Guides

Practical guides to getting invoices paid on time, and to what CashWatchdog watches for you.

• Days sales outstanding (DSO): how to calculate it and bring it down
  What days sales outstanding means, the formula with a worked example, how to find the numbers in QuickBooks Online, what a good DSO is, and five ways to lower it.
• Google Ads budget overspend alerts by email
  A daily email when a Google Ads daily budget spends well over its limit, with the budget, spend and campaigns involved. Read-only; never changes your ads.
• How to ask a client for payment politely (scripts that work)
  What to say when a client hasn't paid: phone scripts, text messages and emails for each stage, how to stay friendly without being a pushover, and when to escalate.
• How to send payment reminders in QuickBooks Online
  Step-by-step: send a one-off reminder for an overdue invoice, turn on QuickBooks Online's automatic invoice reminders, and make sure you notice the invoices reminders don't fix.
• Invoice reminder email templates (free)
  Five copy-paste email templates for reminding customers about overdue invoices, from a friendly nudge to a firm final notice. Free to use, no signup required.
• Late payment fee wording for invoices (with examples)
  Copy-paste late fee clauses for invoices, contracts and reminder emails, how to set a fair rate, and the rules to check before you charge one.
• Net 30 payment terms: what they mean and when to use them
  What Net 30, Net 15, due on receipt and 2/10 Net 30 mean, how to choose payment terms that get you paid faster, and how to set default terms in QuickBooks Online.
• Overdue invoice alerts for bookkeepers and their clients
  Bookkeepers: give each QuickBooks Online client a morning email about invoices that just went past due, so collections start on day one instead of at month-end.
• Overdue invoice alerts for contractors
  Contractors and trades: get an email the morning a client payment goes past due, so you catch it before it turns into a bigger collections problem on a bigger job.
• QuickBooks invoice reminders vs. CashWatchdog
  An honest comparison: QuickBooks Online's automatic reminders email your customers, CashWatchdog emails you. What each does, what each misses, and why many businesses use both.
• QuickBooks overdue invoice alerts by email
  Get one email each morning listing the QuickBooks Online invoices that just went past due, with the customer, amount and days overdue. $49/month, read-only, cancel anytime.
• The QuickBooks A/R aging report, explained
  How to run the accounts receivable aging report in QuickBooks Online, what each column means, which numbers to act on first, and how often to check it.

Free calculators

• Late fee calculator
  Work out the late fee on an overdue invoice, as a monthly percentage, a flat fee, or whichever is greater, with wording to paste into your reminder email.
• Late payment cost calculator
  See how much cash slow-paying customers tie up in your business, and what that costs you a year.