Chasing an invoice
without the awkwardness.

What actually works?

1. 1

   Prevent it at the quote

   Payment terms agreed before the work starts, in writing, with the due date on the invoice as a date rather than a number of days. Most late payment is ambiguity rather than refusal.

2. 2

   Invoice immediately

   The single biggest cause of late payment is late invoicing. An invoice sent the day the job finished is paid sooner than one sent three weeks later, every time.

3. 3

   Remind on the due date

   Short, friendly, no accusation. Most invoices are not deliberately unpaid — they are sitting in someone's inbox behind forty other things.

4. 4

   Follow up within a week

   Firmer, with the amount, the due date and how many days overdue. Ask a direct question: when will this be paid?

5. 5

   Telephone

   Email is easy to ignore; a call is not. Ask who processes payments and when their payment run is. Often the answer solves it.

6. 6

   State your statutory rights

   Commercial debts carry a statutory right to interest and a fixed recovery charge. Saying so, calmly and factually, changes the tone of the conversation.

What can you charge on a late commercial payment?

For business-to-business debts, the Late Payment of Commercial Debts legislation gives you a right to statutory interest at the Bank of England base rate plus 8 percent, plus a fixed sum for recovery costs that rises with the size of the debt.

You do not have to charge it, and many people never do. What matters is that the right exists and that your customer knows you know. Mentioning it in a payment terms line on every invoice is free and quietly effective.

Reasonable costs of recovery above the fixed sum can also be claimed in some circumstances.

When it is still not paid

• —Send a formal letter before action, setting out the debt, the deadline and what happens next. Many disputes end here.
• —The small claims track handles most modest debts without a solicitor, and the fee is recoverable if you win.
• —Weigh the relationship. A customer worth keeping is sometimes worth a payment plan; a customer who does this routinely is not a customer.
• —Stop working. Continuing to deliver for someone who has not paid is how a small debt becomes a large one.

How does software change this?

The reason invoices go unchased is not that chasing is difficult. It is that it is uncomfortable, and it competes with billable work, and it always loses.

Automated chasing removes the decision. The reminder goes out on schedule whether or not you feel like sending it, in a tone you set once, and you only get involved when something needs a human. For most small businesses this is the single highest-value piece of automation available.