If you’re a small business waiting on late invoices and wondering how to get paid while staying polite, you might relate to one or more of the following struggles:

• You’re dealing with a customer who’s late to pay and are looking for ways to encourage them to pay while maintaining a good relationship. 
• You have a Credit Control process of sorts, but there’s no real consistency to when you send emails and what the emails ask for. 
• You aren’t sure how to word Credit Control emails, and as you have different relationships with different clients, you want to vary the language in your emails – but that sounds time consuming to set up and hard to keep track of.  

Note: If you’re ready to dive straight in and get paid faster using Satago’s customisable email templates, efficient credit control system and valuable customer risk insights, you can get started today. 

How to politely chase an invoice 

Chasing an invoice will never be something you look forward to, but there are ways to do it to make sure your emails prompt action from your clients while remaining polite.  

Before sending your invoice reminders, here are some tips to increase the likelihood of getting paid:  

• Make sure you’re sending the invoices to the right email. Copy multiple emails into the invoice so people are aware. 
• Make sure you attach a copy of the invoice in every reminder. 
• Make it as easy as possible to pay! Include payment terms and details on the invoice or the payment reminder and offer a couple of different payment methods if possible. 
• Think about when you’re sending the email and what you’re asking for. For example, don’t ask for immediate payment last thing on Friday night. Or, if you want payment the next day, send the reminder email first thing in the morning. 
• Send your invoice right before they do a payment run. If you can, try and find out when your client usually batches their payment. Sending your reminder just before payment runs can help you get paid as promptly as possible after sending your email. 

• Think about charging late payment interest. Once payment is a few weeks late, consider charging late fee interest. Before sending a new invoice with the late payment interest, let your client know with a friendly reminder. You can still be polite when you do this – try framing late payment interest as something you could do but are reluctant to. Give your customer at least seven days’ notice before you send them the new invoice including late payment interest. For more on this, read Late Payment Fee Calculator: How to Charge for Overdue Invoices.  
• Try sending reminders from a different email address. This could be from another person in the business or even your accountant. Having the reminder come from a third party can be impactful and sometimes jolt people into action, because no one likes to think multiple people know they’re not paying on time. 
• Set up a series of reminders, maybe once a week on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Also be mindful that there’s a big spike in reminders going out on 7th and 14th of each month because people are following up on invoices sent at the end of the previous month. Invoice emails sent then may fall in with a lot of others, so an easy way to get noticed is to send reminders on different days. 

Here are some email templates you can use to chase politely 

With Satago, you can set up a Credit Control system that sends invoice reminders automatically depending on how many days the payment is past due.  

There are five email invoice templates in Satago by default, all of which are customisable both in terms of the language and the sending schedule for each client. Head to Credit Control > Settings, and you’ll immediately be able to set up invoice reminders. 

Here are the templates: 

Template 1 — payment due in three days 

Subject line: 

[Your business’ name]: invoice [invoice reference number] is due soon 

Body: 

Hi [Client name] 

I hope you’re well. This is a reminder that payment of [invoice number] is due on [date]. Please [click here] to view the invoice. You’ll find our company bank details below. 

[Your company bank details] 

Thanks 

[Your name] 

  

Template 2 — payment overdue 

Subject line: 

[Your business’ name]: invoice [invoice number] is overdue 

Body: 

Hi [Client name] 

I hope you’re well. [Invoice number] was due on [date] and is now [X] days overdue. Please pay the total balance of this invoice at your earliest convenience. 

Please [click here] to view the invoice. You’ll find our company bank details below. 

[Your company bank details] 

Please can you let me know when I can expect payment of this invoice? 

Thanks 

[Your name] 

  

Template 3 — invoice overdue, late fees 

Subject line: 

[Your business’ name]: invoice [invoice number] is overdue 

Body: 

Hi [Client name] 

I hope you’re well. [Invoice number] was due on [invoice date] and is now [X] days overdue. Please pay the total balance of this invoice at your earliest convenience. 

In line with our payment policies, you will be charged a daily fee until this invoice is paid. 

Late fees to pay: [insert late fees] 

Please [click here] to view the invoice. You’ll find our company bank details below. 

[Your company bank details] 

Please can you let me know when I can expect payment of this invoice? 

Thanks 

[Your name] 

  

Template 4 — invoice extremely overdue 

Subject line: 

URGENT – final reminder for [Your company name]: invoice [invoice number] 

Body: 

Hi [Client name] 

This is your final reminder that payment for [invoice number] is overdue by [X] days. 

If payment is not made within seven working days, we will begin legal proceedings to collect the amount owed. 

Immediate payment of this invoice will result in us closing the issue with no further action. 

Please [click here] to view the invoice. You’ll find our company bank details below. 

[Your company bank details] 

Please let me know if there is any reason why payment of this invoice cannot be made within seven working days. 

Thanks 

[Your name] 

  

Template 5 — invoice paid 

Subject line: 

Payment received, thank you 

Body: 

Hi [Customer name] 

We’ve received payment of [invoice number]. Thank you for doing business with us. 

Thanks 

[Your name] 

Read more: 5 free email templates for pending and overdue invoices 

With Satago, you can set up rules to automatically send invoice reminders the later a payment is due. You can also put clients into specific groups, such as a “late payers” group – this way they’ll get a different selection of email reminders that will encourage them to pay faster. 

Get started with Satago’s 14 day free trial and test the email templates for yourself! 

When should you take legal action? 

In some situations, taking legal action is a necessary step. According to our collection partner Hilton-Baird, most people wait too long to go to collections and engaging a debt collector early can be an effective course of action.  

When to take legal action varies depending on the client, your relationship with them and the amount in question. You’ll also need to consider if: 

• You’ve set a precedent – for example, have you accepted late invoice payments for a while? 
• Your reminders are being ignored. 
• You’re getting nervous because your client’s credit score has changed, and maybe you’re starting to think you’ll never get the payment. 

As with politely chasing an invoice, it’s best to be consistent. Ideally, you’ll factor debt recovery into your policies so you can signpost it in your terms – for example, you might state that you’ll wait 45 days for outstanding invoices, then they’re passed to a debt collection agency.  

Once you decide how many days is “too many days”, you can then choose to engage a debt collector like Hilton-Baird. Like most debt collectors, Hilton Baird will only charge a fee if they win the case, and you can charge the collection fee to your client too.  

For more tips, watch our webinar with Hilton-Baird: Get paid faster: Essential tips from a debt collection agency. 

Nurture your client relationships while getting paid faster with Satago 

In this article we’ve looked at:  

• Things to bear in mind when you want to politely chase an invoice. 
• Templates you can use when you need to email your customers. 
• When it’s time to take it further and consider legal action. 

Sign up today to try the all-in-one cash flow management Satago platform for yourself and see how our risk insights can help you tailor our ready-to-go automated credit control system to your clients to help you get paid faster and with less hassle.