Invoice reminder templates

Questions about chasing unpaid invoices

How do I write a polite invoice reminder?

State the invoice number, the amount and the due date in the first sentence, then give the customer an easy explanation to agree with — an approval queue, a payment run, an invoice that never reached the right person. Ask for one specific thing, usually a payment date rather than the payment itself, and say what you will do with the answer. Politeness is not padding; the shortest reminders are usually the friendliest, because they do not make the delay sound like an accusation.

How often should I send invoice reminders?

Frequency matters less than escalation. A sequence that goes day 1, day 7, day 14, day 30 and then a final notice works because each email asks for something different and puts more on the record than the last. Sending the same reminder weekly teaches the reader that your emails carry no consequence, and they start getting filtered. If a customer gives you a date, stop until it passes — chasing inside a window you agreed to is the fastest way to lose a cooperative payer.

When should I stop sending friendly reminders and get firm?

When warmth has already been tried and has not changed anything — typically after two unanswered reminders, which is around the two-week mark on net 30 terms. Firm does not mean angry. It means naming what was agreed, giving a date, and stating one consequence you are genuinely willing to carry out. A firm email you do not follow through on is worse than the friendly one it replaced.

Should I use the same reminder template for every customer?

No, and the reason is not tone — it is that the right email depends on what the customer has already told you. Someone who says they have paid, someone disputing a line, someone who promised a date and missed it, and someone who has said nothing at all need four different emails, and sending the generic one to any of them makes the situation worse. That is why this library is organised by situation as well as by how late the invoice is.

Are these templates free to use?

Yes. Every template is on its own page in full, with no form in front of it, and you can copy and change any of them. There is an email box further down if you would rather have the whole set in one message, but nothing on these pages is withheld until you fill it in.

What does Collectly do that a template does not?

A template is what you send. Collectly decides which one to send and when: it reads your customers' replies to work out why each invoice is unpaid, estimates when it is likely to be paid, holds follow-ups until a promised date has passed, and drafts the next email for you to approve. It also refuses to chase an invoice that is paid, disputed, or promised and not yet due — those are deterministic rules in code, not judgement calls. The templates below do none of that. They are the raw material.