I appreciate there have been a few threads on this subject in recent times, but over the last few days I have had instances where two separate clients have not received their invoices. The vast majority of mine work with no problems so I find it a bit odd. I have double-checked that I have the correct email addresses on the customer masterfile. Is there anything else I can check?
Do you have a Power User Subscription? If so, you would also have access to an email log (Account Settings >> All Settings >> Sent Email Log).
This would show you the status of the email for you to ensure it’s been sent. If for example it’s been rejected recently by the receiver’s mail server, it could be blocked (e.g. mailbox full, unknown address, etc.).
I’m looking at the log you refer me to. All have ‘SENT’ as the status. In the opened column, there is a mixture of green ticks and grey/ghosted crosses. The log doesn’t say whether the invoice has been blocked or rejected at the other end…does it?
If it says “SENT”, then as far as we can tell, it’s been sent all OK, suggesting the issue is after the email has been sent from our end.
The ticks are interesting however. A green tick could imply your client has opened the email. I say could, because some email providers download emails before they’re opened, which would trigger it to be counted as being opened.
Generally, I would look for a pattern. If your previous emails to your client have been shown as open, but recent ones aren’t, then it could suggest that they either have received them and haven’t opened them, or they genuinely haven’t received them. If you hover your mouse over the green ticks, it will also tell you the date and time we record them as being opened. If this is within a few minutes, again, it could be the mean it’s a mail server downloading them in advance. If it’s more than 5-10 minutes, chances are, your client has opened them.
Back to your original query however - is there anything in particular different about these clients? Are they using a particular email provider? Have they received the emails all OK in the past? Have they checked their spam box?
Email is a bit of a minefield when it comes to issues. As I mentioned - once the email leaves us, it’s tricky to tell you exactly where it went and if it even arrives.
interesting…This may sound surprising, but I know for a fact that a proportion of my clients who receive an electronic invoice don’t actually go in to view i!. It is possible for them to see the amount due in the body of the incoming email and they will just pay me against that ‘evidence’. Consequently, the invoice will remain with a grey cross in the sent log.
The tick relates to the opening of the email itself rather than clicking the invoice link. So even if they just open the email but don’t view the invoice itself, the tick in the email log should be green.
It’s a handy way to check if they have read the email
Just to add to this, There seems to have been a peak in fake invoice emails in the past month. It is possible that your clients have strengthened their spam filters and are rejecting legitimate invoices.
If the filter is set to “delete” rather than “move to spam” they won’t even know that they were there.
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