Getting paid
Invoice reminders and overdue payments, escalating from a gentle nudge to a final notice. Filter by role or search for your situation.
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Keep it warm and factual. State the date the money is due.
Subject: Invoice [number] — [project]
Hi [Name], Invoice [number] attached for [project], due [date]. Details are on the invoice; bank details at the bottom. Any problems, tell me and I'll sort it. Thanks for a good project. [Your name]
Assume it's an oversight. It usually is.
Subject: Invoice [number]
Hi [Name], Invoice [number] for [amount] was due on [date] — I don't think it's come through yet. Could you check whether it's cleared your end? Copy attached in case it's easier. Thanks, [Your name]
Drop the softeners. Still polite, but no longer casual.
Subject: Overdue: invoice [number]
Hi [Name], Invoice [number] for [amount] is now [x] days overdue. Could you let me know when it will be paid, or put me in touch with whoever handles payments? I'd rather sort this quietly between us. [Your name]
Say exactly what happens next, and then actually do it.
Subject: Final reminder: invoice [number]
Hi [Name], Invoice [number] ([amount]) is now [x] days overdue, despite reminders on [dates]. If it isn't settled by [date], I'll [pause work / apply the late fee in our agreement / pass it to a collections service]. I'd much rather not. Please let me know today how you'd like to proceed. [Your name]
Different tone from chasing your contact. Purely procedural.
Subject: Payment status — invoice [number]
Hello, I'm chasing invoice [number] for [amount], issued [date] and due [date], for work completed for [contact name]. Could you confirm it's in the payment run and when it's scheduled? Purchase order: [PO number, if you have one] Thanks, [Your name]
Only if you've warned them. Keep it unemotional.
Subject: Pausing [project]
Hi [Name], As things stand, [amount] is outstanding from [date]. I'm going to pause work on [project] until it's settled. Nothing is lost — everything picks up where it left off the moment payment clears. Let me know if there's a problem I can help work around. [Your name]
Only if it was in your terms. Point at the clause.
Subject: Invoice [number] — late fee applied
Hi [Name], Invoice [number] is [x] days overdue. As set out in [our agreement, clause X], a late fee of [amount] now applies. Revised total: [amount]. Updated invoice attached. If it's paid by [date] I'm happy to waive it this once. [Your name]
When they're struggling but honest. Better than nothing, slowly.
Subject: Re: invoice [number]
Hi [Name], Thanks for being straight with me about the cash flow. Rather than let it drift, how about [amount] on [date] and the balance on [date]? I'll hold off on anything further until then. If that works, say so and I'll send revised invoices. [Your name]
Frame it as their slot at risk, not your money missing.
Subject: Holding your [date] slot
Hi [Name], I've got [start date] pencilled in for [project], held by the deposit invoice I sent on [date]. I can hold it until [date]. After that I'll need to offer the slot to someone else — the next opening after that is [date]. Let me know either way. [Your name]
Small, cheap, and it makes the next invoice get paid faster.
Subject: Received, thank you
Hi [Name], Payment for invoice [number] has come through — thank you. It was a good project. If [next thing] comes up, I'd be glad to help. [Your name]
Nothing matches that
Try a plainer word, or clear the filters above.
These reminders get progressively firmer while staying entirely unemotional, and that combination is what gets invoices paid. The first assumes an oversight, because most late payments are one. The second asks for a date. The third states what happens next.
Frustration is the thing to leave out. An email that reads as annoyed invites a defensive reply about how busy things have been, and suddenly the conversation is about feelings rather than money. The invoice number, the amount, the due date and a question about when it will be paid is a complete message, and its flatness is the point.
Three to five days after the due date, not a fortnight. Waiting teaches the client that the deadline was decorative, and the delay is almost always about the sender's discomfort rather than the client's convenience.
Most of the time a friendly note is the only message needed. Late payers are frequently testing, usually without meaning to, which suppliers chase and which do not. Sending something promptly and pleasantly establishes that you notice, and it does so before the amount has grown large enough for the conversation to become difficult.
Your day-to-day contact often has no control over payments. They approve work and it disappears into a finance process they cannot see. Chasing them repeatedly strains a relationship you want while doing nothing to move the money.
After two unanswered reminders, ask to be put in touch with accounts payable and switch to a purely procedural tone: invoice number, purchase order number, dates, and a question about when it is scheduled. Finance teams are working through a queue rather than ignoring you, and a well-referenced query is the easiest kind to action.
Most late payment is designed out rather than chased down. Agree terms in writing before starting, take a deposit, and invoice the day work is delivered rather than at month end.
Ask at kickoff whether a purchase order is required and where invoices should be sent. In larger organisations an invoice without a valid purchase order number can sit indefinitely, and nobody will explain why. Make the invoice itself frictionless too: a clear number, the due date written as a date, bank details on the invoice, and a description matching what was approved.
A late fee clause is only useful if the client agreed to it before work started and you are willing to apply it. A threatened fee that never materialises teaches them your warnings are soft.
Pausing work is the strongest lever short of formal escalation, and it only works if you warned them. Announce it calmly as a policy rather than a punishment, and make clear everything resumes when payment clears. Beyond that, a letter before action or a small claims process may be available depending on where you are, and the value of good documentation becomes obvious the moment you need it.
A client being honest about cash flow is in a different category from one avoiding you, and treating them identically costs you both the money and the relationship.
A payment plan converts an unpayable lump into something achievable and dramatically improves your chances of seeing any of it. Put it in writing, keep the instalments realistic, and hold off on new work until the arrears clear. What does not help is letting it drift quietly out of sympathy, because an open-ended understanding makes every subsequent conversation awkward for both of you.
