morning, around 9–10am Eastern, Tabs runs through every invoice in order:

1. **Is the invoice eligible?** It has to be **Sent** or **Partially paid**, created in Tabs rather than synced from your ERP, and its invoice email has to have gone out on an earlier day. Reminders must also be on for the customer.
2. **Is a reminder due today?** A reminder sends only on its exact day relative to the due date. If the invoice wasn't eligible on that day, for example because a payment was pending, that reminder is skipped, not sent late.
3. **Is the repeating reminder due?** It counts from the last After due reminder, or from the due date if there isn't one, and sends on every multiple of N days.

Each invoice gets at most one reminder per day.

**Example.** Your sequence is 3 days before due, on the due date, 7 days after, then every 14 days. An invoice is due March 15.

| Date   | What happens                                              |
| ------ | --------------------------------------------------------- |
| Mar 12 | 3 days before due: sent                                   |
| Mar 15 | On the due date: sent                                     |
| Mar 20 | Customer pays; the invoice moves to **Pending**           |
| Mar 22 | 7 days after due: skipped, because the invoice is Pending |
| Mar 25 | The payment fails and the invoice goes back to **Sent**   |
| Apr 5  | Repeating, 14 days after Mar 22: sent                     |
| Apr 19 | Repeating: sent, and every 14 days after until it's paid  |

A few more cases:

* **Partial payments** don't stop reminders. The invoice keeps getting them until it's fully paid.
* **Autocharge customers** get reminders like everyone else. A successful charge moves the invoice to **Pending** or **Paid**, which stops them.
* **Editing the sequence** applies from the next morning's run. Invoices continue from wherever they are. Nothing already sent is resent.

## Control who gets reminders

| Control                                                                                                 | What it stops                                                                            | What keeps running                                                                          |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Turn off reminder emails** for a customer                                                             | Every dunning reminder to that customer, until you turn it back on                       | Invoice emails, one-off reminders you send, and the [Collections Agent](/collections-agent) |
| **Pause collections agent** for a customer                                                              | The agent, including its scheduled reminders and actions waiting for review              | Dunning reminders                                                                           |
| **Invoice email delivery** set to **Send to [billing@yourcompany.com](mailto:billing@yourcompany.com)** | Nothing. Reminders still go out, to your company's contact email instead of the customer | Everything                                                                                  |

Turn reminders off from **Customers → \[customer] → ⋯ → Turn off reminder emails**, or from **Collections → \[customer] → More actions → Turn off dunning reminders**. The change is recorded in the customer's collections activity. Integrators can do the same with `PUT /v3/customers/{id}/dunning`.

Every reminder sent appears as **Reminder sent** in the invoice's activity log, the customer's activity log, and the customer's collections activity.

## FAQ

**Can different customers have different sequences?** No. One sequence applies to every customer. Turn reminders off for any customer who shouldn't get them.

**Can I send a one-off reminder?** Yes, from the invoice, the invoice tracker, or the [customer collections page](/collections-agent#working-a-customer). One-off reminders don't change where the invoice is in the sequence.

**Why didn't an invoice get a reminder today?** Check it against the three steps in [How Tabs decides what to send](#how-tabs-decides-what-to-send). The usual reasons are that the invoice was Pending on the reminder's day, reminders are off for the customer, or the invoice was synced in from your ERP.