An overdue invoice email you'd actually send.
An unpaid bill gets a friendly first reminder drafted, then firmer ones on the timing you pick. You read and send each one.
How overdue invoice email reminders work
- Pick who sends the reminders.
- Pick the timing for each one.
- Read each one, then send it.
- Build it around how you bill.
- Write reminders in your voice.
- Keep it running.
Texts you can copy.
Yours to use, even if you never hire us.
Subject: Invoice [number] for [the job] Hi [Name], A friendly reminder that invoice [number] for [the job] was due on [date]. Easy to miss, so no worries. You can pay it here: [how you take payment]. If you've already sent it, thank you, and please ignore this. [your name] [Business] · [phone]
Subject: Invoice [number], now past due Hi [Name], Following up on invoice [number] for [the job], which is now [number] days past due. Could you let me know when to expect payment? If something on the bill doesn't look right, reply and we'll sort it out. Here's how to pay: [how you take payment] Thanks, [your name]
Subject: Invoice [number], please reply by [date] Hi [Name], Invoice [number] for [the job] is still open, [number] days past the due date. I'd like to settle this with you directly. Please pay by [date], or call me at [phone] if you need to work something out. After that, [what happens next, in your words]. [your name] [Business]
Live in 30 days.
- KickoffYou name one approver.
- 5 business daysYou give us access.
- 48 hoursYour approver gets back to us.
- 30 daysLive, or we work free until it is.
Questions.
The invoice number, the job, the amount, the due date and how to pay. Keep the first one friendly and short, give one clear way to pay, and leave an easy out in case they already sent it. Save the firmer wording for later notes. The first reminder in the texts above is a good place to start.
You pick the timing, and your payment terms set the exact days. A common pattern is a friendly first note a day or two after the due date, a firmer one about a week later, and a last one a week or two after that. On a big job, you might add a heads-up before the bill is due.
Stay friendly and specific, and get firmer one step at a time. Name the job and the invoice, assume it slipped their mind the first time, and ask for a date the second time. Only the last note says what happens next, and only in words you'd say to their face. That way the customer stays a customer.
Email first for most bills, because it keeps a record and the invoice can go with it. A payment reminder email also gives the customer something to forward to whoever pays the bills. A text works for a small job, or a customer who only ever texts you. Either way, you or someone on your team sends it.
No. We don't take payments, hold money or move it, and your customer pays the way they already pay you. We build it around how you already bill, and we don't promise a connection to any invoicing software. A person reads each reminder before it goes, so whoever sends it can check that the bill is still open.
