4 payment reminder emails to send on a client's behalf

When a client asks you to chase their late invoices, the hard part is rarely the chasing. It is the wording. You are writing in someone else's name, to someone else's customer, about money. Get the tone wrong and the client calls you angry. Say nothing and the invoice ages.

Below is a set of four emails you can copy, with the rules for when each one goes out. Everything in square brackets is a blank to fill in. Nothing here needs special software. You can keep the set in a document or in QuickBooks Online's own reminder settings.

Before you send anything

Get these four things from the client in writing. It takes one email, and it saves you an awkward call later.

• **Who the emails come from.** Your name, the client's name, or a shared accounts address. Pick one and keep it the same for every customer.
• **Which customers are off limits.** Some clients have a customer they do not want chased at all, such as a relative or their biggest account. Ask.
• **When to stop and call.** Agree the day when you stop emailing and hand the invoice back to the client.
• **Whether you can change terms.** Do not offer payment plans or write-offs yourself. Those are the client's call.

If you send as the client, use their business name in the signature. If you send as yourself, say whose invoice it is in the first line. Customers ignore emails from someone they have never heard of, so name the client early.

Email 1: the heads-up, a few days before the due date

Send this three to five days before the due date. It is not a chase. It is a courtesy, and it never calls the invoice late.

**Subject:** Invoice [invoice number] from [client business] is due on [due date]

Hi [customer first name],

A quick note that invoice [invoice number] for [amount] is due on [due date]. You can pay it here: [payment link or bank details].

If anything on the invoice looks wrong, reply to this email and we will sort it out before the due date.

Thanks, [your name], for [client business]

Why bother? Some late payments are simply invoices that sat unread in an inbox. A short note with the amount and the way to pay removes that excuse.

Email 2: the due-date email

Send this on the due date, or the morning after. Keep it light.

**Subject:** Invoice [invoice number] is due today

Hi [customer first name],

Invoice [invoice number] for [amount] is due today. Payment details are below.

[payment link or bank details]

If you have already paid, thank you, and please ignore this. If you need anything else from us to pay it, such as a purchase order number, tell me and I will send it.

Thanks, [your name], for [client business]

The purchase order line matters more than it looks. Invoices often stall in a customer's accounts payable team because a reference is missing, not because anyone refuses to pay.

Email 3: first overdue

Send this seven days after the due date. It names the problem plainly and asks a question, which is easier to answer than a demand.

**Subject:** Invoice [invoice number] is [number] days overdue

Hi [customer first name],

Our records show invoice [invoice number] for [amount] was due on [due date] and has not been paid yet. Could you let me know when we can expect it?

If it has gone out already, tell me the date and I will match it up on our side. If there is a problem with the invoice, tell me what it is and I will pass it to [client first name] today.

Pay online: [payment link or bank details]

Thanks, [your name], for [client business]

There are two ways out of this email: "I paid" and "there is a problem." Both get you a reply. A reply is what you are after, because a customer who answers is much easier to move than one who stays silent.

Email 4: the firm one

Send this fourteen to twenty-one days after the due date, or on the day you agreed with the client. Stay calm and factual. State what you need and by when. Do not threaten anything the client has not approved.

**Subject:** Action needed: invoice [invoice number], [amount], [number] days overdue

Hi [customer first name],

Invoice [invoice number] for [amount] was due on [due date] and is now [number] days overdue. We have written before and have not had a reply.

Please pay by [date], or reply by then with a date you can commit to. Payment details: [payment link or bank details].

If we do not hear from you by [date], [client first name] will contact you directly about the account. [Add a line here about pausing work or supply only if the client has told you to.]

Thanks, [your name], for [client business]

For more on this last step, including how to word a final notice, see our post on writing a final notice that gets paid.

A short checklist for every send

• Check the invoice is still unpaid in the books right now, not from last week's report.
• Check the customer has no open dispute or promise to pay noted anywhere.
• Check the amount and the due date match the invoice, not a memory of it.
• Check the email goes to the person who pays, not only the person who ordered.
• Write down the date you sent it, so the next step is not a guess.

Mistakes that cause the angry client call

• Chasing an invoice the client already settled by cash or cheque that you have not recorded yet.
• Sending a firm email to a customer who replied to the last one and was waiting on an answer from you.
• Sending the same email to a customer with three overdue invoices, three times in one week. One message that covers everything reads better than three separate ones.
• Using a tone the client would never use. If the client is warm and chatty, soften the wording above.

If you run this for ten or more clients

The set above works for one client. At ten clients the problem changes. You are tracking ten lists of customers, ten schedules and ten opinions about tone. A spreadsheet and a calendar reminder will carry you until a busy week breaks it. If you are building this into a paid service, our post on selling invoice follow-up as a service and our page for bookkeepers cover how we think about it. If you send these for several clients, the pilot plan for running reminders across client books shows how to start small.

Mugavi drafts reminders like these for QuickBooks and Xero and holds each one until the owner approves it, so nothing goes to a client's customer unseen. The QuickBooks connection is in beta, late fees are not written back to QuickBooks, and there is no read-only team role yet. Whichever way you do it, keep the wording above and change only the blanks.