Inputs
Needs your review
You keep one invoice-tracking Google Sheet. You mark an invoice Paid yourself. The automation never marks an invoice paid.
It fits when that sheet has consistent dates, a paid-status column, and a customer email for each person you want to remind.
What the system does
Automatic
- It runs once a day on a schedule, in the evening, and reads the sheet.
- It skips rows already marked Paid.
- It chooses a stage from the days since the invoice: a request on day 0, a gentle reminder in the early window, a final reminder before the grace period ends, then weekly reminders after it is overdue. If a stage was missed, it catches up while that window is still open.
- It never creates a second draft on the same day. It prepares only one reminder for each stage, comparing the last-reminder date with the start of that stage. After the invoice is overdue, it prepares another reminder only when 7 or more days have passed since the last reminder.
- If a customer has no email on file, it creates no draft and writes nothing. It tries again the next day.
- It creates a Gmail draft only. It never sends the message.
Human review
Needs your review
Review reminder drafts in Gmail, edit if needed, then send. Sending stays manual.
Status write-back
Automatic
In the same run, right after the draft is created, it writes the last reminder date and a reminder count back to the sheet.
Needs your review
That records when the draft was prepared, not when you sent it. If you delete a draft without sending it, the sheet still shows a reminder as prepared. You correct the sheet yourself.
If something fails
Needs your review
There is no custom error route. Failures rely on Make's built-in error email to the account owner, and you check the run history.
Known limit: if the draft is created but the write-back fails, a duplicate draft may appear the next day. You delete the extra draft.
Where it fits
It works when invoices live in one sheet with consistent dates and a paid-status column, and you have a customer email list.
It is not for automatic sending, payment collection, or bank reconciliation.