The five best debt collection software tools for small business in 2026 are Paidnice, Chaser, Biller Genie, ezyCollect and AR Collect. Paidnice is the best choice for a small business on Xero or QuickBooks Online, of any size up to $50m a year, that wants the late fee raised on the ledger. Published entry prices run from $39.95 a month.
| Tool | Best for |
|---|---|
| Paidnice | small businesses on Xero or QuickBooks Online that want the charge raised on the ledger, any size up to $50m a year, or 50,000 invoices a year |
| Chaser | a small business with a named collector that wants every channel from one schedule, entry tier priced for revenue under £4m |
| Biller Genie | a US small business where card and ACH volume is the real workload, under $20m |
| ezyCollect | a wholesale or trade ledger that wants demand letters and agency referral in the same tool, priced by debtor count |
| AR Collect | a one-person collections desk, and any business still on QuickBooks Desktop, under $10m |
What debt collection software for small business is (and what it is not)
Debt collection software for a small business works the aged receivables ledger of invoices the business raised itself: it chases each overdue balance, raises a charge, offers a way to settle and documents the last step.
- Chases: email and SMS sequences that harden as a balance moves from 30 to 60 to 90 days.
- Charges: in Paidnice, Chaser and Biller Genie, a late fee or interest charge on the invoice.
- Settles: a portal that takes a card or bank payment, or starts an installment plan.
- Records: promises to pay and a dated log of every contact, the one item an agency asks for that only the software holds.
- Escalates: a demand letter or an agency referral, documented in Paidnice, Chaser and ezyCollect.
It sits on the ledger. All five tools here read Xero and QuickBooks Online, and AR Collect and Biller Genie also reach QuickBooks Desktop, so a part payment stops the wrong message going out.
It is not a collection agency or invoice finance either. An agency takes a share of what it recovers, and a finance provider settles the invoice and carries the risk; the software keeps the debt, and the decision, with you.
How this list was put together
This list helps a small business chase the overdue invoices it raised itself, before it needs a collection agency.
| What we checked | Where the evidence came from |
|---|---|
| Late fees and interest raised on the ledger | Vendor help pages on fees and interest |
| Escalation to a collection partner | Vendor product pages for referral and demand letters |
| Statements, payment plans and a portal | Vendor feature pages |
| Ledger integrations | Vendor integration pages |
| Published from-price | The vendor's pricing page, and the last reported price where it is now hidden |
| Rating and review count | The Xero App Store, Capterra or G2 |
What is the best debt collection software for a small business?
Paidnice is the best debt collection software for most small businesses on Xero or QuickBooks Online, because it posts a late fee or interest charge to the ledger per customer group. Chaser fits a named collector who wants every channel on one schedule.
Related guides: the pillar guide to accounts receivable software, AR software for debt collection agencies, how much you can charge in late fees
On Xero's latest US small business data a US small business waits 29.7 days to be paid and settles 8.6 days past due, and in California the wait is 25.6 days.
Is a small business a first-party creditor or a collection agency?
Search the phrase and half of what comes back is built for agencies: caseload management, diallers, commission splits and compliance workflows for debt somebody else originated. If the invoices are ones your own business raised, none of that is your product, and the difference is legal as well as commercial.
A business chasing its own invoices in its own name is a first-party creditor.
In the United States the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act regulates third-party debt collectors rather than a creditor pursuing its own accounts, although several states extend their own rules to first-party collection and consumer debt carries obligations that commercial debt does not, so check your state before you write a policy.
Two further names surface on this search and neither is listed here. InvoiceSherpa is positioned as a low-cost reminder and recurring-collection app; Gaviti is an invoice-to-cash platform aimed at mid-market and enterprise AR teams.
Neither publishes enough verifiable pricing, feature behavior or review evidence to place against the five. Tools whose AI drafts or runs the chase itself are compared in the AI collections software guide.
The five tools compared
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Xero or QuickBooks Online, with the charge raised on the ledger | A named collector wanting every channel and agency referral | US card and ACH volume, under $20m | Trade ledgers needing demand letters and agency referral | One-person desks and QuickBooks Desktop, under $10m |
| Revenue fit | Any size up to $50m a year, or 50,000 invoices a year | Compact under £4m, Core from £4m, Complete to £100m | Under $20m | Not published; priced by active debtor count | Under $10m |
| From (monthly) | $69 | £199 | $49.95 plus 0.50% of invoices collected (last reported; now hidden, request a quote) | A$275 on annual billing, plus a setup fee from A$900 (last published; now hidden, request a quote) | $39.95 (QuickBooks Online, Xero), $49.95 (QuickBooks Desktop) |
| Ledger integrations | Xero, QuickBooks Online and newer ledgers such as Rillet and Campfire (closed testing) on every plan; Sage Accounting and other ERPs on Custom | Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, NetSuite, Dynamics 365 Business Central | QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Xero, AccountingSuite | Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks Online, NetSuite, Sage 300 and Intacct, SAP Business One | QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop (Pro, Premier, Enterprise), Xero |
| Late fees and interest | Yes (per customer group) | Yes (one set of rules for the account) | Yes (30-day cycle, paid add-on) | None found | None found |
| Statements | Yes (any schedule) | Yes (monthly, fixed day) | Yes | Yes (monthly) | Yes (daily, weekly or monthly) |
| Payment plans | Yes (on Pro) | Yes | Yes (customer requests, you approve) | Yes (paid add-on) | No (promise to pay only) |
| Portal | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Escalation to collection | Yes (routed to any collection agency, solicitor or partner) | Yes (partner, success fees from 20%) | None found | Yes (in-app demand letters and referral to partner agencies) | None found |
| AI | Advanced Reads customer replies, drafts answers and follow-up actions (like PO updates) for your approval; MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT and other agents | Basic Reminders + AI module (you approve each send) and a Billie connector for Claude and ChatGPT | Basic an AI email template generator as a paid add-on | None No AI feature found | |
| Rated (source, count) | 5.0 (84, Xero App Store) | 4.98 (374, Xero App Store) | 4.8 (27, Capterra) | 4.9 (35, Xero App Store) | 5 public reviews in total |
"Not published" means the vendor prints no figure. "None found" means nothing in the vendor's materials points either way. Each price is the vendor's own published from-price.
The five tools in five checked facts
- Three of the five publish a starting price: Paidnice from £49 (US$69), Chaser from £199 and AR Collect from $39.95. Biller Genie and ezyCollect quote.
- Each published price grows with something different: invoice volume (Paidnice), revenue band (Chaser) and open invoices (AR Collect).
- Three of the five apply a late fee themselves: Paidnice (per customer group), Chaser (one set of rules for the account) and Biller Genie (a paid add-on on a 30-day cycle).
- All five connect to both Xero and QuickBooks Online.
- AI that handles collections work or customer replies: Paidnice. AI that scores or predicts only: ezyCollect. AI that drafts reminders for approval: Biller Genie. No AI in receivables: AR Collect.
We checked each tool's own pricing, integration and help pages on October 26, 2026. "None found" in the data means the vendor's pages do not show the feature.
1. Paidnice, best for ledger-posted charges
Best for: Small businesses on Xero or QuickBooks Online that want the charge raised on the ledger, any size up to $50m a year, or 50,000 invoices a year.
What is Paidnice best for?
For a small business that wants a late fee or an interest charge posted to the ledger automatically, with a different policy for each customer group.
- Fits
- Xero and QuickBooks Online businesses of any size up to $50m a year, or 50,000 invoices a year, with or without a dedicated collections person
- Regions
- United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa
- Entry cost
- £49 (US$69) a month on Essentials, covering 150 invoices, 600 emails and up to 2 team members; Pro from £74 (US$99) a month with unlimited users and no per-seat fee. Payment plans and sending from your own domain start on Pro. Customers are billed in their own currency from a fixed local price table rather than a conversion
- Rated
- 5.0 from 84 Xero App Store reviews; 4.9 from 14 on Capterra
- Awards
- Xero Global Small Business App of the Year 2025 and NZ Small Business App of the Year 2026
- Runs on
- Xero, QuickBooks Online, Stripe, Pinch Payments, CloudDepot, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zapier. No QuickBooks Desktop. Newer ledgers such as Rillet, Campfire, Digits, DualEntry, Puzzle, Accounting Seed and Odoo on every plan (closed testing program). NetSuite, Sage Intacct, MYOB, Dynamics 365 Business Central, Sage Accounting and other ERPs on the Custom plan
- Late fees and interest
- Yes. Two charge types on the same customer group, an invoice late fee charged per overdue invoice and a statement interest charge against the whole overdue balance, flat, percentage or compounding, with compounding on by default
- Does best
- A different late fee policy per customer group, several of them running at the same time
Paidnice works the aged ledger in Xero or QuickBooks Online rather than a separate case list: sequences that harden as the balance moves from 30 to 60 to 90 days, statements on any schedule including consolidated parent accounts, installment plans (on Pro), early payment discounts and a page the debtor can settle on without calling anyone.
Paidnice sends from your own domain on Pro, or through a connected Gmail or Outlook (Microsoft 365) mailbox, and SMS goes alongside. That stops a 90-day letter arriving from an address the customer has already filtered.
The charge lands on the ledger as a Draft or an Approved invoice, and at this end of the process that is what makes it usable.
A fee raised as a document reaches the customer's payables system with a reference on it, and at 120 days it is also part of the evidence of what you charged and when.
Statement interest is calculated at the moment the statement sends rather than at the last policy run, on the balance net of any credit on the account. Paidnice reports that customers have half as many late invoices in the first 30 days.
Limitations with Paidnice. Xero and QuickBooks Online on every plan, with no QuickBooks Desktop support, so a Desktop business cannot use it. Newer ledgers such as Rillet, Campfire, Digits, DualEntry, Puzzle, Accounting Seed and Odoo are available on every plan through Paidnice's closed testing program. NetSuite, Sage Intacct, MYOB, Dynamics 365 Business Central, Sage Accounting and other ERPs connect on the Custom plan as builds rather than standard connectors.
Escalation can be routed to any collection agency, solicitor or partner, and Paidnice has no partner network of its own. The entry tier covers 150 invoices and two team members.
2. Chaser, best for a named collector
Best for: A small business with a named collector that wants every channel from one schedule, entry tier priced for revenue under £4m.
What is Chaser best for?
For a business with someone whose job is chasing, that wants email, SMS, letters and automated calls running from one schedule, and a route into agency collection when chasing fails.
- Fits
- Businesses that already pay someone to collect; Compact is for revenue under £4m, Core from £4m, Complete to £100m
- Regions
- UK-registered, trading since 2014, sells worldwide
- Entry cost
- £199/mo on Compact for revenue under £4m with 4 users; Core £599/mo for revenue under £10m; Complete £899/mo to £100m. Yearly billing is £179, £539 and £809 a month, 10% off. Chaser offers a free trial (10 days on the Xero listing) or a conversation with an expert; no minimum term
- Rated
- 4.98 from 374 Xero App Store reviews; 4.3 from 71 on G2; 4.9 from 45 on Capterra, though that base is mostly 2020 to 2022
- Awards
- Finalist, UK Small Business App Partner of the Year, Xero Awards 2023
- Runs on
- Xero, QuickBooks, Sage 50, Sage 200, Sage Intacct, Sage Business Cloud Accounting, NetSuite, Dynamics 365 Business Central, AccountsIQ, SAP, HubSpot, Gmail, Outlook
- Late fees and interest
- Yes. Four calculation types, recalculated daily, but one set of rules for the account, applied to every debtor or to selected debtors, and no fee is raised on payment-plan invoices. Chaser's help says a late fee cannot be added or updated after a part payment when written to Xero. Line-item sync of the fee is Xero only
- Does best
- Multi-channel chasing, email, SMS, printed letters and an automated call, driven from one schedule, with integrated agency collection at the end of it
- Customers
- Named on its website: Pact Coffee, Huttie and TaxAssist. Huttie's case study reports £15,000 of old debt recovered.
Chaser has been in the market since 2014 and sends reminders from the team's own Gmail or Outlook mailbox, adding SMS, printed letters, a one-way automated call, a payer portal and a dispute log. Every channel except email is metered by credits, so the running cost moves with how hard you chase.
It is also one of two tools here that hand a debt over inside the product. Collections run through a partner, with success fees stepping from 20% down to 6% by size in the UK and the EEA, and from 30% down to 7.5% elsewhere, plus surcharges of 8% and 15% on older debt.
UK businesses get in-app credit checking supplied by Creditsafe, carrying a credit score with a recommended limit, the customer's payment score, credit event history, and Companies House filing and director data.
Chaser credit checks are sold by credit on any plan and need Chaser billing, not Xero App Store billing; monitoring is not offered in Australia.Limitations with Chaser. It prices by revenue band rather than by how many accounts you are actually working, which puts £199 a month in front of a business that may be chasing a dozen balances.
The fee engine runs one set of rules for the account, not tied to schedules, with no documented way to run different rules per group. Statements are monthly and land on a fixed day, which a collections desk cannot retime around an ageing account. Four users is the Compact ceiling. The credit data is a UK bureau product, so a US business is buying the chasing rather than the risk file.
3. Biller Genie, best for card and ACH
Best for: A US small business where card and ACH volume is the real workload, under $20m.
What is Biller Genie best for?
For a US business whose collection problem is really a payments problem: getting cards and ACH accepted, surcharged correctly and reconciled back to the ledger.
- Fits
- US businesses moving real card and ACH volume on QuickBooks Online or Desktop, under $20m
- Regions
- United States
- Entry cost
- Biller Genie's last reported price was $49.95/mo plus 0.50% of invoices collected. Current prices are hidden and must be requested. G2 and Capterra list $24.95 a month as a starting price. Its pricing page says no setup fees and no long-term contracts. ACH was last reported as an add-on from $20/mo plus a $25 setup fee and $0.50 a transaction, and paper mail at $1.50 a reminder
- Rated
- 4.8 from 27 Capterra reviews; 3.0 from 4 on G2; 2.33 from 3 on its Xero App Store listing
- Awards
- None found
- Runs on
- QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Xero, AccountingSuite
- Late fees and interest
- Available as a paid add-on, on a fixed 30-day cycle only. An invoice is not treated as late until 30 days past due, fees then recur every 30 days and stack, and there is no interest calculation
- Does best
- A branded customer payment portal wired to card and ACH acceptance, with surcharging and dual pricing handled at checkout
Biller Genie sits between the invoice and the payment, so its contribution to a collection is making the money easy to move rather than making the debtor uncomfortable. Six reminder types cover upcoming payment, payment due, invoice updated, statement, payment overdue and upcoming late fee, with autopay on per-customer thresholds, bulk invoice grouping and failure handling behind them.
Where a 60-day balance is a customer who has not put a card in, that stack does more than a seventh email: named gateways including USAePay, Maverick, Sola, Authorize.Net, Elavon and PayPal, surcharging and dual pricing with their own checkout flows, a virtual terminal and check capture.
The QuickBooks Online link runs both ways, over webhooks plus a scheduled background job, and QuickBooks Desktop is reached through a separate connector.
Limitations with Biller Genie. It pushes its own merchant services, though its site and docs say you can connect your own gateway, and on the last reported pricing part of the price is a percentage of every dollar recovered.
Reminder timing is one global cadence with no per-customer variation, and there is no SMS. Late fees are an add-on locked to a 30-day cycle with no interest, so an invoice 29 days past due is not late at all.
There is no credit checking, no dispute module and no agency route, so everything at the 120-day boundary is yours to arrange. Reviewers report sync delays, and one Xero App Store reviewer reports a duplicate-charge fault.
4. ezyCollect, best for trade ledgers and letters
Best for: A wholesale or trade ledger that wants demand letters and agency referral in the same tool, priced by debtor count.
What is ezyCollect best for?
For a wholesale, distribution or trade business with hundreds of accounts on credit, that wants credit screening at the front and a letter of demand at the back.
- Fits
- Trade and distribution businesses carrying hundreds of accounts on credit. No revenue band published; the entry plan covers 200 active debtors, 3 users and 1 workflow
- Regions
- Australia and New Zealand first, with United States ACH and international ERP coverage; part of Sidetrade since October 2025
- Entry cost
- ezyCollect's last published prices were A$275 a month for ezyStart, with a setup fee from A$900; ezyGrow A$950; ezyScale A$2,350; ezyUltimate on quote. Setup is from A$3,900 on the plans above ezyStart. Those are annual-billing rates, monthly billing adds 20%, and prices exclude GST. A payment gateway fee of A$90/mo and in-app demand letters at A$49 each sit on top. Current prices are hidden and must be requested. Last published on ezyCollect's pricing page, seen on the Wayback Machine.
- Rated
- 4.9 from 35 reviews on its Xero App Store listing; 4.7 from 25 on G2; 4.9 from 12 on Capterra, a base that is thin and mostly pre-2024
- Awards
- None found
- Runs on
- Xero, MYOB AccountRight, Exo, Essentials and Acumatica, QuickBooks Online, NetSuite, Dynamics, Sage 300 and Intacct, SAP Business One, Pronto Xi, Attaché, JCurve, ABM, CSV
- Late fees and interest
- None found. No late fee or interest mechanic appears anywhere in the help center or the relaunch material; card surcharging is the only charge it adds
- Does best
- The full escalation ladder in one place: credit screening on external bureau data, then in-app demand letters, then referral to a partner collection agency
- Customers
- Named on its website: Feral Brewing, Hampers with Bite and Skillinvest. Feral Brewing's case study reports overdue accounts cut by over 50%.
ezyCollect is the tool on this list that goes furthest past the reminder. Credit Insights scores a customer from your own aged trial balance and terms plus external bureau data, and groups customers by risk. Workflows run a pre-reminder and a set of follow-up steps (six in the help center's example) by email, letter, SMS, fax and call task, consolidated per customer rather than per invoice.
At the end of the ladder sit demand letters raised inside the app at A$49 each, and a referral to a partner agency at a commission from 25% of what is recovered. Payment runs through a hosted hub with cards, wallets, direct debit and ACH, and cash is applied back to the ledger.
Limitations with ezyCollect. No late fee or interest function of any kind, so the charge that makes late payment cost something is a manual job. Pricing is by active debtor count with a setup fee, and monthly billing adds 20%, which makes the real first-year cost hard to compare against a flat monthly price.
SMS, mail and fax are charged on top of the subscription, and payment plans are a paid add-on. Customers who fall past the end of a workflow window get no further automated follow-up. The review base is thin and mostly predates 2024, and one reviewer reports a quoted price well above the advertised one.
5. AR Collect, best for a one-person desk
Best for: A one-person collections desk, and for any business still on QuickBooks Desktop, under $10m.
What is AR Collect best for?
For a single collector, or a small in-house team, working the ledger every day on the cheapest published price in the category.
- Fits
- A single collector or a small in-house team working the ledger daily, under $10m
- Regions
- United States
- Entry cost
- $39.95/mo for 500 open invoices on QuickBooks Online ($49.95 on QuickBooks Desktop); $59.95 for 1,500 ($69.95 Desktop); $99.95 for 5,000 on either; $199.95 for 10,000 across QuickBooks Online and Desktop. Xero is a $39.95 special offer for unlimited invoices on the vendor site. Extra users $4.95 each, extra company $29.95 (QuickBooks Online) or $35.95 (Desktop). A 30-day unrestricted trial with no card
- Rated
- A thin base: 4.0 from 2 (2022) on G2 and 5.0 from 1 on Capterra (2022), plus 2 Trustpilot reviews from April 2026. Its Xero App Store listing has no reviews yet
- Awards
- None found
- Runs on
- QuickBooks Online; QuickBooks Desktop Pro, Premier and Enterprise through the Web Connector; Xero, listed April 2025
- Late fees and interest
- Not listed. AR Collect's pricing page lists no SMS; its Terms mention SMS (last seen). Late fee, interest and payment plan functions are not listed
- Does best
- QuickBooks Desktop Pro, Premier and Enterprise through the Web Connector, alongside QuickBooks Online and Xero
AR Collect is a workspace rather than an engine. Customers sit in groups, each group linked to a template series and a schedule, with advance reminders and past-due notices triggered by days overdue, plus a bulk send to every past-due customer with filters. Statements go daily, weekly or monthly with the invoice PDFs attached.
Promises to pay are the central record, which on a collections desk is the right thing to build around: capture the amount and the date, pull commitment reports by date range, pull exception reports on the promises that were broken, and feed both into a cash flow forecast.
Card and ACH run through the portal, with surcharging available and no card fee added by the vendor.
Limitations with AR Collect. Late fees and interest are not listed, its pricing page lists no SMS (its Terms mention SMS, last seen), and it has no installment plans and no cash application. Five public reviews across G2, Capterra and Trustpilot, two of them from April 2026, which is too small a base to read as a quality signal.
The vendor publishes no company information at all, so founders, headquarters and funding are unknown. There is no API and no escalation path beyond the reminder.
When should a small business instruct a collection agency?
Everything above automates the cheap part of collection. The expensive decision is the one no tool makes for you: whether this balance stays inside your own process or leaves it.
- How old is it? Under 60 days a balance is usually a process failure: a lost invoice, a purchase order mismatch, an approver on leave. Past 90 the reason has normally changed, and past 120 the customer has made a decision about you rather than about the paperwork.
- Has the customer responded at all? A debtor who disputes, part-pays or asks for time is still inside your process, and a plan is the next move. Silence across three channels is the signal that automation has run out of moves.
- Does the balance clear the cost of pursuing it? An agency takes a share of what it recovers, a court claim carries a fee and your own time, and both come off the top before anything reaches your bank. Small balances are often worth more written off and used to close the account cleanly.
- Do you intend to keep trading with them? This is the test people skip. Instructing a third party ends the working relationship in practice whatever the covering letter says, so where next year's revenue is worth more than this balance, the answer is a settlement rather than an instruction.
The settlement move, before the instruction
An installment plan is the last step inside your own process and it recovers more balances than further reminders do. Paidnice (on Pro), Chaser, Biller Genie and ezyCollect all schedule installments against an open invoice. AR Collect records a promise to pay instead, which is a note about intent rather than a schedule that collects itself.
The shapes differ enough to matter at this stage. Biller Genie has the customer request a plan through the portal and the merchant approve or reject it, which puts a person in the loop on each one. ezyCollect offers subscription, fixed-amount and fixed-count installments, but support has to switch the feature on for your account first.
What an instruction actually costs
Commission is charged on what is recovered rather than on what is owed, and it steps with the size and the age of the debt.
Chaser's partner charges success fees from 20% down to 6% by size in the UK and the EEA, and from 30% down to 7.5% elsewhere, with surcharges of 8% and 15% on older debt. ezyCollect refers to partner agencies at a commission from 25% of what is recovered, with an in-app demand letter at A$49 before that.
In England and Wales, Money Claim Online charges an issue fee scaled to the value claimed, and a further hearing fee if the claim is defended and allocated; both are published by HM Courts and Tribunals Service, both are paid up front, and both are recoverable from the debtor if you win and they pay.
Set against those numbers, an old balance is a simple comparison: 75% of a recovery against 100% of a write-off.
What does each tool do when a balance leaves your process?
- Paidnice can route escalation to any collection agency, solicitor or partner. Bureau credit checks run on the Custom plan only, with native credit checks from payment behavior on every plan.
- ezyCollect has a documented referral path, as Chaser does. Demand letters are raised inside the app at A$49 each, and referral goes to partner agencies at a commission from 25% of what is recovered. Credit Insights scores the account from your own aged trial balance plus external bureau data before any of that.
- Chaser hands the debt to a partner rather than working it in the product, on the success-fee schedule above, with a payer portal and a dispute log sitting behind it.
- Biller Genie and AR Collect stop at the reminder. Neither documents a demand letter or an agency route, and Biller Genie has no dispute module, so the case pack is whatever you can pull out of the ledger yourself.
On the case pack itself, an agency or a solicitor will ask for the invoice, the terms the customer accepted, the delivery or acceptance evidence, a full statement of account including any fee or interest raised, and a dated log of every contact attempt.
What does each tool charge the debtor?
Paidnice and Chaser compute and raise the charge themselves. Biller Genie sells it as a paid add-on locked to a 30-day cycle. ezyCollect and AR Collect document nothing, so on those two the charge is a manual journal or it does not exist.
In the United States a late fee is a matter of contract and of state law rather than a national statutory rate, so what you may charge comes from your own payment terms and from the ceiling in your state.
The arithmetic is the same everywhere: the overdue amount multiplied by the annual rate, apportioned over the days it was late, plus any flat administration fee your terms already allow for.
On a collections desk the charge is worth more as something to give up than as something to collect. A fee sitting on the customer's ledger can be waived deliberately, in writing, in exchange for payment this week. A fee that exists only inside your own software gives you nothing to trade with.
Grain is what decides that on a mixed ledger. Chaser's fee is one set of rules for the account, applied to every debtor or to selected debtors, and it raises no fee on payment-plan invoices; Chaser's help says a late fee cannot be added or updated after a part payment when written to Xero, so an account you intend to keep and an account you intend to escalate get the same rate if both are covered.
Paidnice's policies sit under customer groups, so the accounts heading for instruction can carry a harder rule than the ones you are still selling into, and an invoice late fee and a statement interest charge can run together on the same group.
One set of rules for the account (Chaser)
- Four calculation types
- Recalculated daily
- One set of rules, not tied to schedules
- No fee on payment-plan invoices; none added or updated after a part payment (Xero)
A policy per customer group (Paidnice)
- Flat, percentage or compounding, per period
- Multiple policies running at once
- An invoice fee and a statement charge together
- Raised on the ledger as Draft or Approved
On $5,000 overdue for 45 days at 18%, interest is $110.96 and the flat fee is $25, so the total charge is $135.96.
A charge like the $25 administration charge is only available to you if your own payment terms already provide for one. Confirm your terms and your state ceiling before anything is raised against a debtor.
Which small business ledgers does each tool read?
- Xero. All five connect. Paidnice and Chaser are the only two that raise a fee on a Xero invoice, and Chaser's line-item sync of that fee is Xero only.
- QuickBooks Online. All five connect. Biller Genie's link runs both ways over webhooks plus a scheduled job; the other four read from the ledger.
- QuickBooks Desktop. AR Collect covers Pro, Premier and Enterprise through the Web Connector, and Biller Genie reaches Desktop through a separate connector. The other three do not support it, which settles the shortlist for a Desktop business before any other criterion is applied.
- MYOB, Sage and mid-market ERPs. ezyCollect for MYOB AccountRight, Exo and Acumatica, Pronto Xi, SAP Business One and Sage 300. Chaser for Sage 50, Sage 200, Sage Intacct, NetSuite and Dynamics 365 Business Central. Paidnice reaches NetSuite, Sage Intacct, MYOB and Dynamics 365 Business Central on its Custom plan only, as a build.
What does in-house collection cost against a 20% commission?
Entry prices: AR Collect $39.95 a month on QuickBooks Online or Xero and $49.95 on QuickBooks Desktop, Biller Genie $49.95 plus 0.50% of collections (last reported; current prices are hidden and must be requested), Paidnice £49 (US$69), Chaser £199, ezyCollect A$275 (last published; now hidden, request a quote) on annual billing plus a setup fee from A$900.
A 20% commission on a single $10,000 balance is $2,000, which covers about 29 months of Paidnice at £49 (US$69) a month. A real ledger eventually needs both, so the comparison is how many balances the software stops from ever reaching the agency.
AR Collect charges by open invoice count, Biller Genie takes a percentage of everything you collect on top of a monthly fee, ezyCollect charges by active debtor count and adds a setup fee, and Chaser charges by company turnover, so its price steps as the business grows rather than as the ledger gets harder.
Paidnice charges by invoice volume on a flat tier with no per-seat fee, and it is the only one of the five whose entry price covers late fee and interest settings as well as the sequence.
Two costs are easy to miss at signing. ezyCollect's advertised monthly figures are the annual-billing rate, so monthly billing adds 20%, and demand letters are A$49 each on top of that.
Biller Genie's last reported percentage was 0.50% of invoices collected on top of the $49.95; ask for the current rate and any cap when you request a quote, and model it against your own collections.
Which debt collection software fits your use case?
| Use case | Start with | Why | Watch out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xero or QuickBooks Online, with a late fee per customer group on the ledger | Paidnice | Fee and interest posted as Draft or Approved, from £49 (US$69) a month | No QuickBooks Desktop |
| A named collector who wants every channel and an agency handoff | Chaser | Email, SMS, letters, calls and a partner agency, from £199 a month | Credits metered on top; one set of fee rules |
| A US business with heavy card and ACH volume | Biller Genie | 20 or more gateways, surcharging and a QuickBooks Desktop connector | No SMS; price now hidden, request a quote |
| A trade ledger that needs credit screening and demand letters | ezyCollect | Credit Insights, A$49 demand letters and agency referral from 25% | No late fees; setup fee and annual billing |
| One collector on QuickBooks Desktop at the lowest price | AR Collect | From $39.95 a month, with promise-to-pay reports | Late fees not listed; pricing page lists no SMS; no installment plans |
Questions about collecting your own debt
What is the best debt collection software for a small business?
On Xero or QuickBooks Online, Paidnice fits a business that wants the fee policy set per customer group and the charge posted to the ledger, from £49 (US$69) a month.
Where the next step is an agency, Chaser fits, from £199 a month, since it carries a chasing channel set and a partner referral in one subscription. On QuickBooks Desktop, AR Collect or Biller Genie.
Is this software for collecting my own invoices or for a collection agency?
All five are for a first-party creditor: a business chasing invoices it raised itself, in its own name, on its own ledger.
Agency platforms such as Katabat, Quantrax and Collect! run a caseload of debt placed or bought from other companies, and carry compliance, dialler and commission machinery a first-party creditor has no use for.
How much does debt collection software cost for a small business?
AR Collect publishes $39.95 a month for 500 open invoices on QuickBooks Online ($49.95 on QuickBooks Desktop), Paidnice is £49 (US$69) a month and Chaser is £199 a month for revenue under £4m.
Biller Genie was last reported at $49.95 a month plus 0.50% of invoices collected, and ezyCollect at A$275 a month on annual billing with a setup fee from A$900; both now hide their prices, so request a quote.
Which debt collection software charges late fees automatically?
Paidnice and Chaser compute and raise it: Paidnice posts an invoice late fee or a statement interest charge to the ledger as a Draft or Approved document, under a policy set per customer group.
Chaser applies one set of rules across the account, not tied to schedules. Biller Genie sells it as an add-on on a fixed 30-day cycle, and ezyCollect and AR Collect document no fee function at all.
Can this software hand a debt to a collection agency?
Three of the five document that step: Paidnice can route escalation to any collection agency, solicitor or partner; Chaser passes a debt to a partner agency with success fees from 20% down to 6% by size in the UK and the EEA, and from 30% down to 7.5% elsewhere, with surcharges of 8% and 15% on older debt.
ezyCollect raises a formal demand letter in-app at A$49 each and refers to partner agencies at a commission from 25% of what is recovered. The other two stop at the reminder.
Do I still need this if my accounting software sends reminders?
Xero and QuickBooks Online send a basic reminder and stop there. Neither escalates by customer group, issues statements on a schedule you set, or applies interest on an ageing balance.
For the six main credit control tools side by side, with prices, free trials and the main limit of each, see the credit control software comparison.
Related: agency software, late fees and the pillar guide
Buyer's guide
Best accounts receivable software
The pillar guide by business size and accounting system.
For agencies
AR software for debt collection agencies
Automating an agency's own client-fee and commission billing.
Late fees
How much can I charge in late fees?
What the law allows, and what your terms have to say first.
Process
How to chase overdue invoices
The escalation ladder, from first reminder to formal demand.
Sources
16 sources, checked by Julie Turnbridge on November 3, 2026
- Xero Small Business Insights xero.com/us/resources/small-business-insights
- Xero App Store apps.xero.com/uk/app/paidnice
- Capterra capterra.com/p/176347/Biller-Genie/reviews
- Xero App Store apps.xero.com/au/app/ezycollect
- Capterra capterra.com/p/254868/Paidnice
- Xero App Store apps.xero.com/uk/app/chaser
- G2 g2.com/products/chaser/reviews
- Capterra capterra.com/p/157101/CHASER/reviews
- G2 g2.com/products/biller-genie
- Xero App Store apps.xero.com/us/app/biller-genie
- Wayback Machine web.archive.org/web/20240617113004/https://ezycollect.io/...
- G2 g2.com/products/ezycollect/reviews
- Capterra capterra.com/p/135729/ezyCollect
- G2 g2.com/products/arcollect/reviews
- Capterra capterra.com/p/233202/AR-Collect
- Xero App Store apps.xero.com/us/app/ar-collect
