# Chase an unpaid invoice

> Send a reminder by hand, let the nightly sweep chase for up to four weeks, then take over. Optionally ground members once they owe too many invoices.

Source: https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/chase-unpaid-invoices
Section: Billing and payments. For: Admins, Owners.

An unpaid invoice past its due date shows **Past due**. Open it from
`Billing` (web console) and click Send payment reminder. A daily sweep already chases
unpaid invoices, members' and aircraft owners' alike, for up to four weeks, then hands further
chase back to you. If you want teeth for members, set Ground members with unpaid invoices on
`Settings → Billing` (web console).

**Who can do this:** Owners, Admins

## Send a reminder by hand

1. **Open the invoice on Billing**

   Set the Status filter to Outstanding to see everything owed, or to Past due to see only what
   is late.

2. **Click Send payment reminder**

   It is in the invoice detail panel, and on the Recent invoices panel on the Dashboard.

   ![Invoice detail panel](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/invoice-detail-panel.png)

The member gets a Payment reminder email and a push notification, both carrying a link to
pay. The send is stamped on the invoice, so the automatic sweep will not immediately send a
second one on top of yours.

Reminders are for members and for aircraft owners billed for shop work. A guest invoice cannot
be reminded from here.

## Past due

An invoice is **Past due** when it is unpaid, not voided, and its due date has gone by. It shows
on every status badge: on Billing, on the invoice, on the person's own Invoices page, and on an
aircraft owner's job. An invoice with no due date is never past due, however old it is.

The Status filter on Billing has **Past due**: unpaid invoices whose due date has gone by, and
nothing else.

## The automatic reminders

A daily sweep chases unpaid invoices on its own: members' bills of every kind, and the bills
for shop work you send aircraft owners. An invoice is picked up when:

- it is past its due date, or
- it is 7 or more days old and has no due date.

After that, the same invoice is reminded at most once every 7 days, and at most four
times in total. On the fourth automatic reminder the member is told it is the last one
from AerScheduler, and every admin and owner gets a notice that further chase is on the
school.

Sending a reminder by hand does not count toward that four, and you can keep using Send
payment reminder after the automatic sweep has stopped.

Voided invoices and paid invoices are never chased.

## Reminders to aircraft owners

An owner who has signed in is reminded like a member, by their own settings, and pays from
their Invoices page. An owner the shop added who has not signed up is emailed at the address
you keep for them, with the invoice's own payment link, which needs no account.

> **Careful:** An owner with no email address on file is never reminded automatically. Add their address on
> their Contact card, or print the invoice and chase it yourself. Shop bills never ground
> anybody: grounding is about flying, and the owner does not fly here.

## Why flight invoices show no due date

> **Careful:** An invoice raised by a flight close-out is created without a due date, so the Due column on
> Billing shows a dash. Stripe's copy of the same invoice still gives the member 30 days to
> pay. That is why the two can look different, and it is why automatic reminders on a flight
> invoice start about a week after it is raised rather than on a deadline.

Invoices that do carry a due date here:

- a manual invoice, if you set one when you created it
- a membership dues invoice, if the plan has Days to pay filled in

## Ground members who owe money

This blocks a member from booking an aircraft once they hold too many unpaid invoices.

1. **Open Settings → Billing**

   This whole card is saved by the organization owner. An admin can open it and type in it,
   but Save changes will be refused.

2. **Enter a number in Ground members with unpaid invoices**

   It is a count of unpaid invoices. Not days late, and not dollars owed. Leave it blank or
   set it to 0 to switch it off, which is the default.

   ![Settings, Billing](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing-settings-card.png)

3. **Click Save changes**

A member at or above that number is grounded. Paying releases them automatically. The
threshold is checked when an invoice is created, and again on a nightly sweep. Voided
invoices do not count toward it.

## What grounding blocks and what it does not

|             |                                  |
| ----------- | -------------------------------- |
| Blocked     | Booking an aircraft              |
| Not blocked | Ground school, simulators, rooms |

> **Note:** The member is not sent a separate notification telling them they have been grounded for
> money. They find out when a booking is refused, so it is worth a phone call as well as a
> reminder.

> **Careful:** The nightly re-check only inspects invoices that carry a due date, and flight invoices have
> none. In practice a flight invoice counts toward grounding at the moment it is created, not
> later. If somebody has quietly built up a stack of unpaid flight invoices and is still
> booking, that is why. Mark the invoices paid, void the ones that are wrong, or speak to
> them directly.

## Guest invoices are chased by Stripe

Send payment reminder is refused on a guest invoice: "Guest invoices are emailed by
Stripe". A guest is not a member, has no account, and gets nothing from AerScheduler.
Chase them from your own Stripe dashboard, where the invoice was sent from. See
[Bill a discovery or guest flight](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/bill-a-discovery-or-guest-flight).

## Related

- [Pay your invoice and set up autopay](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/pay-an-invoice-and-save-a-card): What the member sees, and how autopay stops this happening again.
- [Mark paid, void or refund](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/billing/mark-an-invoice-paid-void-or-refund-it): Once the check turns up, or when the invoice was wrong all along.