What to do when a client says they never received your invoice

The short answer: resend the invoice the same day, as a reply in the same thread, to the person who actually processes payments, and ask them to confirm it has landed in their system. Do not argue about whether it was received the first time, and do not send a firmer reminder next to it.

It is tempting to read "we never received it" as a stall. Sometimes it is. But it is usually true in the way that matters: the invoice reached someone who did not route it to accounts payable, was caught by a spam filter, or was rejected by a system that wanted a purchase order number. Either way, the fastest route to being paid is the same — make it effortless for them to process the invoice now.

Resend it within the hour

Speed is the point. A resend the same day keeps the conversation alive and leaves nothing to hide behind. Reply in the thread where they told you, so the history stays together, and attach the invoice as a PDF rather than only a link to a portal they may not be able to open.

Hi Sam — no problem, here it is again: invoice 1042 for $2,480, attached as a PDF. It was due on the 22nd. Could you reply to let me know it has reached the right place? If it needs a PO number or should go to someone else, tell me and I'll reissue it.

Three details carry the message: the invoice number and amount in the text, so it can be found without opening anything; the original due date, stated as a fact rather than an accusation; and a question that is easy to answer and tells you it arrived.

Send it to the person who pays

The most common reason an invoice "never arrived" is that it went to the person you work with, and they are not the person who pays. Ask once, plainly, who should receive invoices — many companies have a shared accounts-payable address — and copy them on the resend.

• Ask whether invoices should go to a specific address, such as accounts payable.
• Ask whether they need a purchase order number, supplier number or project code on the invoice.
• Ask whether their system needs you set up as a supplier first, and what it needs from you to do that.

Confirm it landed

A resend is only done when someone confirms they have it. If two or three working days pass with no reply, follow up once with a single question: has the invoice been received, and when is the next payment run? That turns "we never got it" into a date you can hold them to.

If it keeps happening with the same client

The second "we never got it" is different from the first. By then you know where invoices should go, so resend once more and ask directly whether something on your side is getting in the way — a sender address their filter blocks, a format their system rejects. If the answer is vague, move the conversation to a phone call with whoever approves payments. A stall that is answered by fixing the mechanism has nowhere left to go.

Stopping it at the source

• Ask for the accounts-payable contact and any PO requirements when you agree the work, not when the invoice is late.
• Put the invoice number, amount and due date in the body of the email, not only in the attachment.
• Send invoices from the same address every time, so they are not mistaken for something else.
• Send a short note a few days before the due date asking whether the invoice has everything it needs. It surfaces a missing invoice while it is still on time.

Handled well, "we never received it" costs you a day. Handled as an argument, it costs you weeks — and the relationship you were trying to keep.