A Follow Up Sequence for Late Invoices

The short version

• Most late invoices are forgotten, not refused. Your first message should assume that.
• A sequence you run automatically beats a heroic reminder you send when you remember.
• Escalate tone slowly and stop escalating once you learn the real reason.
• Phone calls collect. Emails remind.

An unpaid invoice feels personal, which is why owners either avoid it for weeks or open with an accusation. Neither works. The overwhelming majority of late invoices are sitting in an inbox behind forty other emails, attached to no ill will at all.

What collects money is a calm sequence that runs on schedule whether or not you feel like sending it.

Day three: assume it was missed

The first follow up should be short, friendly and free of any suggestion that something is wrong. Repeat the amount, repeat what it was for, and include the payment link again.

The goal at this stage is to be easy to act on. Do not attach a ledger. Do not reference your terms. One line, one number, one link.

Day ten: add the due date and a question

By day ten, a reminder alone has failed once. Now add a specific date and a direct question, because a question demands a reply in a way a statement does not.

Ask whether there is anything about the invoice they need clarified. That single question surfaces most real problems, and a real problem you know about is much easier to solve than silence.

• Name the original due date explicitly
• Ask one direct question that needs an answer
• Keep the payment link in every message
• Send from a person, not a no reply address

Day fifteen: pick up the phone

Email is a reminder channel. The phone is a collection channel. If two written messages have gone unanswered, the next contact should be a call, and it should be made by you or by someone with authority to make an arrangement.

Calls work because they cannot be deferred silently. You will get the real reason on the phone in ninety seconds, and the real reason usually changes what you should do next.

Day thirty: state the consequence once

At thirty days, the message changes from a reminder to a statement of what happens next. Say what you will do, give a date, and then do the thing on that date. Threats you do not follow through on teach the customer that your deadlines are decorative.

Keep the tone flat. No anger, no sarcasm, no long history of the relationship. A calm consequence is far more credible than an emotional one.

Automate the whole thing

The reason most owners have an aging list is not that they do not know what to send. It is that sending it competes with actual work, and actual work always wins.

Set the sequence up once so it fires on schedule without your attention. Then your involvement starts at the phone call stage, which is the only stage that genuinely needs you.

The sequence, end to end

| Day | Channel | Message | | --- | --- | --- | | 3 | Email or text | Friendly nudge, amount, payment link | | 10 | Email | Due date named, one direct question | | 15 | Phone | Find the real reason, make an arrangement | | 30 | Email and phone | State the consequence and the date | | After 30 | Your call | Arrangement, pause on new work, or escalation |

Do this before your next job

Set the sequence up once so it runs without your attention.

1. Schedule the day three nudge and the day ten question as automatic messages.
2. Put a recurring block on your calendar to make the day fifteen calls yourself.
3. Write the day thirty message now, while you are calm, and reuse it.
4. Decide the balance below which you will write off rather than pursue.
5. Send every message from a real address so replies reach a human.

Common questions

Should I keep doing work for a customer with an unpaid invoice?

Not on the same account, in most cases. Continuing signals that the balance is optional. Pausing new work is a normal business consequence and it is easy to explain without hostility.

Does adding a late fee help?

Mostly as a reason to make contact. It rarely changes behavior by itself. Only apply one if it was in your terms before the work happened.

How long before I write it off?

That depends on the size and on what your time is worth. At some amount, continued pursuit costs more than the balance. Decide that threshold once so it is not an emotional decision.

Should the messages come from me or from the software?

They should look like they came from a person, even when a system sends them. A no reply address invites being ignored.

Keep reading

• How to Get Paid Faster on Every Job
• What to Do When a Customer Will Not Pay
• Invoicerus for plumbers
• Invoicerus for cleaning companies

Try it on your next job

Open the free invoice generator and run one real job through it. No account, no card, nothing to install. If it saves you time, the job price calculator is the next one to try.

Invoicerus does the same work on autopilot once your services and prices are set up. Start free and bring one week of jobs with you.