There is one task nobody in the workshop wants: phoning a customer to ask them to pay. It gets postponed, forgotten, and by the time it happens two months have passed and the conversation is awkward.
Meanwhile that money is yours and it is sitting in someone else's account.
The problem is not the bad payer — it is the follow-up
Most overdue invoices are not overdue out of bad faith. They are overdue because the invoice got lost in the customer's purchasing department, because nobody tracks what falls due when, and because chasing is uncomfortable and there is always something more urgent.
That is a process problem, not a character one. And process problems are solved with processes.
A sequence that escalates by itself
- 5 days past due: a friendly reminder. Half the collections happen here, because it genuinely slipped through.
- 15 days: formal demand, with the list of invoices and the total.
- 30 days: serious notice, mentioning service suspension.
Three details decide whether this works or annoys: one email per customer with all their overdue invoices in a table, not five emails the same day; in their language, because a French customer answers a French reminder faster; and with a payment button inside — if paying takes two clicks from the email, they pay; if it means finding the IBAN and logging into the bank, they leave it for later.
Knowing whether it was read
"Your email never arrived" stops being an excuse when the system tells you it was opened on Tuesday at 9:14. Not to accuse anyone — to know whether the problem is communication or willingness, and act differently in each case.
The side effect: cash forecasting
When every invoice has a proper due date, something new appears: knowing how much money you will have in six weeks. And that changes decisions about purchasing, hiring and investment.