Overdue invoice reminder email generator
Type the invoice in once and this tool writes three reminder emails for you: one for day 3 late, one for day 10 and one for day 21. Each comes with a subject line and a copy button. You send them from your own email, so the reply comes back to you.
The short answer
Enter your business name, your client, the invoice number, the amount, the due date and how you want to be paid. The tool writes three escalating reminder emails for 3, 10 and 21 days past the due date, each with its own subject line and a copy button. It writes words only. Nothing is sent from the page, and no reminder reaches your client until you paste it into your own email.
Write the three reminder emails
Fill this in once. The tool works out the dates from the due date and writes the email to match. The words appear below for you to copy. Nothing is sent from this page.
This page builds text inside your browser. There is no field for your client's email address, no account and no network call, so nothing can leave the page on its own. You paste each email into your own email program and send it from your own address.
Your three reminder emails
The dates below are worked out from the due date you entered.
Reminder one: 3 days past the due date
Send this one if the invoice has not been paid by then.
Subject:
Reminder two: 10 days past the due date
Send this one if there has been no answer to the first.
Subject:
Reminder three: 21 days past the due date
Send this one if the first two have been ignored.
Subject:
What this tool does
You put the invoice details in once: who owes you, how much, when it was due and how you want to be paid. The tool then writes the three emails that cover the three weeks an unpaid invoice usually runs through, working the send date for each one back from the due date. The wording gets shorter and less friendly as the invoice ages, and the third one says what happens next.
How the generator works
- Fill in the fields Business name, client, invoice number, amount, due date and payment details. The amount and the due date drive everything, so read them twice before you copy anything.
- The dates are worked out for you Each email comes with the date it should go out: three, ten and twenty one days after the due date. The spacing is deliberate rather than a weekly drip.
- Copy, paste, send from your own address Each email has a copy button that takes the subject line and the body together. Nothing leaves this page. You paste it into your email program and send it.
When to use it
- An invoice is a few days past its due date and you would rather not ring yet.
- You have already asked once on the phone and nothing has arrived.
- A client is running several invoices past their due date and you want to treat all of them the same way.
- You want a dated record that you asked, which is worth more than a memory of the conversation if the matter ever ends up with a lawyer.
Most late payments are a cash flow problem on the other side of the fence rather than bad faith, and a clear dated email gives a client something to forward to their accounts person.
The escalation, stage by stage
| Reminder | When it goes out | What it assumes | What it asks for |
|---|---|---|---|
| First | 3 days after the due date | The payment has slipped or is in the current run | A short reply if it has been paid |
| Second | 10 days after the due date | The payment is late and nobody has said why | A date you can hold them to |
| Third | 21 days after the due date | The invoice has stalled and a phone call beats email | Payment this week, or a call |
| After that | Roughly 35 days, once reminders are ignored | Reminders are not working on this one | A written letter of demand, a formal step |
Keep the order even when you discover a problem late. Sending all three on the same afternoon tells a client that your due date was never serious.
What to watch out for
- Do not invent a deadline you cannot follow through on. The third email mentions a letter of demand, so be ready to write one.
- Do not add late fees that are not in your terms. A fee invented after the invoice is late is a dispute waiting to happen.
- Interest is a separate question from a reminder. You can only charge interest if your contract or your terms allow it, and the rate has to come from those terms.
- Check the balance before you send anything. If a part payment has landed, saying so in the email is stronger than leaving it out and being corrected.
The honest limits of this tool
- It writes text and nothing else. It does not know whether the invoice has been paid, and it cannot tell you what to do next.
- It does not read your contract or your terms, so the interest line is written as a condition on purpose. It is not advice about what your own agreement allows.
- It does not promise that the invoice will be paid, and no reminder can. What reminders do is keep the request in front of your client and build a dated record that you asked.
- It does not know your client. If the work is ongoing, an email with a deadline in it can cost you more than the invoice, so cut the third one back or offer a call instead.
If chasing is a job you do every week
This generator is for the one-off chase. When chasing is part of the routine, the invoicing app at paychasey.com.au does the same four steps without being asked: the invoice goes out with your ABN and the GST worked out, the client gets a PDF and a payment link, card payments land in your own account with your payment provider, and reminders go out at 3, 10, 21 and 35 days after the due date and stop the moment the invoice is paid. Three invoices a month are free with no card, and $29 a month covers 1,000 invoices a month.
Want the reminders to go out without the copy and paste?
See the plansQuestions people ask
- How late should an invoice be before I send the first reminder?
- Send the first one about three days after the due date. That is late enough to be a real lapse and early enough that a client who missed the invoice while travelling can fix it without embarrassment. Waiting three or four weeks teaches a client that your due date is flexible, and it makes the first email awkward to write because so much time has passed.
- Can I charge interest with these emails?
- Only if your contract or your payment terms allow it. The letter of demand guidance on business.gov.au puts the same condition on it: include a late payment interest rate only if it was specified in the contract. If your terms say nothing about interest, leave the interest line off and put a clause in your terms before the next job.
- Should I send the reminder from my own email address?
- Yes. Send from the address your client already writes to, so the reply arrives with you and the thread sits in your own records. This page only writes the text and has no way to send anything, which is a feature rather than a gap: every reminder gets read by you before it goes out, and nothing can be sent on your behalf.
- What if the client says the invoice is wrong?
- Stop the sequence and fix the invoice. A correction resets the clock, and the reminders can start again from the new due date. Pushing the third email while a client is querying a line item tells them you are not reading their replies, and it hands them a reason to argue about the whole account rather than one line.
- Do I have to send a letter of demand after the third email?
- Not always. Many invoices settle somewhere between the second email and the third. If the amount is large and the client has gone quiet, business.gov.au has a letter of demand template and a short guide on who to send it to. Send the reminders first, so the record shows the letter was a step and not a surprise.
Sources
- business.gov.au: Payment terms
- business.gov.au: What to do when you have not been paid
- business.gov.au: Write a letter of demand
- business.gov.au: How to invoice