Five emails that get an invoice paid, without losing the client

The reason most agency chases fail is not the wording. It is that there is only one of them, it goes out three weeks late, and it is either apologetic enough to ignore or sharp enough to remember.

A ladder fixes that. Five messages, each with a job, each a little firmer than the last, sent on a schedule the client can feel even if they never think about it consciously. Below is the full set, with the reasoning, so you can rewrite them in your own voice rather than pasting somebody else's.

The rules that matter more than the words

Escalate tone, not frequency. Weekly, getting firmer. Two chases in three days reads as anxiety and teaches the client that your emails do not mean anything.

One email per client, not per invoice. If three invoices are open, one email lists all three and the total. Splitting them makes you look automated and hides the number you want them to see.

Always attach the invoice. It removes the cheapest excuse for nothing.

Give the amount, the number, and the date, every time. A chase that says "just checking in on that invoice" makes the client do the work of finding out which one. They will not.

Ask a question they can answer in one line. "Is this scheduled for a particular payment run?" gets a reply. "Please advise" does not.

Send from a person. Your name, your address, your signature. An invoice chase from accounts@ is a message from a building.

1. Three days before it is due

Not a chase. A confirmation, and the highest-value message in the whole ladder, because it catches every lost invoice while it is still free to fix.

Subject: Invoice 1041 — due Tuesday

Hi Sarah,

Quick note that invoice 1041 (£8,400, for the March retainer) is due on Tuesday 14th. It's attached again in case it's useful.

Is there anything you need from us before then — a PO reference, or it going to a different address?

Thanks, James

Why it works: it gives the client a free, face-saving way to tell you the invoice never reached the right place. Ask this after the due date and it is a complaint; ask it before and it is service.

2. Two days after the due date

The first real chase. Still warm, still a question. The client should read this and feel organised-at, not chased.

Subject: Invoice 1041 — £8,400, due 14 July

Hi Sarah,

Invoice 1041 was due on Tuesday and I can't see it on our side yet — £8,400, attached again.

Is it scheduled for a particular payment run? If it's stuck anywhere I'm happy to sort it out from this end.

Thanks, James

The offer to help is not decoration. Most invoices at this stage are stuck on something procedural, and being the person who fixes it is both faster and better for the relationship than being the person who complains about it.

3. About a week later

Now you name the total, not just the invoice, and you ask for a date rather than a status. This is the message that converts "we'll look into it" into something you can hold.

Subject: Payment on account — £14,400 outstanding

Hi Sarah,

Following up on the below. Two invoices are now outstanding:

1041 — £8,400 — due 14 July (17 days) 1055 — £6,000 — due 22 July (9 days)

Could you let me know a date these will be paid? If there's an approval waiting on someone, tell me who and I'll chase it with them directly.

Thanks, James

If this one gets no reply, stop emailing and call. Everything after this point is more effective if you have first found out what is actually happening.

4. The one that mentions the law

Around the three-week mark, the register changes. Not angry — formal. You stop asking and start stating, and you introduce the statutory position.

Subject: Overdue account — £14,400

Hi Sarah,

I haven't managed to get a payment date for the two invoices below, which are now 24 and 16 days overdue.

As a matter of course I should flag that late-payment interest accrues on overdue balances under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, together with the fixed compensation the Act provides for. I'd much rather not apply either, and I won't need to if we can get a date this week.

Can you confirm when payment will be made?

Thanks, James

Three deliberate choices. The legislation is named, so the pressure comes from the statute rather than from you. The interest is signalled, not charged — a lever you have described is more useful than one you have pulled. And there is still an easy way out, which is what stops it hardening into a fight. The full entitlement and how to calculate it is worth understanding before you send this, because you may be asked what the figure is.

5. The final notice

Short. No warmth, no hostility, no adjectives. This one is written to be forwarded to a director and, if it comes to it, read by a judge.

Subject: Final notice before formal recovery — £14,400 plus interest

Sarah,

The following remains outstanding:

1041 — £8,400 — due 14 July — 45 days 1055 — £6,000 — due 22 July — 37 days Fixed compensation (2 × £70) — £140.00 Statutory interest accrued to today — [figure] Total — [total]

If payment is not received by 5pm on Friday 4 September, we will begin formal recovery without further notice.

If any part of this is disputed, please tell me today which invoice and on what basis, and I will hold everything while we resolve it.

James

Fill the interest line in with a real figure rather than a round one, and be ready to show the arithmetic if you are asked for it. It is the invoice value multiplied by the statutory rate, divided by 365, multiplied by the days late — and the statutory rate is the Bank of England base rate on the reference date that applies to the debt, plus 8 points. Two invoices that fell late in different halves of the year can carry different rates. The full method, with a worked example.

Two things that are easy to get wrong here. First, mean it — a final notice followed by another final notice is worse than no final notice at all. Second, keep the dispute invitation in. It is not weakness; it protects you. If a dispute exists you need it in writing and you need it now, because a disputed debt closes off the insolvency route entirely, and you would much rather discover that before you have paid a court fee.

After this: a letter before action, then the choice between a county court claim and a statutory demand.

What to do when they promise and then don't pay

The most under-used move in credit control. When a client gives you a date, reply the same day confirming it in one line — "Thanks, noted for the 25th" — and then, if the 25th passes, chase it that morning, referencing their own words.

Hi Sarah — the 25th has passed and I can't see the payment. You'd confirmed it for that date. Has something changed at your end?

That is a much stronger position than a generic chase, because you are no longer asking for money. You are asking about a commitment they made, which is a different conversation and a harder one to leave unanswered.

The catch is that it only works if somebody notices on the morning of the 26th. Broken promises are worth more than any template in this article, and they are the thing an agency almost never has the attention to spot.

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Rewrite these before you use them. The wording matters much less than the timing, but sounding like yourself matters more than either — a client who can tell a chase was written by somebody else will treat it accordingly.