Yes. A client’s outstanding balance shows directly on their profile inside PocketSuite, and Scheduled Invoices paired with Scheduled Messages lets a business automatically send a payment reminder before or after a balance is due, without a staff member manually tracking who still owes money.
PocketSuite powers 7,000+ service businesses, including 1,000+ pet service businesses, whose clients have collectively processed nearly $1 billion in income and scheduled over 9.2 million appointments. An unpaid balance that goes unnoticed for weeks is one of the more avoidable ways a pet business loses revenue it already technically earned.
Seeing which clients owe money, and reminding them automatically, are two separate pieces that work together, one gives a business visibility, the other closes the gap without extra manual follow-up.
Seeing Every Client’s Balance in One Place
A client’s outstanding balance, any unpaid invoice or remaining amount owed, is visible directly on their profile, so a staff member checking a returning client in can see at a glance whether a past charge is still open. That visibility is also reflected in income reporting, which shows a business its total outstanding receivables alongside revenue that has actually been collected.
“It’s integrated — you can manage your team, issue paychecks if you need to, send an invoice to your client, schedule, and do all of that in one place. Having that in one place has made getting acclimated to being a business owner so much smoother for me.” said Evvia Marshall, owner, Care Pals Pet Sitting, describing how having invoicing built into the same place as scheduling and client management has made it easier to stay on top of a business’s day-to-day operations, outstanding balances included.
Watch: Care Pals Pet Sitting on Running a Business From One App
Sending a Reminder Automatically
Scheduled Invoices lets a business set an invoice to go out on a specific date, and a follow-up text reminder can be scheduled through Scheduled Messages to go out a set number of days later, so a business doesn’t have to remember to follow up on an open invoice manually. That reminder goes out on its own once the scheduled number of days has passed, triggered by the invoice’s payment status rather than by a staff member checking it by hand.
A client who simply forgot to pay, rather than one avoiding it, tends to settle a balance quickly once reminded, which is exactly the kind of gap an automated reminder is built to close.
Reminding Without Making It Feel Like a Collections Call
A scheduled reminder sent from the same dedicated business number a client already texts for booking and updates reads very differently from an unfamiliar collections number calling out of the blue. Keeping that reminder inside the same relationship a client already has with the business tends to get a faster, less defensive response than an outside collection process would.
A business can also control the tone and timing of that reminder message itself, a friendly nudge a few days after an invoice is due reads very differently from a terse notice sent the same afternoon a payment was missed.
Handling a Balance That Stays Unpaid
For a balance that remains open after an automated reminder or two, a staff member can follow up directly using the same client profile that already shows the outstanding amount, rather than needing to reconstruct the history of what was owed and when. Every past invoice, payment, and reminder sent is part of that same client record.
That complete history also matters if a business ever needs to have a direct conversation about a persistently unpaid balance, having the specific dates and amounts already documented keeps that conversation factual rather than a dispute over what actually happened.
Requiring Payment Up Front to Avoid the Problem Entirely
For a business that wants to reduce outstanding balances altogether rather than chase them after the fact, requiring a deposit at booking through Online Payments shifts more of a transaction to the front end. Combining that with a scheduled invoice for any remaining balance closer to the appointment date keeps most of a client’s payment resolved before a stay ever wraps up.
That combination does not eliminate every outstanding balance, a client can always dispute or delay a final payment, but it meaningfully reduces how often a business is left chasing the full cost of a stay after it has already ended.
Filtering Reports to Review Balances by Date Range
For a business reviewing its accounts receivable on a regular schedule, Income Reports can be filtered by date range, so a monthly check-in on outstanding balances covers exactly the period a business cares about rather than a running total since the account was created. That regular review is what catches a balance drifting for months rather than one that simply has not come due yet.
Reviewing that filtered report on a consistent schedule, the first of every month, for example, turns outstanding-balance tracking into a routine task rather than something a business only thinks about when cash flow feels tight.
Setting a Consistent Policy for When to Follow Up
A business benefits from deciding, in advance, exactly how many days past due an invoice needs to be before a reminder goes out, and how many additional reminders follow if the first goes unanswered. Having that timeline set once, rather than decided case by case, keeps the process fair and predictable for every client rather than depending on which staff member happens to notice a balance first.
That same policy can also specify at what point a balance moves from an automated reminder to a direct personal follow-up, so a business is not relying on automation indefinitely for a balance that clearly needs a real conversation.
Why Staff Shouldn’t Have to Guess Who Owes Money
In a facility without a clear, centralized view of outstanding balances, knowing who owes money often depends on one staff member’s memory or a separate spreadsheet nobody keeps fully current. Putting that balance directly on the client profile that every staff member already checks at drop-off and pickup removes that dependency on any one person remembering to mention it.
That shared visibility matters most in a facility with more than one staff member handling check-ins, a balance a front-desk employee did not personally collect is just as visible to them as one they did, since the information lives on the client record rather than in someone’s memory.
It also protects a business from an awkward moment at drop-off, a staff member unaware of an unpaid balance from a client’s last visit checking that same client in again for a new stay without ever raising it.
A business can also require that any outstanding balance be resolved before a new reservation is finalized, closing that gap entirely for a client who might otherwise keep booking new stays while an older invoice sits unpaid in the background.
That kind of requirement is easiest to enforce consistently when it is built into the booking flow itself rather than left to a staff member to remember and check manually before finalizing every new reservation.
Getting Help Setting Up Automated Reminders
A business setting up its first automated payment reminder can reach a Product Expert through in-app live chat, available 10 hours a day, seven days a week, or request an ASAP Call for a live walkthrough with a callback within 15 to 30 minutes, useful for getting the timing and message tone right before the first reminder goes out.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. A client’s outstanding balance shows directly on their profile, and Income Reports shows total outstanding receivables across the business.
Yes. Scheduled Invoices paired with Scheduled Messages lets a business automatically text a client a reminder a set number of days after an unpaid invoice was sent.
Yes. Reminders send from the same dedicated business number a client already uses to text about bookings and updates.
A staff member can follow up directly from the same client profile, which already shows the full history of invoices, payments, and reminders sent.
Requiring a deposit at booking and scheduling any remaining balance closer to the appointment date reduces how often a business ends up chasing payment after a stay.
PocketSuite’s in-app live chat connects a business with a Product Expert 10 hours a day, seven days a week, for setup help.
An outstanding balance is easiest to collect the moment a business notices it, not weeks later. Seeing every client’s balance in one place and letting a reminder go out automatically closes most of that gap before it ever becomes a harder conversation.
For a business that has ever lost track of who still owes money until a client mentions it themselves, this is one of the more direct fixes available.
