Realized I was chasing payments way too late because I never set a due date on the invoice itself

After a client in Austin finally paid me 45 days late and I checked my invoice template, I saw I had put 'due upon receipt' but never actually listed a date, so they just ignored it until I called them.

3 comments

3 Comments

corap618d ago

Same thing happened to me with a client in Chicago, drove me crazy.

the_nancy8d ago

Oh man, I've been there too. What finally worked for me was putting a clear "due by [date]" right at the top of the invoice in bold letters. I also started sending a friendly reminder email three days before the due date, just a quick "Hey, just wanted to make sure you saw this" kind of thing. After one client in Nashville still paid two weeks late, I added a line about a small late fee after 15 days - haven't had to enforce it yet, but just having it there seems to keep people on track. Your mileage may vary, but making the date super obvious and giving a gentle nudge ahead of time really turned things around for me.

kevin_williams8d ago

Has anyone else tried the trick where you write the due date in red ink and then feel bad about being so aggressive? No, just me? I swear I tried the three day reminder thing too but I kept forgetting to actually send it until like five days after the invoice was due. Eventually I just set a recurring reminder on my phone that goes off at the same time every month, that's about the only way my scattered brain stays on top of it. The late fee thing is genius though, I added one for 30 days and suddenly people started noticing the date a lot more. I'm still too chicken to actually charge anyone the late fee but just having the threat out there works wonders.