Different reminder rules per customer in QuickBooks Online: what the settings allow

A question that comes up as soon as you run reminders for a client: can this one customer get a gentler schedule, or no automatic reminders at all, while everyone else gets the standard ones? A key account, a friend of the owner, a customer on a payment plan.

This post sets out what Intuit's own help pages describe for QuickBooks Online's automatic invoice reminders, what QuickBooks Online Advanced adds with workflows, and the workarounds that follow from those rules. Facts checked on 2026-10-11 against Intuit's help articles, listed at the end. Menus move, so check the steps in each client's company file.

What the automatic reminders do

From Intuit's help article on invoice reminders, as read on 11 October 2026:

• **Where they live:** Settings (the gear icon), then Account and settings, then the Sales tab. In the Reminders section, select Edit and turn on "Automatic invoice reminders".
• **Up to three reminders.** Each is a number of days before or after the due date, up to 90 days either way.
• **One template for all of them.** You can edit the subject line (Intuit suggests keeping the word "reminder" in it), turn on a greeting, and rewrite the message with variables such as the invoice number and company name. In Intuit's words, the reminder template you set "will be used as a standard template for all invoice reminders".
• **Which invoices:** unpaid invoices that match your settings, and only invoices you have already emailed from QuickBooks. The UK version of the article adds that the customer needs an email address on the invoice.
• **A PDF copy:** on the same Sales tab, edit Online delivery and select "PDF Attached".
• **By hand:** go to Sales & Get Paid, then Invoices, find the invoice, and choose "Send reminder" from the Receive payment dropdown. You can change the message before you send it.
• **Turning them off:** edit the Reminders section and turn off "Automatic invoice reminders". The UK article says your changes to the template are kept if you turn them back on.

The US article also says reminders can be set up through Intuit Intelligence by typing a request, and QuickBooks now lines up AI drafted overdue reminders for review, which we covered in QuickBooks now drafts reminders: what you still decide.

Per customer: what the help pages say

The help article on automatic reminders does not describe any setting per customer. It describes one schedule of up to three reminders and one template, applied to every unpaid, emailed invoice that matches. We could not find an Intuit help article describing a switch to exclude one customer from the standard automatic reminders, so we will not tell you it exists. Check the customer record in your own file, as QuickBooks changes often.

On Advanced: workflows

Intuit's workflows article says workflows are available in QuickBooks Online Advanced and Intuit Enterprise Suite. You open Settings, then Manage workflows, then Templates, and either start from a template or create a custom workflow. Conditions set when a reminder goes out and who receives it, and you can add more than one condition.

The article does not list which fields an invoice reminder condition can use, so it does not confirm whether a condition can pick out one customer. If a client is on Advanced, build the workflow in their file and test it on one invoice before you promise them a separate rule for a customer.

Workarounds on other plans

These follow from the rules above. None is perfect, so agree the choice with each client.

1. **Choose a schedule every customer can live with.** If the client's most sensitive customer can take a reminder a week after the due date, set that, and do anything firmer by hand with Send reminder. 2. **Turn automatic reminders off for that client, and send by hand.** Run the aged receivables report once a week, take out the hold list, and send each reminder yourself. Slower, but nothing goes to a customer the client wanted left alone. 3. **Know what the "already emailed" rule means.** Automatic reminders only cover invoices emailed from QuickBooks. An invoice delivered another way is not picked up. Some owners rely on this for one customer, but it is fragile: the first invoice anyone emails to that customer from QuickBooks brings them back in. 4. **Watch for payment plans.** A customer paying in instalments still has an unpaid invoice, so the standard reminders will keep going unless you turn them off or handle that client by hand.

Whatever you choose, write it on the client's page in your notes, so the next person in your practice does not switch reminders back on.

Where Mugavi fits

We build Mugavi, so weigh this section accordingly. Mugavi's QuickBooks support is in beta, and we have not yet run it against a real QuickBooks company ourselves, so compare its totals with your own aged receivables report before you send anything. What it does for this problem:

• groups of customers with their own schedules, so a key account can get a different schedule from the rest
• holds on single customers
• a minimum balance below which an invoice is not chased
• a reply pauses that invoice until you have read it
• a plain words explanation of why a reminder has not gone out

Mugavi sends its own reminders, and it cannot switch off anything QuickBooks sends itself. If you use it for a client, turn QuickBooks' automatic reminders off in that file, or customers may get both. Some QuickBooks emails cannot be turned off at all, as we set out in stop QuickBooks emailing your customers. The page for practices is Mugavi for bookkeepers.

Sources

Facts checked on 2026-10-11, on these Intuit help articles:

• Send invoice reminders automatically or manually in QuickBooks Online (US)
• Send invoice reminders automatically or manually in QuickBooks (UK)
• Use workflows to automate business processes in QuickBooks Online Advanced