Automate invoice chasing with Microsoft 365
Chasing overdue invoices is repetitive, easy to forget and quietly expensive. Microsoft 365 can send the reminders, track responses and escalate — on a schedule, with a full audit trail.
What is the operational problem?
Late payments are rarely a collections problem — they are a follow-up problem. Reminders depend on someone remembering to send them, between everything else. When it gets busy, chasing slips, debtor days climb and cash flow tightens.
Reminders depend on memory
No automatic trigger when an invoice ages past its due date — so chasing only happens when someone has time.
No single view of who owes what
Aged debt lives in the accounts package and a few inboxes. Nobody can see the full picture at a glance.
Inconsistent escalation
First reminder, second reminder, phone call — the sequence is ad-hoc, so some debtors are chased hard and others not at all.
What does the manual process cost?
A clear, conservative worked example — adjust the inputs to your own numbers.
Worked example: a 6-person firm chasing by hand
| Invoices chased per week | 10 |
| Average admin time per chase | 9 minutes |
| Hours per year (×52) | ≈ 78 hours |
| Blended hourly cost | £22 |
| Direct admin cost per year | ≈ £1,700 |
Before the larger cost: slower payment, higher debtor days and the cash-flow strain of money sitting unpaid. The admin figure is just the visible tip.
Want the number for your business first?
The free Quick Win Identifier ranks your manual processes and estimates the annual saving in about 5 minutes.
How would the Microsoft 365 solution work?
Built on tools you already own — Power Automate, SharePoint, Teams and the wider Microsoft 365 stack.
date passes in SharePoint/Excel
FlowOps logicOutlook email + escalation
status tracked
- An overdue date in a SharePoint list, Excel table or your finance export triggers a Power Automate cloud flow.
- The flow sends a branded reminder from Outlook, logs that it was sent, and waits a set number of days.
- If still unpaid, it escalates — second reminder, then a task or Teams alert to the account owner for a call.
- Every action is recorded, so you get a real-time view of what has been chased and what is outstanding.
What licences might be required?
We confirm exact licensing at scoping — and design to avoid premium licences where we sensibly can.
Microsoft 365 Business Standard or Premium
Covers Outlook, SharePoint, Excel, Teams and standard Power Automate cloud flows — enough for most invoice-chasing automations.
from ~£10.50 (Standard) / ~£16.90 (Premium)
Power Automate Premium (only if needed)
Needed if the flow connects directly to an accounting system via a premium connector, or stores data in Dataverse rather than SharePoint.
~£12.30 per user
Often avoidable by triggering from a SharePoint/Excel export instead.
Indicative UK list prices, per user per month, ex-VAT, mid-2026. Microsoft is changing some Microsoft 365 and Copilot prices from 1 July 2026 — exact licensing is confirmed at scoping, never assumed.
What risks or governance checks are needed?
Automation without governance is a liability. This is the BCS-disciplined checklist we work through.
- Run the flow from a service account, not a personal mailbox
- Store invoice data in a controlled SharePoint site with correct permissions
- Apply Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies to the environment
- Keep reminder wording compliant and professional (no implied legal threats)
- Build in error handling and failure alerts so a broken flow is noticed
- Define retention for chasing records in line with UK GDPR
What result should the business expect?
Reminders go out the moment an invoice ages, every time, in a consistent tone. Your team stops spending hours on follow-up, debtor days fall, and you can see exactly where every outstanding invoice stands.
Ready to see what this is worth for your team?
Book a free 30-minute automation review and we will turn your version of this process into a costed plan — the seventh question, answered for your business.