Customers say they never got my invoice. What's going on?
Most of the time the invoice did go out. It landed in your customer’s junk folder, or their company’s email filter held it back. Invoices get caught more than normal email because they usually come from your invoicing tool rather than your own mailbox, and they ask for money. The quick fix is to resend it from your own email. The lasting fix is making sure your invoicing tool is approved to send in your business’s name.
Check your own email first. Free, about 90 seconds. You get a grade and a plain-English list of what's working and what isn't.
Why this happens
Fake invoices are one of the most common scams businesses get, so email filters look hard at anything with a “pay now” button. If the email says it’s from you but comes from a tool your domain hasn’t approved, it looks just like one of those fakes.
Get this invoice paid today
- Ask your customer to check their junk or spam folder, and to search their email for your business name.
- If they work at a larger company, ask them to check with their IT team. Company filters often hold emails in a quarantine folder the person can’t see.
- Send it yourself. Download the invoice PDF, or copy the invoice link from your invoicing tool, and send it in a normal email from your own mailbox.
Stop it happening again
- Run the free check below. It shows whether the tools sending email for you are set up.
- Check the customer’s email address. Open their record in your invoicing tool and read it letter by letter. One typo and every invoice goes nowhere.
- Look for a “send from my own email” option in your invoicing tool. QuickBooks Online can send through a connected Gmail address. There’s a QuickBooks guide here.
- Ask regular customers to add your invoice address to their contacts. It won’t fix the cause, but it helps with the people who matter most.
If that didn’t work
If your settings check out and some customers still miss invoices, look at the email itself. Keep the subject plain, like “Invoice 1042 from [your business name]”, write a line or two of normal text, and skip extra attachments. When it’s always the same one or two customers, their company’s filter is the likely cause, and their IT team can approve your address.
What this guide can’t do for you
It covers the common causes. It can’t tell you which of your tools is the one that’s failing, or give you the exact settings for your business and the company that manages your domain. That’s what the Email Fix does. We check every tool that sends email for you and give you steps written for your setup. If we can't find what's wrong with your email settings, you get your $299 back. The guarantee covers your email settings. No settings can fix email sent to people who didn't ask for it, like bought lists or mass emails.
See what's wrong with your email, free
Type in your business's web address (the part after the @ in your email). You'll get a plain-English answer: what's working, what isn't, and what to do next.
Common questions
Why do some customers get my invoices and others don't?
Every company's email filter is a little different, and larger companies tend to be strictest. A customer who has emailed back and forth with you before is also more likely to get your mail.
My invoicing tool says the invoice was delivered. Doesn't that mean they have it?
No. Delivered means their email system accepted it. It can still go to junk or be held by a filter after that.
Should I stop emailing invoices?
No. Once your settings are right, email is a fine way to send invoices. For a large or overdue invoice, a quick follow-up from your own email is a good habit anyway.
For your IT person or web developer
You can forward this page as it is. Everything below is written so someone who doesn't work with email settings every day can follow it.
The owner's invoice emails aren't reaching some customers. First work out which address the invoices actually come from.
1. See who the invoice is really from
Have the owner send a test invoice to a personal Gmail address. Open it, click the three dots at the top right, and choose Show original. Look at the From line and the SPF, DKIM and DMARC results at the top.
2a. If it comes from the invoicing tool's own address
The business's DNS records don't apply to these messages, so changing them won't help. Use the tool's option to send through the owner's own mailbox if it has one (QuickBooks Online supports a connected Gmail address), or have the owner send the invoice link from their own email.
2b. If it comes from the business's own domain
The tool needs to be included in the domain's SPF record and sign with DKIM for the domain. In the tool's settings, find its domain authentication or custom sending domain page, and add the records it gives you at the DNS host. Full click-by-click steps are in the business email going to spam guide.
3. If one customer keeps missing them
Ask their IT team to search their quarantine for the sender address and release the message. In Microsoft 365 that's security.microsoft.com → Email & collaboration → Review → Quarantine. They can then add the sender to their allow list.
Related guides
Written by the SenderFix team. Last updated .