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5 Payment Reminder Templates To Ask For Overdue Payments

June 7, 2021
Bill Kimball

polite payment reminder email

This is a friendly reminder that the payment was due on Thursday, November 30 and is now two weeks past due. Please send payment as soon as possible by check or direct transfer. If, after all your attempts, you still aren’t able to secure payment from the client, it may be time to consider your legal options.

If this is the mindset you have, then late-paying clients are going to walk all over you. Chaser automates invoice chasing and streamlines your credit control process, to get you paid on time — in less time.

They work well when sent closer to the invoice due date (few days before/after). An additional payment reminder for each past due chunk . It’s a huge problem, but you keep running your business as usual. Chasing and reminding your customers to pay is time-consuming and you don’t want to put your relationships with your customers at stake. This is my fourth reminder that your payment on invoice [#] is past due.

In the early days after an invoice is overdue, you no longer just want to politely nudge your customer to see if payment is on track. You should still be polite, of course, but your goal is now to get a payment date agreed as soon as possible. Before you send this, don’t forget to attach a copy of the invoice. If they already have it readily on hand, no harm done, but it prevents getting held up by claims of “oh, I never received that invoice…”, should they arise. Of course, if you’re emailing them about multiple invoices, attach a customer statement as well. Today we’re sharing our 4 most effective email templates to chase for payment and get your invoices paid. These are our own strong, tried and tested, best practice template samples, which are the default for our Chaser users.

And if you’ve lost this invoice, please let me know, and I’d be happy to send you another copy. Our records show that we haven’t yet received payment of $5,400 for Invoice #10237, which is overdue by one week. If you don’t hear back from the customer, then go ahead and send the account to collections or sue—whichever you threatened in the letter. If credit card payment is an option, include lines at the bottom of your letter for the card number, expiration date, cardholder name, signature, and the amount to be charged. GoCardless is used by over 55,000 businesses around the world.

  • This doesn’t mean that you send an email every day, but a weekly or biweekly email won’t come across poorly.
  • Don’t wait until your invoice is overdue to ask for payment.
  • If you’ve chased a customer repeatedly for an overdue unpaid invoice without any luck, it’s time to change your accounts receivable tactics.
  • It is intended to evoke the sense of urgency and call to immediate action.
  • The debt collection process can be lengthy, so it’s a good idea to get the ball rolling as soon as possible.

For your convenience, I reattached your itemized invoice here . Powerful all-in-one platform designed to bring your business online today. We feel we have given you ample time and have been more than patient with you. Therefore, we feel there is no recourse but to write this debt off of our books by reporting it as a “bad-debt loss” to the I.R.S. through a 1099-A filing.

Before we get into what happens if a client is late on a payment, it’s important to talk about how you asked for payment in the first place. Your invoice should be professional, clear, easy to access, have all the pertinent information, and sent to the right person. This can be a complicated process, especially if you are new to the freelance world. Fortunately for you, Indy has aninvoicing toolthat can help you. One of the most common challenges freelancers experience is getting paid. In this article, we’ll share how to write an email to customer for payment in a friendly way. This invoice is now days overdue and is becoming really problematic for us.

Let The Payments Roll In

We’ve noticed that people who follow-up on their unpaid invoices at regular intervals, were able to reduce the rate of late payments by up to 47%. Sending a quick email right after the invoice is due keeps it in the front of mind and makes the payment not extend for too long. You’re able to give them a grace period of a few days before sending this out, especially if the due date fell over a weekend. To avoid late payments in the future, consider adding late fees to your payment terms, charging monthly interest for unpaid interest. You should also think about establishing legally binding contracts with all your clients before starting work on a project.

If you’ve already made payment please disregard this message and we thank you. As always it’s a pleasure doing business with you.” Again, keep it friendly and light. If your client is a procrastinator, this email alone may be enough to spur them into action.

How To Ask For Overdue Payments: 5 Email Templates To Follow

We are now proud to be the market leader in automated credit control, and have helped businesses chase over $3BN in invoices. We have yet to receive payment from yourselves for the outstanding invoices summarised in the table below.

Or if you are struggling with cash flow, please update us so we can plan internally and suggest a payment plan. Feel free to link to this site to help other receive payment as well.

polite payment reminder email

I love working with you and have always taken our relationship as more than just client/supplier. But if I can’t rely on you paying promptly or it takes several attempts and reminders to get my money, that’s not good business. According to my records, I have not received payment of amount_due for Invoice doc_number which is overdue by 7 days now. I believe you might overlook this due to some burden of work. The first couple reminders should be human, non-intrusive and friendly. They are intended to remind customers of what they might have missed and kept them informed without leaving any bad taste.

The idea is to get the message across that late payments aren’t acceptable, and the balance must be paid urgently. Either way, you should reach out to them soon after the payment becomes overdue. You can wait a day or two to allow a short grace period before you send a followup email. Maybe the client responded to your first email and assured you that everything was great and would pay the invoice on time. Every feature in our product is designed to help maintain the human-touch in invoice chasing.

Sending The Final Demand Letter

Most of all, it’s important to avoid being confrontational. After all, you’ll want to maintain your client relationship and avoiding burning bridges that could lead to more work, either with the client in question or via referrals. For example, using Bonsai, all you have to do is go your dashboard and first click on “Send an invoice”. If you get a moment please take the opportunity to look over the invoice.

polite payment reminder email

For example, you can give clients 7, 10, 15, or 30 days to pay their invoice. Also, to make payments easier, your payment reminder should outline which forms of payment you accept.

In all industries, there is an etiquette when it comes to email communications, and freelancing is no different. It’s a great skill to learn and can be helpful to improve no matter where you’re at in your career – whether you’re trying to collect a payment or share a deliverable. In this webinar, see how thousands of businesses are automating their invoice chasing process and getting paid faster, without sounding like a robot. follow ups can be adjusted accordingly for each group, to maximise your chance of prompt payments. We have yet to receive payment from yourselves of in respect of our invoice which was due for payment on . As a bonus, it’ll help lower any defensive guard they might have in place and help you towards achieving a mutually agreeable outcome. Our testing has found the combination of your business name and the invoice reference number to hit the sweet spot.

Outline the invoice due date and how many days ago it was due. Remind the client of any late fees included in your payment terms and let them know you’ll be charging them for late payment. Remind them of the different ways they can send payment and reattach the original invoice to the email before sending it to the client. Whether it was early, on time, or two weeks late, when a customer pays an invoice you should be sending them “thanks for paying” emails. If you’ve sent an early payment reminder and another a few days after the due date and you still haven’t heard from your client, then it’s time to send another followup.

polite payment reminder email

It lets the recipient know precisely who (in this case, your business’ name) and what this email refers to. Note that anything inside the italicised is a placeholder that you should replace with the appropriate information for your specific overdue invoices. Our best practice chasing payment email template for this situation is as follows. It would be much appreciated if you could shoot me an email letting me know when to expect payment.

How To Politely Ask For Payment

Please let me know if there’s any way I can be of further assistance. By subscribing, you agree to receive communications from FreshBooks and acknowledge and agree to FreshBook’s Privacy Policy. With most inboxes limiting the subject line to just a few words, it’s imperative that say as much as you can with as little text as possible. Couple this with the consideration of how many emails your recipient receives per day, you’re fighting a battle to get your email noticed and actioned. Oct 08, 2018 invoicely featured by Cult Of Mac invoicely was featured by Cult Of Mac. Whatever you decide, make sure to spell out when the clock starts — upon completion of the project/service or the date of the invoice. This will help to build a good relationship with your customers .