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Sales · Collections
Chase every overdue invoice in the order you would.
A dunning ladder sends a friendly note, then a firm one, then a final notice, then tells your team — by email, SMS and WhatsApp, in your words, with a link to pay. Each stage goes out once, payment stops it, and a customer you are talking to can be paused. Recurring invoices can collect on their own first, by saved card or M-Pesa prompt.
Dunning ladder · the defaultOff until you switch it on
Friendly reminderDay 1
Email SMS
Firm reminderDay 7
Email SMS WhatsApp
Final noticeDay 14
Email SMS WhatsApp
Escalate to your teamDay 30
Your admins
Up to 8 stageseach at its own day overdue, from 1 to 365, on any mix of four channels
Once eacha stage reaches each channel once per invoice, and every attempt is logged
1 a dayan invoice never hears from two stages on the same day
3 attemptsto auto-charge a recurring invoice, one a day, before the ladder takes over
Why a ladder, not a reminder
The same email every day is easy to ignore. A sequence is not.
Credit control is a conversation that gets firmer. The first message assumes the customer forgot; the second names the number of days; the third says it is final; after that a person picks up the phone. Most systems send one reminder email on a cycle and leave the rest to whoever has time.
A dunning ladder in AWRA runs that sequence for every overdue invoice, every day, on the channels your customers actually read — and keeps a record of every message it sent, failed to send, or chose not to send, with the reason.
What a daily pass guarantees
Four rules that keep a ladder from becoming spam.
Each stage once per channel
A stage reaches each of its channels once per invoice, ever. Every attempt is recorded — sent, failed or skipped — so a message that failed today is not quietly re-sent tomorrow.
Never two stages in a day
An invoice that heard from any stage today waits until tomorrow, however far behind the ladder it is.
The latest stage due wins
Switch the ladder on when an invoice is already 20 days overdue and it gets the final notice, not the friendly day-1 note. The stages it jumped are recorded as skipped, so they never fire after a firmer one.
It stops when it should
Only invoices with a balance are read, so payment ends the sequence. A customer whose dunning is paused hears nothing, and an invoice a recurring schedule is still trying to charge waits until the charge gives up.
Four channels Email
WhatsApp
Your providers, your sender, your words.
The settings screen shows whether each channel can actually send before you save, so a stage never looks configured while every message is being skipped.
The customer reminder email carrying your subject and message, sent to the customer’s email on file.
Obeys the customer reminder switch in Notification Preferences and your plan’s daily email allowance.SMS
Sent through the SMS provider you connected under Connectors, to the customer’s phone in international form.
Each message is billed by your provider, to your account.Sent through your own WhatsApp connection using an approved one-field template; the stage’s message fills the field.
Needs your connected number and an approved template.Your team
The escalation: a bell notice to your workspace’s admins with a link to the invoice, plus an email when Dunning Escalation is on.
Always available — it needs no provider. Placeholders in every message
Hi {customer}, invoice {invoice} for {amount} is now {days_overdue} days overdue (due {due_date}). Please pay today: {pay_link}. {business}.
The amount is the balance still due, in the invoice’s currency. The pay link opens your signed Pay now page when you collect through IntaSend, and otherwise the customer portal, where the customer signs in with an emailed link and pays by M-Pesa or card.
Worked example
One invoice, switched on late, followed to the end.
Invoice INV-2241 for KES 86,500 fell due on 1 September. The ladder was switched on on 21 September, when it was already 20 days overdue. The customer has an email address and a phone number; the workspace has SMS connected but not WhatsApp.
Dunning history · INV-2241As shown on the invoice’s page and in the mobile app
| Date | Stage | Channel | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Sep | Friendly reminder · day 1 | Ladder | SkippedSuperseded by “Final notice”. |
| 21 Sep | Firm reminder · day 7 | Ladder | SkippedSuperseded by “Final notice”. |
| 21 Sep | Final notice · day 14 | Sent | |
| 21 Sep | Final notice · day 14 | SMS | Sent |
| 21 Sep | Final notice · day 14 | SkippedWhatsApp is not set up with an approved template (Connectors). | |
| 1 Oct | Escalate to your team · day 30 | Your team | Sent2 in-app, 0 email |
Had the customer paid on 25 September, the balance would have reached zero and the escalation on 1 October would never have run. Had someone paused dunning for the customer while agreeing a payment plan, nothing would have gone out until it was resumed.
Before the ladder: auto-charge
A recurring invoice can collect itself.
On a recurring invoice schedule set to issue automatically, choose to charge the customer’s saved card or to send an M-Pesa prompt. A draft is not final, so auto-charge is refused on a schedule that only raises drafts. Auto-charge collects in Kenya shillings.
Charge the saved card
A card is saved only by a payment: the customer pays a card invoice through Paystack and ticks “save this card” in the customer portal, or pays an invoice raised by a card schedule. AWRA keeps Paystack’s reusable token with the brand, last four digits and expiry — never the card number — and your staff can see and remove it but never type one in.
When the schedule issues an invoice, the newest saved card is charged for the balance. A success is settled at once, and Paystack’s confirmation arriving afterwards changes nothing.
Send an M-Pesa prompt
An STK push goes to the number on the schedule, or the customer’s saved M-Pesa number, or their phone on file, in that order. The customer approves it on their phone; nothing is collected without that tap, so this is a prompt rather than a debit.
Safaricom’s callback settles the payment against the invoice, the same way as any other M-Pesa collection.
Day 0Attempt 1
On the day the schedule issues the invoice. If it fails, the schedule’s owner gets a bell warning.
Day 1Attempt 2
From the daily run. A prompt still unanswered by then counts as failed.
Day 2Attempt 3
The last try. A paid balance at any point ends the attempts as succeeded.
ThenHanded to the ladder
The owner is told it has stopped and why, and the invoice follows your dunning ladder.
Some failures cannot improve with a retry — no saved card, no M-Pesa number, no email address for Paystack, or an invoice in another currency — and those hand over at once rather than waiting three days.
What you get
Set it up once in Settings, then watch it per invoice.
Your ladder
Name each stage, set the day overdue, choose its channels and write its subject and message, up to eight stages. Two stages cannot share a day.
Edits that keep history
Rewording a stage keeps its record. Moving it to another day makes it a new stage, so an invoice that heard from day 7 is not chased again by the same stage moved to day 8.
Pause a customer
One switch on the customer’s page stops every reminder to them until it is turned back on — for a dispute, a payment plan or a key account.
History on the invoice
Every stage, channel, recipient and result, with the reason for anything skipped or failed, on the invoice’s own page.
Its own permission
Editing the ladder and pausing a customer need the dunning permission, separate from raising invoices.
On mobile
See the ladder and switch it on or off, and read an invoice’s dunning history — with a note when the customer is paused — in the app.
What AWRA OpsHub does today
- A dunning ladder of up to eight stages, each at a day overdue from 1 to 365, on email, SMS, WhatsApp or an escalation to your admins.
- Your own subject and message per stage, with placeholders for the customer, invoice, balance, due date, days overdue, pay link and your business name.
- Each stage once per channel per invoice, every attempt logged as sent, failed or skipped with its reason.
- One stage a day at most, and the latest stage due wins when an invoice is already far overdue.
- Stopped by payment, by a per-customer pause, and while a recurring auto-charge is still retrying.
- Channel readiness on the settings screen, so a stage that cannot send says so before you save.
- Off by default; until it is switched on the existing daily reminder email carries on as before.
- Auto-charge on recurring invoices that issue automatically: a saved Paystack card charged, or an M-Pesa prompt sent, in shillings.
- Three attempts, one a day, a bell warning to the schedule’s owner, then a hand-over to the ladder.
- Saved cards added only by a payment, stored as Paystack’s token with brand, last four and expiry, and removable by your staff.
More we can add to your workspace
- Reminders before the due date, such as a courtesy note three days ahead.
- A ladder per customer group, so key accounts get a gentler sequence than everyone else.
- A promise-to-pay date that holds the ladder until the day the customer committed to.
- Late-payment interest or a fee added by a stage, as a separate charge on the account.
- Statements attached to a reminder, so the customer sees every open invoice in one message.
- Auto-charge in currencies beyond the shilling, and through IntaSend as well as Paystack and M-Pesa.
- Replies collected on the invoice, so an SMS or WhatsApp answer to a reminder lands beside its history.
Where we point you to a specialist
- We will not send SMS or WhatsApp through an account of ours. The messages go through the providers you connect, under your sender name, so the customer knows who is writing and the cost sits with the business that chose to send.
- We will not chase an invoice its schedule is still trying to charge. Asking a customer to pay what is about to be collected from their card is how a reminder becomes a complaint.
- We will not type a card in for a customer. A card reaches AWRA only through a payment the customer made themselves.
Reminders before the due date and a promise-to-pay date are the two that most change how a ladder feels to a customer, and both build on the stage and event records the ladder already keeps. Tell us how you chase payment today and we will come back with a written spec, a timeline and a price.
Explore next
Around a collection.
Dunning and auto-charge
Frequently asked questions
Can AWRA send reminders for overdue invoices?
Yes. A dunning ladder sends staged reminders for every overdue invoice: by default a friendly reminder at 1 day overdue, a firm one at 7, a final notice at 14 and an escalation to your team at 30. You can change the days, channels and wording, up to eight stages. The ladder is off until you switch it on; until then the daily reminder email carries on as before.
Which channels can a reminder use?
Email, SMS, WhatsApp and an escalation to your admins. SMS goes through the SMS provider you connect and WhatsApp through your own connection with an approved template, so messages come from your sender and are billed to your account. The escalation is a bell notice to your admins, plus an email if you have that switched on.
Will a customer get the same reminder twice?
No. Each stage reaches each of its channels once per invoice, and every attempt is recorded, including ones that failed or were skipped. An invoice never hears from two stages on the same day, and if it is already far overdue when the ladder starts, it gets the latest stage due and the earlier ones are recorded as skipped.
How do I stop reminders to one customer?
Pause dunning on the customer’s page. Nothing goes out to them until you resume it. Reminders also stop on their own when an invoice is paid, because only invoices with a balance are read.
Can recurring invoices charge customers automatically?
Yes, on a schedule that issues its invoices automatically. It can charge the customer’s saved card through Paystack or send an M-Pesa prompt to their phone, in Kenya shillings. A failed charge is tried again the next day, up to three attempts; after the last one the schedule’s owner is told and the invoice moves to your dunning ladder.
How is a customer’s card saved?
Only by a payment the customer makes: paying a card invoice through Paystack with “save this card” ticked in the customer portal, or paying an invoice raised by a card schedule. AWRA keeps Paystack’s token with the card brand, last four digits and expiry, never the card number. Your staff can see and remove a saved card but cannot type one in.
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