You stay in control of when customers hear from you. Creating an account or importing invoices does not start a campaign. Two different “demo” surfaces exist — do not treat them as the same.
Two demos (do not mix them)
- Isolated safe demo at
/app/demo(from Explore the safe demo). Sample data lives apart from your live Customers and Invoices. Banner: Nothing here can be sent. Delivery is refused. Reset demo / Connect my business do not copy that sample into your live book. - Signup Demo book on the trial form. Sample customers and invoices are written into this workspace’s real tables. They look like ordinary B2B contacts. After an Admin clicks Start following up and a mailbox you own is connected, those rows can receive real email. Treat them as practice live data, not a sandbox that can never send.
Who can arm sending
- An Admin who finishes the seven setup steps and clicks Start following up on Ready to start?
- Until that click succeeds, a first-run hold keeps live delivery off.
What must be true before a live reminder can leave
- Finish setup and click Start following up. That schedules future email actions from today. Nothing is back-sent.
- The invoice is open, genuinely overdue, and enrolled. Activation does not enrol invoices that are only due today or in the future.
- The customer is not marked Never chase.
- The invoice is not on a promise, dispute, part-paid pause, or a manual pause.
- A mailbox your business owns is connected (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or your tested mailbox). There is no PayBlah shared-domain sender.
- Quiet hours and weekday rules allow the step. Firm and Final wording still wait for a person in Activity.
What stays silent before you say so
- Signing up, confirming email, and walking early wizard steps.
- Importing CSV or XLSX, adding a customer, or adding an invoice. Data appears under Invoices and Customers without messaging anyone.
- Editing a Workflow under Workflows. Saving content does not fire a send.
- Clicking around isolated
/app/demo.
What stops or holds a live chase
Payment, a recorded dispute, a payment arrangement that is being honoured, a manual pause, and a customer opt-out are designed to stop further automated send. A portal request to stop chasing stays in Needs you until a person Accepts or Declines. Its inbound message holds the next send until Replies triage, but it does not mute a destination or pause the invoice by itself. Other untriaged replies use the same send hold. Confirm territory-specific consent and opt-out rules with your own advisor.
What you should see
Before activate: no customer-facing queue. After a successful activate: Your first Workflow is live. First action from today. You remain in control.
If something goes wrong
- Not sure the book is clean? Leave Activate incomplete. Use Save and exit and review Customers first.
- Chose Demo book at signup? Review those sample contacts before Start following up, or start from a Blank book instead.
- Want a sandbox that cannot send? Use Explore the safe demo, not Demo book.
What this does not do
- PayBlah does not collect debt on your behalf. You remain the sender of every customer-facing message.
- It does not post or deliver physical letters. Letter steps, when your plan includes them, are PDFs you download, print, and mark as sent.
- There is no Go live button on the live wizard.