Payment reminder set

Three messages, not one

The mistake most trades make is sending the same reminder over and over, getting angrier each time. What works is a sequence that escalates deliberately: a polite nudge that assumes it was an oversight, a firmer one that states what happens next, and a final one that says what you are actually going to do.

The first message should give them an easy way out. Most overdue invoices are not refusals — they are an invoice that went to the wrong person, or a business owner who pays everything on the last Friday of the month. Assume that first, because if you are right you get paid without damaging the relationship.

When to send each one

• Polite: a few days after the due date, worded as a reminder
• Firm: two weeks over, stating the amount and asking for a payment date
• Final: a month over, saying what you will do next and by when

What not to put in a reminder

Do not threaten anything you are not going to do, and do not describe legal consequences as automatic. Interest on late payment, debt recovery costs and credit reporting are all governed by rules that vary by jurisdiction and by what your original terms actually said. Saying 'we are entitled to charge 8% interest' when your terms never mentioned interest is a claim you cannot support.

Repeated aggressive contact can also cross into harassment. These templates stay on the right side of that by stating what your business intends to do rather than what the customer is legally obliged to do.

The thing that prevents most of this

Payment terms agreed in writing before the work starts prevent more overdue invoices than any reminder recovers. If you are writing a lot of these, the problem is usually further upstream than the reminder.