What should a final notice for an unpaid invoice include?

The invoice number, the amount, the issue and due dates, how many days overdue it is, the dates of every previous reminder, a total including anything you are entitled to add, a deadline, and the specific step that follows it. What it should not include is emotion, new arguments, or a threat you are not going to carry out. Everything in it should be a fact you could support if someone asked you to.

Should I send a final notice by email or by post?

Both, if the amount justifies it. Email gets there and creates a timestamp; a posted copy, sent by a tracked service, is much harder to claim never arrived and carries visibly more weight. If you post it, say in the email that you have, and keep the proof of posting with the rest of the file.

Final notice before collections — invoice letter template

The last email before you do the thing. Everything in it is a fact or a date, and every word of it has to be true.

Final notice
Firm tone
They have gone quiet

The email

Subject

Final notice — invoice [Invoice number], [Amount]

Body

[Customer name],

This is a final notice in respect of invoice [Invoice number] for [Amount], issued on [Invoice date] and due on [Due date]. It is now [Days overdue] days overdue.

Record of contact: reminders sent on [Dates of reminders]. Payments received: none.

Unless the full balance of [Total due] is received by [Date], I will refer this debt to [Who it goes to] without further notice. Any costs, interest and fees recoverable under our agreement or in law will be added to the amount claimed.

Payment details are on the attached copy of the invoice. If you believe any part of this is wrong, reply before [Date] and set out why, in writing.

[Your name]
[Your business]
[Your phone number]

Fill in before you send

[Customer name]
[Invoice number]
[Amount]
[Invoice date]
[Due date]
[Days overdue]
[Dates of reminders]
[Total due]
[Date]
[Who it goes to]
[Your name]
[Your business]
[Your phone number]

When to send this

Once, after a 60-day email with a deadline that has passed.
When you have already chosen and, ideally, contacted the agency or solicitor named in it.
When you accept that this customer relationship is very likely over.

When not to send this

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

When you have not decided who the debt actually goes to.: Instead: Choose first, and put their name in. 'Further action' means nothing to someone who has ignored five emails; a named agency with a date attached is a specific, checkable fact — and if the deadline passes with nothing happening, you have taught them the opposite lesson.
With a recovery cost or interest figure you have not verified against your contract and local law.: Instead: State only what your paperwork supports and add 'recoverable under our agreement or in law' for the rest. An inflated claim in a final notice is the first thing a defence will attack, and it can make an otherwise clean debt look opportunistic.
To a customer who has, at any point in the last two weeks, engaged and offered a plan.: Instead: Confirm the plan in writing instead and hold the notice. A final notice sent over a live offer usually ends the engagement for good, and a plan half-honoured recovers more than a referral that costs you a percentage of whatever comes back.

Not certain this is the reply you got?

This template assumes they have gone quiet. 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

Drop the greeting and the sign-off warmth. It is not rudeness for its own sake: a final notice is a document as much as an email, and it may end up attached to something formal. It should read as though it was written to be read by a third party, because it might be.

The record-of-contact line is the most useful part of the whole library. It converts a pile of forgotten emails into evidence, and it makes clear to the reader that a history exists which can be produced.

Questions this comes with

What should a final notice for an unpaid invoice include?: The invoice number, the amount, the issue and due dates, how many days overdue it is, the dates of every previous reminder, a total including anything you are entitled to add, a deadline, and the specific step that follows it. What it should not include is emotion, new arguments, or a threat you are not going to carry out. Everything in it should be a fact you could support if someone asked you to.
Should I send a final notice by email or by post?: Both, if the amount justifies it. Email gets there and creates a timestamp; a posted copy, sent by a tracked service, is much harder to claim never arrived and carries visibly more weight. If you post it, say in the email that you have, and keep the proof of posting with the rest of the file.

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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