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Chase overdue sevdesk invoices with payment reminders

Open the Fällig tab in sevdesk on a Monday and the overdue invoices are all there, but each reminder is its own click path, so the list gets shorter only on the days someone has an hour for it.

Cotlet does it in your own sevdesk account with list_invoices, get_invoice and create_payment_reminder, called by your AI agent, an n8n workflow or a script.

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Hosted · nothing to install or maintain

Can sevdesk do this on its own?

sevdesk creates every reminder by hand from the invoice (checked 14 Oct 2026). Its help articles describe a click per invoice, and the API offers createInvoiceReminder only on the Buchhaltung Pro plan. Nothing in sevdesk chooses which invoices to chase or asks you before a reminder goes out.

How you do it in sevdesk today

  1. In the main menu, go to Rechnungen and open the tab Fällig. sevdesk shows the overdue invoices.
  2. Open the invoice and click the button Mahnung / Zahlungserinnerung. sevdesk fills a mask with the standard text, which you can edit.
  3. Choose Versenden / Drucken / Herunterladen to send the reminder. It then sits under Rechnungen > Mahnungen.
  4. If the customer still has not paid, use Nächste Mahnung erstellen on the invoice or on the reminder. This needs the Buchhaltung plan, and the Mahnfrist must be set under Einstellungen > System > Aufträge & Rechnungen.
  5. Repeat for every overdue invoice. Nothing tells you which invoices already got a reminder except the Mahnungen list.

How to chase overdue sevdesk invoices with payment reminders

Prompt

Every Monday, list my sevdesk invoices that are overdue. For each one with no reminder yet, send a friendly payment reminder. Skip customers I tagged as VIP in the contact description and list them for me.
  1. 01

    Pull the overdue list

    list_invoices runs with status due, the same set as the Fällig tab, and pages through the cursor, so a long backlog is judged as one list and not just the first page.

  2. 02

    Skip who is already chased

    For each invoice the agent opens get_invoice and checks whether a reminder is linked to it. An invoice that already got a Zahlungserinnerung this month goes to the "left for you" list instead of getting a second letter.

  3. 03

    Apply your own rule

    Your prompt decides who is skipped, for example customers whose contact description says VIP, or invoices above an amount you named. The agent names the rule it used next to each skipped invoice.

  4. 04

    Send one reminder per invoice

    create_payment_reminder creates the reminder and emails it to the invoice contact. Each send waits for your OK until you switch confirmation off for that tool, so no customer gets a letter you did not see.

  5. 05

    Report what went out

    The agent returns who got a reminder, who was skipped and why, and the invoices that are overdue but have no email address on the contact, so you can fix the contact in sevdesk.

What you get back

Example data

Overdue invoices: 7
Reminders sent 4:
- RE-1031 Brandt GmbH, 226.10 EUR, due 28 Sep
- RE-1036 Nordlicht Studio, 1,963.50 EUR, due 30 Sep
Left for you 2 (marked VIP):
- RE-1029 Keller & Sohn, 4,760.00 EUR
No email on the contact 1:
- RE-1038 Mara Voss

Other ways to ask

  • Every Friday, send the second reminder to invoices that got a Zahlungserinnerung more than 14 days ago, and list them first.
  • Show me the overdue invoices sorted by amount and send nothing.
  • Remind only customers in the Kunde category with invoices over 500 EUR.
  • Draft the reminder text for each overdue invoice in German and wait for my OK on every one.

What sevdesk allows, and what to know first

  • sevdesk starts with a Zahlungserinnerung, and a Mahnung can only be based on an invoice that already got a reminder.
  • Sending Mahnungen needs the Buchhaltung plan or higher; the first Zahlungserinnerung is described without a plan limit.
  • The Mahnfrist is set once under Einstellungen > System > Aufträge & Rechnungen, in the section Mahnung.
  • sevdesk does not limit the number of Mahnstufen, so a third or fourth reminder is possible.
  • When an invoice is marked as paid, every linked reminder changes to Bezahlt at the same time.

create_payment_reminder asks for your OK by default. To run it weekly without you, switch confirmation off for that tool in your dashboard.

Sources: sevdesk Help: Zahlungserinnerung schreiben · sevdesk Help: Mahnungen · sevdesk Help: sevdesk API

Call create_payment_reminder from a script

curl

curl -X POST https://cotlet.dev/api/v1/sevdesk/invoices/41872618/payment-reminders \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $COTLET_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"message":"Hello Mr. Brandt, invoice RE-1031 was due on 28 September. Could you please transfer the open amount in the next days? Thank you."}'

Example response

{
  "reminder_id": "88100412",
  "invoice_id": "41872618",
  "kind": "payment_reminder",
  "status": "sent",
  "sent_to": "billing@brandt-gmbh.example",
  "sent_at": "2026-10-14T09:10:00+02:00"
}

MCP: add https://cotlet.dev/mcp/v1 with the same key; the call is sevdesk_write → create_payment_reminder. Example data.

Schedule it in n8n, Make, Zapier or cron

sevdesk tools this automation uses

Cotlet sevdesk tools used to chase overdue sevdesk invoices with payment reminders
Tool Parameters
list_invoices status, contact_id, invoice_number, from_date, to_date, limit, cursor
get_invoice invoice_id
create_payment_reminder invoice_id, message
All 14 sevdesk tools with descriptions

Frequently asked questions

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