Businesses depend on many things, including resources, location, marketing, and income. Payment from clients is an important part, as it keeps the flow of cash for business processes. Running after clients for due payment is such a hectic process. You can simply send an overdue invoice to ask your clients for unpaid payment.
There are different ways of writing an overdue invoice letter. You can download an invoice template for this purpose. We are sharing a few tips with you for writing an overdue invoice letter:
- Follow up at the right time
- Add invoice and payment details
- Tailor the language
- Late Fee Charges
- Offer a payment plan.
- Be polite
- Automate reminders
- Enlist help
How To Write A Past Due Invoice Letter
Friendly Payment Reminder Letter Samples
Here we will guide you about the tips for writing an overdue invoice letter:
1. Follow Up At The Right Time:
The right time to follow up with your clients is:
- If your client is habitually paying a late fee, you must follow up right after an invoice is due.
- If the client is new or not in the habit of paying a late fee, you can follow up after a week or two.
- You should follow up repeatedly if the payment is due for a month, two months, or three months.
- If your client has a busy schedule, you should send an overdue invoice letter on weekends to grab the attention.
- Another option for follow-up is sending an overdue invoice on ‘Tuesday.’ According to the ‘Entrepreneur,’ it is the best time to send an invoice on Tuesday, before or after lunchtime.
- If you have more than one client with overdue payments, then you should send them reminders at once to save you time and energy.
2. Add Invoice And Payment Details:
Adding details in your overdue invoice letter will help the clients to know the payment details, including:
- Date and invoice number
- Payment terms (late fee)
- Amount owing
- Reminders of previous invoice letters
- Payment instructions (through links in emails)
- Your contact details
3. Tailor The Language:
Depending on the time and situation, you need to change your language in an overdue invoice letter. You can tailor the language accordingly:
1-15 days past due:
Keeping good relations with your customers can remind them of their due payments.
You need to be polite and gentle with them.
30-60 days past due:
You should stay professional but do remind your clients about the due payment in an affirmative way. Tell them that it’s too late to pay your dues.
90+ days past due:
At this point, you can hardly expect your due payment from the client. So you need to send an invoice to a collection agency for further processing.
Do inform your clients that if they do not pay the dues, their accounts will turn over to the collection agency, so be prepared.
4. Late Fee Charges:
You should discuss the rules for late fees or overdue invoices to avoid any confusion in the future. You can set an amount or percentage you can demand as a late fee on their due payment.
Let’s say:
If a state charges 20% of interest, divide that number by 12 to get the monthly late fee percentage.
Not every business can charge a late fee because it may have some disadvantages that you should know.
5. Offer A Payment Plan:
You can offer a manageable payment plan if your client is not paying you an overdue amount within the notice period where you can divide the total payment amount into parts of two or three. It will increase the chances of getting your payment from clients.
6. Be Polite:
Whenever you address your clients in an overdue invoice letter, you need to be humble and polite with them. It helps you get your payment and maintain your good reputation in the business world. You must add courtesy words (Thank you, Please) in your letters to leave a good impression on your clients.
7. Automate Reminders:
An ‘Invoicing Software’ helps send reminders to your clients on different days after the due date of payment. You need to set reminders, including one day after the due, 30 days, 60 days, and so on. You can also add a personal message with each of the reminders. This software automatically adds a late fee to the invoice total.
8. Enlist Help:
The last and final option is to seek help from collection agencies or legal counselors. If your client is not cooperating and resists paying your dues, you must take help from lawyers and collection agencies.
You can also find the liable collection agency online. You should send the last warning to your clients in which you must mention the collection agency and tell them that they will keep in touch.
How To Write A Past Due Invoice Letter:
An invoice letter should be professional. Here we are sharing a few tips for writing a professional overdue invoice letter:
For slightly overdue payments, you can write as:
- For your ease, I’m sending a quick reminder about invoice#005, due yesterday.
- For making easy online payments, you can also add links after attaching invoices.
- Use polite wordings, such as: kindly, please, thank you, etc.
- Give the reminder of previous letters by using words like: ‘As you know.’
- Invoices that are over 60 days due need professional firm wordings, such as:
- Urgent matter, important, pay attention, required, immediate attention, etc. It will help the client to know the seriousness of the issue.
- Be direct and avoid irrelevant details.
- Notify the clients that you will contact them through a phone call for follow-up. It will set the client in action.
Friendly Payment Reminder Letter Samples:
You should design the letters depending on the situation. The letter for one day of due payment should differ from 30 or 60 days before the due date.
Here we will share samples with you to write friendly payment reminder letters to your clients:
1-15 DAYS PAST DUE
Hi [Client Name],
It is a friendly reminder that your account is now overdue. According to our records, the amount of $xyz is now three days past due. In case you did not receive an invoice, a copy is attached.
Here is your account summary:
Invoice Number: (enter the number)
Invoice Date: (date of issue)
Amount Due: (due amount of payment )
Due Date: (due date for payment)
Please send payment via check to the address listed below. Or you can pay by credit card through our website at (link).
As previously discussed, our payment terms are 30 days from the date of issue. Late payments charge 5 percent per month overdue.
We appreciate your attention to this matter and look forward to working with you in the future.
Best,
(Your Name)
(Address)
30-60 DAYS PAST DUE
Dear [Client Name],
We’re writing to inform you that your account is now 30 days past due. The amount of $xyz was due on ([insert date). We sent you a past due notice on ([insert date) and did not receive a reply.
This matter requires your urgent attention. Please send payment as soon as possible.
Invoice Number: (enter the number of invoices)
Invoice Date: (date of issue)
Invoice Total: (total amount of invoice)
Current Amount Due: ( current amount to be paid)
Due Date: (due date for payment)
Our payment terms are 30 days from the date of issue, as established in our contract. Your account now has an additional late fee of 5 percent.
Please contact me immediately about when we can expect the payment. You can make payment via check to the address listed below or through our website (link).
Sincerely,
(Your Name)
(Address)
90+ DAYS PAST DUE
Dear 9Client Name),
We require your urgent attention to resolve this situation. We contacted you on [insert dates] about your overdue invoice with no reply. Your account is now 90 days overdue.
Please remit payment within 15 business days. If we do not receive payment by (insert date), we will immediately refer your account to a collection agency.
Immediate payment of (insert amount) will ensure this action will not proceed.
Invoice Number: (enter the number of the invoice)
Invoice Date: (date of issue)
Amount: (total amount)
Current Amount Due: (current amount to be paid)
Due Date: (due date for payment)
Our payment terms are 30 days from the date of issue. Late fees are 5 percent per month. As your invoice is 90 days late, a 15 percent late fee adds up to the invoice total.
Please let us know immediately when you plan to send the payment. Complete the payment by checking the address listed below or through our website (link).
Sincerely,
(Your Name)
(Address)
We hope this article will help you choose the best way to write an overdue invoice letter to your clients to get your due payment as soon as possible.
If you are looking for more helpful resources and guidance, then check out our resource hub.
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