Pre-due invoice email — check the PO and the payment run

For customers big enough to have a payment run. It asks the three questions that decide whether an invoice gets paid on time inside an AP process.

Before the due date
Neutral tone

The email

Subject

Invoice [Invoice number] — confirming it is in the run for [Due date]

Body

Hi [Customer name],

Invoice [Invoice number] for [Amount] is due on [Due date]. Before it gets there, three things I would rather confirm now than chase later:

1. Is the PO number on the invoice the one you need?
2. Has it been approved, or is it still waiting on someone?
3. Which payment run is it in?

If any of those need something from me, tell me what and I will turn it round the same day.

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

To a customer with a real accounts payable function — anyone who has ever mentioned a PO number, an approval, or a payment run.
About a week before the due date, so there is time to fix a wrong PO before the run closes.
On the first two or three invoices with a new corporate customer, until you know their cycle.

When not to send this

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

To a sole trader or a small business where the person reading it is the person who pays.: Instead: Send the friendly pre-due note instead. Asking an owner-operator which payment run they are in sounds like a form letter, because it is one.
When you already know their run dates from previous invoices.: Instead: Diary the run date and check your bank the day after it. You already have the answer this email is asking for, and asking again spends goodwill on information you hold.
As a way of sneaking a chase in early on something that is not due yet.: Instead: If what you actually want is payment sooner than the terms you agreed, say that and offer something for it. A process question with a chase hidden inside it reads as exactly that.

Notes on this one

Inside most AP departments an invoice is only late for one of three reasons: it never got matched to a purchase order, it is sitting unapproved with someone who is away, or it missed the cut-off for a run and is now waiting a fortnight for the next one. Numbering the questions makes it easy for a clerk to answer all three in one line, which is the whole point.

A wrong or missing PO number is the single most common reason a correct invoice sits unpaid.
Approval queues stall on holidays. Knowing the approver's name is worth more than knowing the run date.
Payment runs are usually fortnightly or monthly. Missing one by a day costs you two weeks, not a day.

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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