If you’re running a small business and regularly chasing unpaid invoices, the right software can save you hours every week and materially improve your cash flow. The wrong one can add cost and complexity without much to show for it.

This guide covers the five best options for UK small businesses in 2026 - what each does, who it suits, and what it costs. We’ve focused on tools that are realistic choices for businesses without a dedicated finance team.

1. Trove

Best for: Small UK businesses that want straightforward, well-priced invoice chasing

Trove automates your entire collections process - sending reminders from your own email address, tracking which invoices are at risk, and categorising debtors based on their payment behaviour. It integrates with Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent, and Stripe, and is a Xero 2026 Growth App.

What sets Trove apart for small businesses is the combination of price and capability. The entry plan at £50/month includes sending from your own email address, late payment policies, email bounce monitoring, and debtor reporting - features that cost significantly more with some competitors. Pre-due-date reminders are supported natively, and multiple workflows let you treat different customer types differently.

Pricing:

  • Essential: £50/month
  • Integrated: £135/month (adds CRM integrations, Slack/Teams alerts, sub-customer support)
  • Advanced: £285/month (adds credit checks, NetSuite/Sage/Dynamics, multi-entity support)
  • 30-day free trial available

Worth knowing: Trove surfaces DSO and debtor movement metrics natively, so you can see whether your collections process is working without building a spreadsheet.

Less suited to: Businesses that need integrated debt collection services or invoice finance.

2. Chaser

Best for: Small businesses that want a well-established tool with debt collection built in

Chaser has been around since 2014 and has a strong reputation, particularly among accountants and bookkeepers managing collections for clients. It integrates with Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, and NetSuite, and includes a built-in pathway to debt collection if automated reminders don’t result in payment - something most tools in this category don’t offer.

The main drawback for small businesses is pricing. At £199/month for the entry plan and £599/month for the next tier, Chaser is significantly more expensive than the alternatives. For a business with a modest invoice volume, the ROI calculation needs careful thought.

Pricing:

  • Starter: £199/month
  • Next tier: £599/month
  • Free trial available

Worth knowing: Chaser also offers credit checking, which is useful if you want to assess new clients before agreeing payment terms.

Less suited to: Very small businesses or sole traders where the monthly cost is hard to justify.

3. Satago

Best for: Businesses that want invoice reminders alongside credit checking and invoice finance in one platform

Satago is a three-in-one tool: automated reminders, credit risk checking, and invoice finance. If you regularly run credit checks on new clients and occasionally need to access cash against outstanding invoices, having everything in one place has genuine value.

The entry plan is competitively priced at £45/month, but it’s worth noting that reminders are sent from Satago’s email address at that level - not your own. To send from your own domain, you need the Premium plan at £80/month. Deliverability from your own address is important for both professionalism and reducing the chance of hitting spam filters.

Pricing:

  • Basic: £45/month (100 reminders/month, 25 credit reports, Satago email address)
  • Premium: £80/month (unlimited reminders, 100 credit reports, your own email address, SMS)
  • Platinum: £200/month (unlimited credit reports, 1,000 SMS reminders, dedicated account manager)

Worth knowing: Satago integrates with Xero and Sage, but not FreeAgent or QuickBooks.

Less suited to: Businesses that only need the reminders piece and don’t want to pay for credit checking and finance features they won’t use.

4. Paidnice

Best for: Businesses that want to automate late payment fees alongside reminders

Paidnice is a Xero add-on that focuses specifically on enforcing payment terms - automatically applying late fees, calculating interest on overdue invoices, and sending reminders. If late payment fees are a regular part of how you manage slow payers, Paidnice handles the calculation and application automatically rather than requiring manual intervention.

It’s a more niche tool than the others on this list, but for businesses where enforcing payment terms is important (professional services, legal, finance), it fills a specific gap.

Pricing: Starts from around £29/month. Xero integration only.

Worth knowing: Paidnice works alongside Xero’s native reminders rather than replacing them entirely.

Less suited to: Businesses that need a full collections workflow across multiple payment terms or customer types.

5. Xero invoice reminders (free)

Best for: Businesses just starting to formalise their collections process

If you’re already on Xero and haven’t turned on invoice reminders yet, do that first. It’s free, takes about ten minutes to set up, and will recover a meaningful number of overdue invoices automatically without any additional cost.

Xero allows up to five reminders per invoice, sends on a schedule you define, and covers the basics well for businesses with a straightforward client base. The limitations become apparent as you grow: reminders go to the contact record rather than the specific invoice recipient, emails come from Xero’s domain rather than yours (which affects spam filtering), and there’s no visibility on whether reminders have been opened or delivered.

Pricing: Included with most Xero subscriptions - no additional cost.

Worth knowing: We’ve written a full breakdown of Xero’s limitations and when to consider upgrading here.

Less suited to: Businesses with corporate clients, multiple contacts per account, or anyone who’s already using Xero reminders and still has a growing overdue balance.

How to choose

The right tool depends on where you are and what you actually need.

If you’re not chasing invoices at all yet, start with Xero’s free reminders. If you’ve turned those on and your overdue balance is still growing, it’s time to look at a dedicated tool.

For most small UK businesses, the choice comes down to Trove and Chaser. Trove is cheaper and covers the essentials well. Chaser costs more but includes debt collection services if you need them. Both offer free trials, so the practical answer is to start with Trove - at £50/month, the downside of switching later is low.

If you think you’ll also need credit checking or invoice finance, add Satago to your shortlist. If you’re specifically trying to automate late payment fee enforcement, take a look at Paidnice.

Start a 30-day free trial of Trove here - it connects to Xero in a few clicks and you’ll see your first results within a week.