First invoice reminder — a one-line day 1 overdue email
Three lines. It exists because a long reminder about a one-day delay makes the delay sound like a bigger deal than it is.
- Day 1 overdue
- Neutral tone
The email
Subject
[Invoice number] — [Amount] — now due
Body
Hi [Customer name], Invoice [Invoice number], [Amount], was due [Due date] and is showing as unpaid on my side. Payment details are on the invoice, attached. [Your name] [Your business]
Fill in before you send
- [Customer name]
- [Invoice number]
- [Amount]
- [Due date]
- [Your name]
- [Your business]
When to send this
- To an accounts inbox rather than a person, where nobody is reading for tone.
- To a customer you invoice every month and who pays in batches — they need the reference, not a conversation.
- When you want the reminder on the record without changing the temperature of the relationship at all.
When not to send this
The wrong reminder at the wrong moment costs more than no reminder at all.
- To your largest customer, or to anyone whose relationship is with you personally rather than with your invoices.
- Instead: Use the friendly version. A three-line email with no warmth in it reads as displeasure to someone who knows you, even though it was meant as efficiency.
- As the second or third reminder, unchanged.
- Instead: Sending the same neutral line again teaches the reader that your reminders are automatic and carry no consequence. Escalate the content, not just the date at the top.
- When the invoice is disputed, or when their last email raised a question you have not answered.
- Instead: Answer the question first. A bare reminder sent over an unanswered objection reads as ignoring them, and it usually produces a much colder reply than the original email deserved.
Notes on this one
Short is a choice about the reader, not about your time. Inside an accounts payable inbox the only fields that matter are the invoice number, the amount and whether the money has been sent. Everything else lengthens the email without moving it forward.
If this one is not right
- Day after the due dateA friendly one-day-overdue reminder that assumes an approval queue rather than a refusal, and gives the customer an easy way to say what happened.Read
- One week overdue, ask for a dateA neutral one-week reminder whose only ask is a specific payment date, so the next email has something concrete to refer back to.Read
- Two weeks overdue, find the payerA neutral two-week reminder that stops asking the same contact and asks instead who in the business actually processes payments.Read
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.
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