How to chase late invoices when you're on the tools all day

It's 9:40 on a Tuesday night. You're on the couch, phone in your hand, and you've just remembered the invoice for that bathroom you finished three weeks ago. You meant to ring them last Wednesday. And the Wednesday before that. Nobody has to teach you how to chase late invoices — you just keep remembering at an hour when you can't do anything about it.

That's the real problem. Not the customer, the calendar. By 6am you're back under a house and it's gone again.

So here's the ladder that works, the wording that gets a reply, and how to run it whether you remember or not.

How to chase a late invoice

Chase on a fixed ladder, not on feeling. Day one overdue: a short, friendly SMS that assumes an error. Day seven: a phone call. Day fourteen: a written reminder with the payment link and your terms attached. Day thirty: a formal letter of demand. Only escalate after that.

1. Day 1 overdue — send an SMS. Two lines. Assume they missed it, because usually they did.
2. Day 7 — ring them. An email is easy to ignore. A phone call has to be answered or dodged, and either one tells you something you didn't know.
3. Day 14 — written reminder. Resend the invoice as a PDF, restate the amount and the due date that has now passed, include the payment link. Write this one like a stranger will read it later, because that's the message that becomes your evidence.
4. Day 30 — letter of demand. Plain and unemotional, with a final pay-by date and a line on what happens after it.
5. After that — escalate. Your state's small claims tribunal, Security of Payment legislation if it's construction work, or a debt collector who takes a cut of whatever they recover.

None of that is clever. Any tradie who's been stiffed could recite it. The ladder was never the hard part.

Why the chase fails, and it isn't the words

Look at where a chase actually dies. Almost never at day one — the first reminder is easy, you're still annoyed enough to send it. It dies at day seven, and then again at day fourteen, because those days land in the middle of a job.

Day 7 for the Hendersons is a Thursday, and Thursday you're on a roof with your phone in the ute. Day 14 is the Thursday after that, by which point you've quoted four new jobs and the Hendersons have turned into something you feel bad about instead of something you're doing.

Most unpaid invoices aren't refused. They're forgotten — by the customer first, then by you.

Which is why "just be firmer" is useless advice. You don't need a harder chase. You need one that happens on day seven without you at a desk.

The wording that gets a reply

Three rules, and they matter most on the early rungs where you still want the customer back next year.

Assume an error, not a refusal. "Just checking this one didn't get lost" hands them a way to pay without admitting anything. Most late invoices genuinely are an oversight — a bill in a spam folder, or a couple where each one thought the other had paid it. Coming in hot on day one turns an admin slip into an argument.

Ask one question. A message that ends in a question gets a reply. A message that ends in a statement gets read and closed. "Are you right to settle this one this week?" beats "Please remit at your earliest convenience."

Be specific. Invoice number, amount, the date it was due. A vague nudge is easy to leave until later, and "the invoice" could be any of the three you've sent them this year.

It's the same muscle as chasing a quote that's gone quiet. If you've already set up a sequence to follow up quotes automatically, this is the back half of the same job — one sequence wins the work, the other gets you paid for it.

Put the teeth in the quote, not the invoice

Here's the bit most tradies have backwards, and it's worth fixing before your next job.

If you want to charge interest on a late payment, the customer has to have agreed to it before you did the work — in the terms attached to the quote they accepted, not bolted onto an invoice once it's already overdue. Interest that appears for the first time on a late invoice generally isn't enforceable, and a rate set high enough to punish can be knocked out as a penalty anyway.

So put it on the quote. Payment terms in days, what happens if it goes past them, one line saying the quote is subject to your terms of trade. It takes an afternoon, and it changes every conversation afterwards — because now you're pointing at something they agreed to instead of asking a favour.

Set it up once so it chases without you

The fix is boring: the ladder has to live somewhere other than your head.

At the simplest end that's your accounting software. Xero and MYOB both send automated invoice reminders on a schedule you choose — switch them on for day 1, day 7 and day 14, and half of this is solved tonight for nothing.

Where that runs out is everything the software can't judge. It doesn't know the Hendersons paid their deposit early and are probably just away. It doesn't know the builder who owes you eight grand has pulled this on the last two jobs and should skip straight to the written reminder. And it will never ring anyone.

That gap is what an AI virtual assistant is actually for — something that reads the state of each job, drafts the message in your voice for the customer in front of it, and hands you the two calls worth making on Thursday instead of leaving you to work that out at 9:40 at night. It's one of the jobs the AI team takes off you, and it's the same principle as every other useful bit of AI for a trade business: not a robot that replaces you, a staff member who does the part you keep not getting to.

Be honest about the limits, though. Nothing here makes someone pay who has decided not to. It just means that when you find that out, it's day fourteen with a clean paper trail behind you — not day ninety with three vague texts and a feeling.

Common questions

How long before an invoice is late in Australia?

Whatever your agreed terms say. Seven or fourteen days from the invoice date is common in the trades, and payment on completion is normal for smaller residential jobs. If you never set terms at all, there's no clean line to point at — which is exactly why they belong on the quote instead of in your head.

Can I charge interest on a late invoice?

Yes, but only if the customer agreed to it before you did the work, in the quote or terms of trade they accepted. Interest added after an invoice has already gone overdue generally isn't enforceable. Keep the rate reasonable as well — one set high enough to punish can be challenged as a penalty.

How do you politely chase an unpaid invoice?

Assume it was missed rather than refused, keep it to two lines, and finish with one direct question. Include the invoice number, the amount and the due date so there's nothing for them to go looking for. Being polite costs you nothing on day one, and you can get formal at day fourteen if you have to.

What if the customer refuses to pay?

Send a formal letter of demand with a final pay-by date. After that your options are your state's small claims tribunal, Security of Payment legislation if the work was construction, or a debt collection agency that takes a percentage of what it recovers. Check the deadlines that apply where you are before you need them — some of those paths close after a set period.

None of this is complicated, and that's what makes it so irritating. The money is already earned, the customer usually isn't hostile, and the only thing between you and getting paid is a reminder nobody sent on a Thursday you were busy. Fix the Thursday and most of the rest never happens.