Update Xero's expected payment date directly from your email

Summary

• A payment date a customer promises in an email is only useful if it’s used consistently throughout your systems.
• When a customer replies to a reminder with a payment date, Trove reads it, updates the expected payment date against the invoice in Xero, and pauses chasing until the date passes.
• If the promised date passes without payment, Trove resumes chasing automatically.
• You can also set yourself a reminder for when a promised date arrives, if you’d rather step in personally.
• The whole loop runs from your own email address, so the customer only ever sees a message from you.

What do you gain by updating the expected payment date in your systems

Recording the new payment date from the customer does three things at once.

1. It keeps your cash flow forecast honest. Now you can forecast off the expected payment date instead of a due date in the past.
2. It stops the invoice being chased before the promised date, which saves irritating customers.
3. It keeps a record of what was actually promised so you can get firm if the date slips.

How expected payment dates get updated in Trove

Trove runs the following process all via your email address:

1. You send an email chasing a payment, either as part of an automated sequence or one you approve before it goes.
2. The customer replies to confirm they’ll pay on a specific date. For example: “Hi - apologies for the delay, this will be added to the payment run on 3 August.”
3. Trove reads the reply, pulls out the date, and updates the expected payment date against that invoice in Xero for you.
4. Chasing that invoice is paused until the promised date. Trove won’t keep nudging a customer who’s already told you when they’ll pay.
5. If the date passes and the payment still hasn’t arrived, Trove picks chasing back up automatically, so a promise made to buy time doesn’t quietly fall through the cracks.

This stops the payment date from getting stuck in your email and makes it into a useful piece of data.

Set yourself a reminder for when the date passes

If you’d rather step in personally when a promised date arrives, you can set yourself a reminder for that invoice. When the expected payment date passes, you get a prompt to check whether it landed and decide how to follow up, instead of relying on memory or a spreadsheet of who-promised-what. Our support doc walks through setting a reminder and how the dates sync with Xero.

The takeaway

A payment date promised in an email is only useful if it reaches your systems. Trove moves it there for you, pauses chasing until the date arrives, and starts again if it doesn’t, so the field stays current without you touching it.

For the full picture of how the expected payment date fits into your credit control process, see our guide to using Xero’s expected payment date feature.