Introduction
Every night the app looks through your bookings and emails the customers who are due a reminder: to pay, to pay the deposit, to come and collect the vehicle, to bring it back, and a few days after the rental to give feedback. Nobody at the desk presses anything for these. The only reminder you send by hand is the Payment Reminder button on the booking's Emails tab.
Why it is useful:
- a customer booked three weeks ahead and has not paid yet, and you want them chased without phoning them
- a deposit is still open a few days before pick-up
- you want customers reminded the day before they collect, so fewer of them forget
- a customer is still out with the vehicle and it is due back tomorrow
- a customer rings to say they never got a reminder, and you need to know whether they should have
The reminders at a glance. Skim this once; the sections below explain each row.
| Reminder (the template's type) | Who gets it | When |
|---|---|---|
| Payment reminder | Confirmed bookings with money still owed | On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, while pick-up is between 4 and 28 days away |
| Deposit Payment Reminder | Confirmed bookings with money still owed | Every night while pick-up is between 1 and 4 days away |
| Pickup Reminder | Confirmed bookings | Once, the night before pick-up is less than one day away |
| Dropoff reminder | Customers who have the vehicle | Once, the night the return is less than 24 hours away |
| Feedback | Returned, invoiced and paid bookings | Once, four to five days after the return date |
The 4 and 28 days are your own settings; the table shows the values every company starts with. Use this page to set the reminders up and to work out why one did or did not go.
How to use
Configuration
Two things decide whether reminders go out: a template for each reminder, and your company's advanced payment terms.
1. A template for each reminder. The app does not write the email. Each reminder needs an active template with its type, written by your company. Without one, that reminder is simply not sent, and nothing tells you. From the main menu open Admin, then Communicator, then click the Bookings tile. Create a template for each type in the table above. How to write a template, and how the language is chosen, is on the page about automated emails (Set up the automatic emails).
2. The advanced payment terms. The payment and deposit reminders only run for a company that has advanced payment terms. They exist from the first time someone presses Setup; until then those two reminders are never sent.
- From the main menu open Admin, then Settings, then click the Operational tile.
- Open the Payments tab. Under the heading Payment advanced, press Setup (the link with a cog icon). The screen Edit Advanced Payment Terms opens.
- Check the three fields below and press Save.
| Field | Starts as | What it does for reminders | What it accepts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pickup reminder threshold | 1 | How many days before pick-up the pick-up reminder goes | Whole days only |
| Advance payment threshold | 28 | Payment reminders stop being sent for pick-ups further away than this | Whole days only |
| Full payment threshold | 4 | Payment reminders stop, and deposit reminders start, when pick-up is closer than this | Whole days only |
The Advance payment threshold and Full payment threshold also decide which confirmation email a booking gets; see Confirm a booking. The reminders use the two numbers whether the Advance payment and Full payment switches on the same screen are on or off. Changes take effect from the next night, for every booking, including ones already confirmed.
Before you start: writing templates and opening Edit Advanced Payment Terms need the Company admin role. The Payment Reminder button on a booking works for any staff account. A reminder goes to the email address of the booking's customer, so it must be filled in.
Using the reminders
There is nothing to start. The night run does the work. What you do day to day is send a payment reminder by hand when you want one now.
- From the main menu open Bookings and click the booking's row.
- In the lower set of tabs, open Emails.
- Press Payment Reminder. The email goes at once and the app shows Email sent.
The button is there in every status, and it does not check whether money is owed. It is your decision to press it.
Key details
Payment reminders. All of these must be true on the night:
| Condition | What to check |
|---|---|
| The company has advanced payment terms | Setup has been pressed at least once (see above) |
| The booking is Confirmed and pick-up is still ahead | Status on the booking |
| Pick-up is more than Full payment threshold and less than Advance payment threshold days away | 4 and 28 days, unless changed |
| The booking was made more than seven days ago | The booking's creation date |
| It is Monday, Wednesday or Friday | The day of the night run |
| The customer still owes rent | The balance on the booking, not counting the deposit |
A booking made less than seven days ago gets no payment reminder at all, so a customer who books a week ahead is not chased before the confirmation has even sunk in.
Deposit reminders need the same payment terms and a Confirmed booking. They go every night, any day of the week, while pick-up is more than one day and less than Full payment threshold days away, and the booking still shows money owed. Depending on how the booking is to be paid, that amount can include the deposit.
Pick-up reminders go once, on the night pick-up is between Pickup reminder threshold minus one and Pickup reminder threshold days away. At the starting value of 1, that is the night before a pick-up within the next 24 hours. Set it to 2 to send it a day earlier. A company without advanced payment terms still gets pick-up reminders, as if the threshold were 1.
Drop-off reminders go once to a customer whose booking is Picked up, on the night the return is less than 24 hours away. They do not need payment terms.
The feedback request goes once, four to five days after the return date on the contract, and only to a booking that is invoiced and paid. The full rules are on Check customer feedback after a rental.
Worked example. Advanced payment terms at their starting values (1, 4 and 28). A customer books on Thursday 1 October for a pick-up on Friday 23 October at 10:00, total €640.00, deposit €500.00, nothing paid yet.
| Night of | Pick-up is | What goes |
|---|---|---|
| Mon 5 Oct | 18 days away | Nothing: the booking is only four days old |
| Fri 9, Mon 12, Wed 14, Fri 16, Mon 19 Oct | 14¼ to 4¼ days away | A payment reminder each night |
| Tue 20, Wed 21, Thu 22 Oct | 3¼ to 1¼ days away | A deposit reminder each night |
| Fri 23 Oct (early morning) | ¼ day away | The pick-up reminder |
If the customer pays everything they owe on 14 October and you record it, the payment and deposit reminders stop; only the pick-up reminder still goes.
No catch-up for a missed night. Each reminder is decided on the night itself. If the night run did not happen, or the template was switched off that night, the reminders due that night are not sent later. The pick-up, drop-off and feedback reminders each have only one night, so a missed night means that customer never gets it.
What to do next: once a customer has paid, record it with Record a payment a customer has made so the reminders stop. To send a payment link rather than a reminder, use Send a customer a payment request.
Q&A
Why do customers keep getting payment reminders after they paid? The payment has not been recorded on the booking, so it still shows money owed. Record it on the booking (Record a payment a customer has made); the next night's run sees it.
Why is nobody getting payment or deposit reminders at all? Either your company has no advanced payment terms, or there is no active template of type Payment reminder or Deposit Payment Reminder. Ask your Company admin to press Setup under Admin, Settings, Operational, Payments once and save, and to check the templates under Admin, Communicator, Bookings.
I pressed Payment Reminder and saw Email sent, but the customer got nothing. Why? Email sent appears even when there is no active Payment reminder template for that customer's language, and then no email leaves. Check the templates, and check the list of sent emails under Admin, Communicator, Sent Emails. See Find out why an email did not arrive.
Why did a customer get a deposit reminder every night for three nights? That is normal. Deposit reminders go every night in their window while something is owed. The app does not remember that it already sent one.
Why did a customer who booked last week not get a payment reminder? Payment reminders skip bookings made seven days ago or less, and they only go on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Press Payment Reminder on the booking's Emails tab if you want one to go now.
Why did the pick-up reminder arrive on the morning of the pick-up, not the day before? At the starting Pickup reminder threshold of 1, the reminder goes on the night before a pick-up that is less than one day away, which is the early morning of the pick-up day. Set the threshold to 2 to send it a day earlier.
Can I stop reminders for one customer? Yes, per type of email. See Stop or suppress emails.
Is there an automatic reminder for a quote the customer has not answered? No. You can write a template of type Quote reminder, but the night run never sends it. Follow up on open quotes from Send a quote and follow it up.
Related pages:
- Set up the automatic emails: writing each reminder's template.
- Confirmation emails: the other use of the two payment thresholds.
- Find out why an email did not arrive: when a reminder you expected is missing.