Closing an unpaid invoice — the last email on a small balance

Not every unpaid invoice is worth a final notice. This is what you send when the chasing costs more than the invoice is worth.

Final notice
Neutral tone

The email

Subject

Closing our file on invoice [Invoice number]

Body

Hi [Customer name],

Invoice [Invoice number] for [Amount], due [Due date], is still unpaid and I have not been able to reach you about it.

I am not going to keep chasing an amount this size, so I am closing our file on it and will not be sending further reminders. The balance stays on our books as outstanding, and it would need to be settled before we took on new work.

If it was an oversight, the payment details are on the attached copy and I will close it off properly the day it lands.

Regards,
[Your name]
[Your business]

Fill in before you send

[Customer name]
[Invoice number]
[Amount]
[Due date]
[Your name]
[Your business]

When to send this

On a small balance where another month of chasing would cost more in your time than the invoice is worth.
When you have decided the account is not one you want back on your usual terms.
When you would rather end on a clear, unemotional note than let it trail off into silence.

When not to send this

The wrong reminder at the wrong moment costs more than no reminder at all.

On an amount you would genuinely pursue formally.: Instead: Send the final notice. Telling a customer you have stopped chasing and then instructing an agency a month later contradicts your own written statement, and it is exactly the sort of inconsistency a debtor will point at.
As a bluff, hoping the threat of losing you as a supplier makes them pay.: Instead: Decide for real. If you will keep working with them, this email is untrue and they will find out the next time they ask for something; a customer who learns your last emails are theatre stops reading the earlier ones too.
Without recording the balance as still owed in your books.: Instead: Keep it on the ledger as outstanding until you deliberately write it off. Closing the file is a decision about your time, not a cancellation of the debt, and your accounts and your tax position should reflect what actually happened.

Notes on this one

Saying plainly that you have stopped chasing occasionally gets the invoice paid, which is not the reason to send it. The reason is that it ends an open loop honestly, and it sets a condition for future work that you can point to without a fight later.

All 19 reminder templates

Collectly does this across every invoice, on its own

You just picked the email to send on one invoice. Collectly does the same thing continuously for every unpaid invoice you have — reads the replies, works out why each one is unpaid, estimates when it will land, and drafts the follow-up for you to approve.

With 15 rules it cannot talk its way around

A paid or written-off invoice is never chased again. Follow-ups are switched off permanently, not deferred.
A disputed invoice stops automated chasing entirely and goes to a person to resolve.
A promise to pay on a date pauses reminders until that date has passed. Collectly checks back the day after, not on the day.
At least three days between reminders on the same invoice, so re-running the analysis cannot turn into nagging. A resent or corrected invoice the customer has just asked for is not a reminder, and still waits for your approval.

Try it on your invoices See how it works

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