Product
Most tools tell you an invoice is late. Collectly tells you why.
Sending a reminder on day 14 was never the hard part. Knowing whether to send one — to someone who might have already paid, or might be disputing the bill — is the part that takes your afternoon.
- Days overdue
- 9
- Follow-ups sent
- 0
- Promised by
- Sep 17
Recommended next step
Wait — 6 days, polite firm tone
Why hasn’t Cedarline Logistics paid?
Cedarline confirmed the invoice is approved internally and queued with finance, who “run payments on Thursdays, so it will go out this Thursday” — resolving to Sep 17. This is an administrative payment-run timing issue, not a dispute or refusal.
What it does
Six things, described accurately
This is the whole product as it stands today. Where something is not built yet, it is not on this page.
Explains why an invoice is unpaid
Not "45 days overdue" but the reason: approved and waiting on a payment run, sitting with someone who cannot authorise it, disputed on scope, or never acknowledged at all. Written out in a sentence, with a confidence figure, so you can check it against the email it read.
Records promises and holds you to them
When a customer commits to a date, Collectly extracts it, marks the invoice as promised, and stops chasing until the date passes. A lapsed promise is stated plainly and referenced directly in the next message.
Estimates when you will actually be paid
An expected payment date with a likelihood, built from that customer's payment history, the invoice's age, prior delays, and anything committed to in writing. A written promise outranks a statistic. A disputed invoice gets no date, because inventing one would be dishonest.
Drafts the follow-up, in the right register
Messages reference what the customer actually said, and the tone is capped by how overdue the invoice is — friendly early, formal much later. It cannot jump to firm on day two even if asked to.
Consolidates a customer who owes on several invoices
Rather than sending three separate reminders on the same morning, Collectly can produce one statement covering everything that customer owes.
Stops when it should
Paid, disputed, upset, or inside a live promise — Collectly hands the invoice to you and takes no action. These limits are enforced in the software and are not configurable.
The queue
What needs a person, and what does not
The most useful thing Collectly does is leave invoices alone. An invoice with a live promise on it is not a task.
Meridian Fitout is contesting this invoice — they say the final visit was never completed but was still billed. This is a service-delivery dispute, not a payment-willingness issue, and needs a human before any further contact.
Approved internally and queued with finance, who run payments on Thursdays — resolving to Sep 17. Administrative timing, not a dispute. No follow-up until just after the promised date.
21 days overdue with no customer communication and no follow-ups sent yet. Since there has been no contact, a firm reminder should prompt payment or a response.
Questions
Straight answers
If something here is unclear, or you want to know whether Collectly handles a specific situation, ask us before you pay for anything.
What is Collectly?
Collectly is accounts-receivable software for small businesses. It keeps track of which invoices are unpaid, reads the replies your customers send about them, works out why each invoice has not been paid, and drafts the next follow-up email for you to approve before it is sent. If you turn on automatic sending, routine low-risk reminders go out without that approval.
Who is Collectly for?
Small businesses that invoice other businesses and do not have a dedicated accounts-receivable person: marketing and creative agencies, web and design studios, consultants, freelancers, contractors, professional services firms and small B2B companies. It is built for the owner or office manager who is doing the chasing alongside their actual job.
How does Collectly help with unpaid invoices?
It puts every unpaid invoice in one place, sorted by what needs attention rather than by date. For each one it shows a written explanation of why it is unpaid, based on what the customer actually wrote back, along with an expected payment date. Where a follow-up makes sense it writes one that references the conversation so far, and holds it for your approval.
Does Collectly replace my accounting software?
No. Collectly does not do bookkeeping, produce invoices, file taxes or replace QuickBooks or Xero. It works alongside your accounting software and handles the follow-up on invoices that have already been issued.
How does Collectly work?
You bring your outstanding invoices in by CSV or by adding them manually, and connect the mailbox you send invoices from. Collectly finds the email threads relating to those invoices, reads any replies, and classifies what they mean — paid, a promise to pay with a date, a dispute, a question, or no reply. It then shows you what needs attention and drafts follow-ups for the invoices that warrant one.
Can I still email customers myself?
Yes. Follow-ups are sent from your own mailbox as replies in the existing thread, so your customer's reply comes straight back to you and the conversation stays in one place. You can write to anyone directly at any time, and you can exclude specific customers from follow-ups entirely.
Does Collectly send emails without me seeing them?
Not unless you turn that on. Every account starts in approval mode, where Collectly drafts follow-ups and waits for you to click send. There is also a draft-only mode where nothing can be sent from Collectly at all, and an optional mode that sends routine reminders on low-risk invoices between 1 and 13 days overdue by itself. Even in that mode, disputes, payment promises, upset customers and anything more than 30 days overdue still wait for a person.
Will it chase a customer who has already paid or who is disputing the bill?
No. Collectly never sends a payment reminder on an invoice marked paid, never chases a disputed invoice, never escalates when a customer is upset, and never writes while a payment promise is still good. These rules are enforced in the software itself and cannot be switched off for any account.
Is my financial and customer information secure?
Collectly requests only two Gmail permissions: read access, to read the replies in threads involving customers you have added, and send access, to send a follow-up you have approved, or a routine low-risk reminder without approval if you have turned on automatic sending. It does not request permission to create, modify or delete anything in your mailbox. Mailbox credentials are stored encrypted, every workspace's data is isolated from every other, and you can disconnect your mailbox at any time.
What does Collectly cost?
Plans run from $19 to $199 per month, priced on how many invoices you have outstanding at once rather than per user. Paying yearly costs ten months instead of twelve. There is no free trial; instead, if you cancel within 14 days of your first payment you get a full refund, no questions asked.
Stop spending your week chasing invoices
Bring in your unpaid invoices, connect the mailbox you send them from, and see what Collectly makes of them.
Cancel any time. If you cancel within 14 days of your first payment, we refund it in full — no questions asked.