How to chase a late invoice

Most overdue invoices are not disputes. They are invoices that got stuck somewhere — the wrong inbox, a missing purchase order number, a payment run that happens on the 25th and nobody told you. The sequence below is what gets them unstuck, in the order to try it, with the wording to send at each stage.

Rule yourself out first

Before you write anything mildly annoyed, spend five minutes checking the problem is not at your end. This is not about being nice. It is about not sending a firm chaser and then discovering the invoice went to somebody who left the company in March.

• Did it reach a person who can pay it? Your day-to-day contact often cannot. Larger firms route everything through an accounts payable address or a supplier portal, and an invoice sitting in your project manager's inbox is not in the payment system at all.
• Does it carry the purchase order number? If your client issues POs, an invoice without one is usually rejected automatically. Many systems reject it silently, so the first you hear of it is nothing at all.
• Are the legal entity and address right? "Northwind" and "Northwind Trading Ltd" are the same company to you and two different records to their finance system.
• When is their payment run? Plenty of companies pay on fixed dates. An invoice that arrived on the 2nd with 30-day terms may simply be waiting for the next run.
• Check your own sent folder. It is more common than anyone admits to have written the invoice and never actually sent it.

The four-stage chase

Escalate in steps, and keep every stage in writing. Email is fine — what matters is that you can later show a clear record of when you asked and what you asked for. Attach the invoice again every single time, as a PDF. Never make someone go looking for it.

Stage 1 — the day after it falls due

Assume it is an oversight, because it usually is. This one should cost the reader nothing to resolve and should not read as a complaint.

Subject: Invoice INV-0042 — due yesterday

Hi [name],

Invoice INV-0042 for £1,500 was due on [date]. I have attached it
again in case it needs re-sending to anyone.

If it is already in your payment run, ignore this and apologies for
the noise. If it needs a PO number or anything else from me to clear,
tell me what and I will turn it round today.

Thanks,
[your name]

Stage 2 — one week late

Now widen the audience. Copy in accounts payable directly, and ask a question that requires an actual answer rather than one that can be acknowledged and forgotten.

Subject: Invoice INV-0042 — 7 days overdue

Hi [name], copying in accounts.

Invoice INV-0042 for £1,500, dated [issue date], was due on [due date]
and is now a week overdue. It is attached.

Could you confirm which payment run it is scheduled for, or tell me
what is blocking it? If there is a portal I should be submitting
through instead, send me the details and I will resubmit.

Thanks,
[your name]

"Which payment run is it in?" is a much better question than "any update?". It is specific, it is answerable, and the answer is either a date you can hold them to or an admission that it is not scheduled at all.

Stage 3 — two weeks late

This is where you mention that interest exists. You are not threatening anything; you are stating the position. In the UK and across the EU, statutory interest on overdue commercial invoices applies whether or not you mention it, so noting it is a statement of fact rather than a new demand.

Subject: Invoice INV-0042 — 14 days overdue

Hi [name],

Invoice INV-0042 for £1,500 is now 14 days overdue and I have not
had a payment date. It is attached again.

I would rather not, but from this point the invoice is accruing
statutory interest under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts
(Interest) Act 1998, along with the fixed recovery sum the Act
allows. I will hold off applying either until [date, 7 days out]
if you can confirm a payment date before then.

Please let me know either way.

[your name]

Stage 4 — thirty days late

At a month, stop asking and start stating. Give a deadline and say plainly what happens after it. Only write this if you are actually prepared to follow through — an ignored ultimatum teaches your client that your deadlines mean nothing.

Subject: Invoice INV-0042 — final request before formal recovery

Hi [name],

Invoice INV-0042 for £1,500 is now 30 days overdue. I have chased on
[date], [date] and [date] without a payment date.

Unless payment reaches my account by [date, 7 days out], I will send
a formal letter before action and, if that is not answered, begin
county court recovery for the invoice, statutory interest and the
fixed compensation the Act allows.

I would much rather settle this between us. Account details are on
the attached invoice.

[your name]

What UK law lets you charge

For business-to-business invoices, the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 gives you three things you do not have to negotiate for. They apply automatically to commercial transactions — you do not need a late-payment clause in your contract, though having one makes the conversation easier.

• Statutory interest, charged at a fixed margin over the Bank of England base rate. The base rate used is pinned twice a year rather than moving daily: the rate in force on 31 December applies for the following January to June, and the rate in force on 30 June applies for July to December.
• A fixed sum towards your recovery costs, which steps up in bands according to the size of the debt.
• Reasonable additional recovery costs beyond that fixed sum, where the fixed sum does not cover what chasing the debt actually cost you.

Two timing rules matter as much as the money. If you never agreed payment terms, the default credit period is 30 days, running from the later of the client receiving the invoice or receiving the goods or service. And while you can agree longer terms, business-to-business terms beyond 60 days can be challenged as grossly unfair to the supplier, and public authorities are held to a shorter period again.

What EU law lets you charge

The EU Late Payment Directive (2011/7/EU) sets a very similar floor across member states: interest at a defined margin above the European Central Bank reference rate, a minimum fixed sum in recovery compensation, and reasonable costs above that.

The default and maximum periods mirror the UK position — 30 days by default, a maximum of 60 days for business-to-business terms unless a longer period is expressly agreed and is not grossly unfair, and a shorter limit for public authorities.

The important caveat is that a directive sets a minimum, and each member state implements it in its own national law. Several go further than the floor. If you are invoicing into a specific country, check that country's implementation rather than the directive itself — the entitlement may be better than you think.

The figures

Everything above describes how the rules work, which changes rarely. The actual rates and thresholds are set in regulations and get amended, so they live here in one block rather than scattered through the article — and they are worth confirming at source before you put any of them in an email.

When to escalate

Almost everything settles before this point. If it does not, the next step is a letter before action: a formal, dated letter setting out what is owed, what it relates to, what you have already done to recover it, and a deadline — usually 14 days — before you issue a claim. Send it by a method you can prove arrived.

If that is ignored, small claims exist precisely for invoices of this size. In England and Wales you can issue online through Money Claim Online, and a claim below the small claims threshold is normally allocated to the small claims track, which is designed to be used without a solicitor. Court fees scale with the value of the claim and are recoverable if you win.

Be realistic about the arithmetic before you start. A claim costs you a fee and, more expensively, your time and attention for weeks. Winning a judgment is also not the same as being paid — if the client has no money, a judgment does not create any. For a small invoice against a client who is stalling rather than insolvent, the stages above usually work better than the court does.

Stopping it happening again

Chasing is a symptom. Most of the fix happens before the invoice is sent.

• Get the PO number and the accounts email before you start work, not after the invoice is late. Ask both in the same message as your quote.
• Invoice the day you finish, not at the end of the month. The clock cannot start until the invoice exists.
• Put your payment terms on the invoice itself, including the late-payment line. It changes nothing legally in the UK or EU, but it makes the day-14 email much less awkward to send.
• Shorten your terms. Net 30 is a convention, not a law. Net 14 is entirely normal for small suppliers, and the worst outcome of asking is that a client negotiates you back to 30.
• Take a deposit from new clients. A client who will not pay anything up front is telling you something worth listening to.
• Number your invoices sequentially and never reuse a number. When you need to show a history of what was sent and when, a clean run is the difference between a strong position and an argument.

The invoice maker handles the parts of this it can: it fills the due date from your payment terms, keeps a running balance when a client part-pays, and has a notes field that is a sensible home for your late-payment line. Everything else is habit.