The Late Payment Kit (payment reminder emails, phone script & invoice tracker)

You did the work. They have the invoice. It's been 23 days.

The Late Payment Kit is eleven emails, a text, a phone script, the payment terms for your invoices, and a spreadsheet that tells you who to chase on Monday morning. Polite enough to keep the client. Firm enough to get the money.

What it sorts out

You stop deciding, invoice after invoice, whether day 5 is too early or a second email is rude. The calendar decides: day −3, due date, +3, +7, +14, +21, +30, +37. Each date has its template, already written.

Here is template 05, the one for day +14, in full:

Subject: Payment date for invoice [#1042]?

Hi [First name],

I've written a few times about invoice [#1042] ([£1,250], due [14 March]) and haven't had a reply yet.

Could you reply with the date it will be paid? A date is all I need for now, so I can plan on my side.

Thank you,

[Your name]

Ask for a date, not for money. "When will this be paid?" gets answers. "Please pay" gets archived.

Exactly what is in the ZIP

• Get paid on time, a 13-page PDF guide. The follow-up calendar, the five rules that do most of the work, how to prevent it on the next invoice, what UK, EU and US law lets you charge for being kept waiting, and what to do when a client stops answering.
• 14 templates, in the PDF and in a plain-text file to copy from: 11 emails, 1 text message, 1 phone script, 1 paragraph of payment terms. Fill in the [brackets].
• The Late Payment Tracker (Excel, opens in Google Sheets). One row per invoice: status, days overdue, the next template and the date to send it, and a dashboard of what you are owed.

Who it is not for

• You need a solicitor's letter. This is not one.
• Your customers are consumers on monthly plans. The kit is written for business-to-business invoices.
• Your invoices already get paid on time. Keep doing what you are doing.

Questions before you buy

"Free templates exist. I can write this myself."

They do, and you can. They don't tell you what to send on day 14, or what to say when the client picks up the phone at last. That is the part you pay for: the order, the timing and the wording, done once, so you don't redo it at 11 pm with the invoice open in another tab.

"Will it annoy my client?"

The first email goes out three days before the due date and reads as a favour. Every template assumes the client is disorganised, not dishonest, and leaves them an easy way to say yes. The firm ones (late fees, final notice) only come after three weeks of silence.

"Is the legal part reliable?"

It covers the UK Late Payment of Commercial Debts Act 1998, the EU Late Payment Directive 2011/7/EU and how late fees work in the US, with the amounts and rates spelled out. It is general information, not legal advice. Your accountant is still your accountant.

"My invoices are in dollars or euros."

The examples use pounds. Change the symbol. The tracker works in any currency.

Not ready for the whole kit? The day +3 email and the calendar are free in "Did this slip through?". The 14 templates alone are $9.

One ZIP: the guide (PDF), the templates (plain text), the tracker (Excel). Monday, 20 minutes. Send what the tracker says.