Chasing a trade invoice without losing the customer

A trade business with money outstanding usually has a process problem rather than a customer problem. The invoice went out, nothing followed it, and weeks passed.

The customers who never intended to pay are a small minority. The rest forgot, mislaid it, or waited for somebody to ask.

A sequence beats a mood

Chasing that depends on how somebody feels on a Friday produces inconsistent results and uncomfortable calls. A fixed sequence removes the decision.

1. Three days before due, a short reminder with the invoice attached.
2. The day after due, a polite note saying the date has passed.
3. Seven days over, a phone call rather than an email.
4. Twenty one days over, a formal letter naming what happens next.
5. Thirty five days over, the stated consequence, actually applied.

The first two cost nothing and collect most of it. Automatic reminders handle them without anybody deciding to be firm.

The phone call at day seven does the work

An email is easy to ignore and easy to send. A call reaches a person and usually finds the real reason, which is often mundane.

Wrong email address, invoice sent to the wrong entity, a missing purchase order number, an approval sitting with somebody on leave. None of those resolve by sending the same email again.

Ask what would let them pay it today

That question is more useful than asking when payment will arrive. It surfaces the obstacle rather than inviting a date nobody keeps.

A customer who needs the invoice split, re addressed or accompanied by photographs will say so. All three are fixable in minutes.

Say the consequence, then apply it

A threat repeated three times without action teaches the customer that nothing happens. The stated consequence has to be real and modest enough to use.

Suspending further work is the usual one, and it works because it is proportionate. Anything larger tends to sit unused and costs credibility each time it does not arrive.

Commercial and domestic behave differently

A homeowner usually pays a person. A builder pays a process, with a claim date, an approval and a payment run that has nothing to do with urgency.

Learning that process for each commercial customer collects more than any reminder. Knowing the claim cut off and the payment day turns chasing into scheduling.

Prevention sits in the quote, not the reminder

Terms agreed before the work starts are terms the customer accepted. Terms introduced on the invoice read as a surprise, and surprises get queried.

Our guide to deposits and staged payments covers the structure that stops most of this from arising at all.

Watch the ageing, not the total

A total outstanding figure moves for many reasons and tells you little. The same money split by age tells you whether collection is working.

Anything past sixty days deserves a different conversation from anything at thirty. A business that cannot separate the two chases all of it with the same tone.

Know which customers cost more than they pay

Some accounts pay eventually and consume an hour a month getting there. That hour has a price, and repeat slow payers are rarely the best work.

A year of collection effort held against each customer's margin makes that visible. Raising the price, asking for a deposit or declining the next job all become defensible decisions.

What to change first

• A fixed five step sequence replaces deciding when to chase
• The first two reminders send automatically, before and after the due date
• Day seven is a phone call, not another email
• The question is what would let them pay today
• The stated consequence is small enough to actually apply
• Outstanding money gets read by age, not as one total
• A year of collection effort meets each customer's margin