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.
The entry plan at £50/month includes sending from your own email address, late payment policies, email bounce monitoring and debtor reporting. These are all features that cost significantly more with some competitors.
Finally Trove uses AI to save admin time like drafting replies to customers or updating expected payment date in Xero.
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
May be less suited to: Businesses that need integrated debt collection services or invoice finance.
2. Paraglide
Best for: More complex businesses looking for a full finance@ inbox solution.
Paraglide uses agentic AI to manage your invoice collections but they do not stop there. They also manage billing queries making them a solid option for larger finance teams. If you often have billing queries in your inbox, Paraglide’s agents can help reduce the work for your finance team.
Paraglide appear to be aimed at larger businesses as they have the capability to integrate with all your systems: billing software, customer service platforms, CRM, ERP. This may be overkill for smaller teams but could be a gamechanger for large finance teams. They do not publish their pricing but a quick demo should do the trick to get a quote for your team.
Pricing: Upon request
May be less suited to: Smaller businesses with less operational complexity to handle.
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)
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. 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.
Less suited to: Growing businesses who are already using Xero reminders and reaching their limitations.
5. 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
Less suited to: Businesses that only need the reminders piece and don’t want to pay for other features they won’t use.
How to choose a credit control software
The right tool depends on where you are in your collections and what you actually need. Here’s a quick recap of different scenarios and the first tool to take a look at for each:
- You’re an established business keen to have a built-in pathway to debt collection: Chaser
- You have never chased invoices before and are very budget conscious: Xero’s invoice reminders
- You want good access to invoice financing built in: Satago
- You are looking to automate all of your finance@ inbox: Paraglide
- You only want to upgrade your credit control but still focus on this function only: Trove
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.
