What should I do when a client says they never received my invoice?

Resend it the same day as a reply in the same thread, with the invoice attached as a PDF and the number, amount and due date written in the email. Ask them to confirm it has reached the right place, and whether it should go to a different address or needs a PO number. Do not argue about whether it was received the first time; the quickest route to being paid is making it easy to process now.

Does the due date change if they never received the invoice?

Your terms say what the due date is, and restating it in the resend keeps it on the record. In practice, if they genuinely never had it, insisting on the original date tends to cost more goodwill than it recovers. Many businesses treat the clock as restarting from the resend for a first occurrence and hold to the original date for a repeat one.

Customer says they never received the invoice — what to send

Usually true, in the sense that matters: it reached someone who never passed it on. Resend it today and make it impossible to lose twice.

One week overdue
Friendly tone
They say they never got it

The email

Subject

Re: invoice [Invoice number] — here it is again

Body

Hi [Customer name],

No problem at all, here it is again: invoice [Invoice number] for [Amount], attached as a PDF. It was due on [Due date].

Could you reply to let me know it has reached the right place? If it should go to someone else, like an accounts payable address, or needs a PO number on it, tell me and I'll reissue it today.

Thanks,
[Your name]
[Your business]

Fill in before you send

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

When to send this

The same day a customer tells you the invoice never arrived, as a reply in the thread where they said so.
When the invoice went to your day-to-day contact and you suspect it never reached the person who pays.
When their system may have rejected it for a missing purchase order number or supplier reference.

When not to send this

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

When you have already resent it once and confirmed the right address, and they say the same thing again.: Instead: Ask directly whether something on your side is getting in the way, such as a sender address their filter blocks or a format their system rejects, and offer a short call with whoever approves payments. A third identical resend teaches them the excuse works.
With a firmer reminder for the same invoice sent alongside it, or your normal chase sequence still running.: Instead: Pause the reminders until they confirm it has arrived. Chasing an invoice they have just told you they never had reads as not listening, and restarts the argument the resend was meant to end.
If their reply is really about the amount or the work, and "never got it" is only the opening line.: Instead: Answer the objection first and treat it as a dispute. The dispute template keeps the disagreement separate from the request for payment, which is the faster route to settling both.

Not certain this is the reply you got?

This template assumes they say they never got it. Replies rarely say so in those words, and picking the wrong one is how a dispute gets chased or a kept promise gets nagged. Paste what they actually sent and the decoder will tell you which situation it is — and therefore which email belongs here.

Decode the reply you were sent

Notes on this one

Put the invoice number, the amount and the due date in the body, not only in the attachment. Whoever forwards this to accounts can then find and approve it without opening anything, and nobody can say again that they did not know what it was for.

The question at the end does the real work. A resend only counts once someone confirms it landed. If two or three working days pass with no reply, follow up once asking whether it has been received and when their next payment run is.

Questions this comes with

What should I do when a client says they never received my invoice?: Resend it the same day as a reply in the same thread, with the invoice attached as a PDF and the number, amount and due date written in the email. Ask them to confirm it has reached the right place, and whether it should go to a different address or needs a PO number. Do not argue about whether it was received the first time; the quickest route to being paid is making it easy to process now.
Does the due date change if they never received the invoice?: Your terms say what the due date is, and restating it in the resend keeps it on the record. In practice, if they genuinely never had it, insisting on the original date tends to cost more goodwill than it recovers. Many businesses treat the clock as restarting from the resend for a first occurrence and hold to the original date for a repeat one.

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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