Late payment chase

Applies when invoices are past terms. Produces the chase sequence and the escalation points, written so the relationship survives it.

The play

1. Age the list first: invoice, amount, days past terms, and who the contact is. Chasing without this produces a polite nudge on a thirty-day invoice and silence on a ninety-day one, which is exactly backwards.

2. Separate the two causes, because they need different messages:

   • A process problem. The invoice went to the wrong person, a PO is missing, it is stuck in their approvals. Most late payment is this, and it is solved by an email to the right person rather than by pressure.
   • A cash problem. They are choosing who to pay. This needs a conversation, not another reminder, and it needs to happen before they decide the order.

3. Find out which one it is before escalating. One direct question to the contact, asking what the invoice needs to get paid, resolves the process version immediately and tells you it is the other version when it does not get answered.

4. Match the message to the age. A nudge in the first two weeks, a direct ask with the invoice attached at thirty days, a named date at sixty, and a stop-work notice at ninety. Each one assumes the previous was not seen, and none of them reference the previous one with any edge.

5. Go around the contact when the contact stops answering, not before. Their finance team is usually easier than their marketing lead, has no relationship to protect, and can tell you in one line what is blocking it.

6. Write the stop-work notice properly when it comes to that. State what stops, the date it stops, and what restarts it. A threat that is not carried out costs more than never making it, so do not send this one until the firm has decided to mean it.

7. Fix the cause for next time. Terms on the proposal, payment details on the invoice, a named finance contact captured at onboarding, and a standing day each month when the list gets looked at. Most late payment is a process the firm never set up.

8. Decide what happens to the relationship. A client who pays at ninety days every time is a financing arrangement the firm did not agree to, and it belongs in the next pricing conversation rather than in another chase.

What good looks like

• First thing I check that most people skip: whether the invoice ever reached somebody who can pay it. A surprising share of late payment is an invoice sitting in the inbox of the person who hired us, who has never paid an invoice in their life.
• The mediocre version: the same apologetic reminder resent every two weeks, each one softer than the last. It teaches the client that the date on the invoice is a suggestion.
• I know it is right when the first message asks what the invoice needs rather than when it will be paid. One of those gets an answer.
• Second test: the escalation dates were set before the first message went out, not decided each time the silence got uncomfortable.
• Red flag: the firm is still chasing and has not stopped working. At that point the only thing being negotiated is how much free work the client gets.

Rules

• MUST age the list before sending anything.
• MUST establish whether it is a process problem or a cash problem before escalating.
• MUST match the message to the age of the invoice.
• MUST set the escalation dates in advance.
• MUST state what stops, when, and what restarts it in any stop-work notice.
• MUST capture a finance contact and terms so the next one is easier.
• NEVER send a stop-work notice the firm has not decided to act on.
• NEVER soften each successive reminder.
• NEVER keep chasing a chronic late payer without raising it in the pricing conversation.