Why Reminding Someone to Pay is Crucial?

When you send payment reminders to clients, it brings many positive results to the business. It ensures a smooth cash flow and good financial health of the business.

Preventing Late Fees and Penalties

Payment reminders are crucial for avoiding late fees and penalties for the client. So when you send the reminder, you help the client. Ultimately, you get your payment, and your client gets safe from later fees and penalties.

Enhance Professionalism

Payment reminders enhance the professionalism of your business. There is a systematic and ethical process in your cash flow when you follow up on your pending invoices. Furthermore, following up also helps to build communication with the client.

Maintain Cash Flow

Continuous follow-up of payment reminders helps to maintain a proper cash flow. There are fewer chances of late payments when you follow up with your client and urge payment. Thus, a business maintains optimal financial health.

Maintain Trust

Following up and reminding you of your due payment helps to maintain trust between the business and the client. Follow-up of unpaid invoices represents your professionalism, dedication, and systematic approach to your work. Hence, your client has a feeling of trust for you.

Strengthening Legal Work

Following up on your invoices also helps you during the legal process. It is because you have strong evidence of follow-up that strengthens your legal work. When you don’t follow up on your unpaid invoices, it could negatively impact your legal process.

How to Remind Someone to Pay You? Here Are the Steps:

1. Pick the Right Time

Never be an early bird in following up with your client immediately after sending the invoice. It also adversely affects your professional image. You could wait for a few days. Additionally, you should also focus on your client’s financial condition.

It might be that your client is suffering from an unstable financial condition. At such a time, you must allow some time for the client to complete the payment. You must send the friendly reminder of payment at the correct time (not too early, not too late).

2. Write and Schedule Payment Reminder Messages

Sending reminder messages, either text messages or emails, is a common way to remind your clients of unpaid payments. It makes your clients aware of the due payment and increases the chances of completing the payment from their end. Moreover, sending an email or messages is also effective when you think over how to politely ask someone to pay you.

Well, it is easy to send emails or texts when you have one or two clients. But what happens when you have multiple clients? How effectively do you send them reminders?

The only solution is to use automated reminders. The platform eases the payment reminder process by offering payment reminder email templates. Professionals can utilize these in-built samples and easily send reminders to the client.

Keep a note of the following points when sending payment reminders:

• Keep the subject line eye-catching and to the point
• Personalize your messages by addressing clients by name to make them feel valued
• Attach the original invoice
• Mention late payment fees and highlight the same
• Keep the email content language professional and clear to understand
• Highlight the payment due date and other payment terms
• Attach the signature of the authorized person
• Always send an email during business days

3. Highlight Timely Payment Benefits

This is a smart approach. By highlighting the payment benefits, you can gain your clients’ attention quickly.
Explain the benefits of timely payments to your clients. Showcase how timely payments can refine efficiency and work quality. You can also make them aware of late fees and explain how they can prevent late fees by paying on time.

Most importantly, you can demonstrate how timely payment can affect their project’s timeline and help to give a smooth project flow. In short, you need to explain all the merits of on-time payments which are in favor of the client.

4. Ask for Upfront Payment

One way to avoid chasing clients for due payments is to ask for an upfront payment. This will ensure a consistent flow of revenue for your business. A monthly recurring revenue will also help you to predict the future period.

Upfront payments will also help you to focus on other work and enhance work productivity. It is because you save time and effort when you have recurring revenue and upfront payments.

5. Offer Multiple Payment Options

Offering one payment method to the client might be the reason for late payment. The other possibility is that your client may get confused about the payment process. When you think about how to remind clients to pay, never forget to focus on the payment option you offer to the client.

It is always beneficial to offer multiple payment options to your clients. Give them payment flexibility by enabling them to pay via credit card, debit card, ACH payment process, or any other digital payment method. Also, be open to accepting checks and cash payments.

Tell your client that you are open to accepting payment in multiple ways. This will also impact your on-time payment process.

6. Reach to Your Client Through a Call

It might happen that your client is enjoying vacation time and has not opened your payment reminder email. When you notice that emails are not bringing fruitful results for your outstanding payments, it’s time to have a call as a friendly reminder for the overdue payments.

Whenever you approach a client, you must be clear, polite, and professional. If they are facing any issues, provide the best possible solution. A direct call brings clear communication and is also helpful in removing doubts and confusion if they exist. A brief call is all it takes to build a good relationship.

7. Keep Yourself Involved

Always involve yourself in your payment-reminding approach. Many times, clients don’t complete the payment and get their work completed through your team. That is why you, as a business owner or head person, must be involved in the payment reminder process and send timely reminders to the client. Also, keep your team updated about the payment status.

8. Give Discount or Other Flexibility

Have you tried every solution and still not received payment for the outstanding invoice? No worries! You have another solution: offer a discount. Believe it, it saves time and effort. It is because discounts are always a point of attraction for customers.

Many business owners think offering discounts could bring a loss. However, it is very beneficial because it helps close the deal on time.

While offering discounts to your clients, apply a validity time of 2 to 3 days. It will compel the customer to make the payment as soon as possible. Also, keep the discount rate at 15%.

9. Automation

It is a technological era and luckily you have many advanced solutions available to automate your payment reminders. This reduces your reminder headache.

You can automate the follow-up process by using good invoicing software. It acts as an assistant for you and reminds your clients about the payment without failure.

What Other Approach to Follow When Payments are Still Pending?

Have you tried every approach mentioned above for your pending payment but still didn’t get an outcome? So, what can you do?

You can try another mode of communication with your client when your client is not responding to the email. For instance, you can send text messages to your client or try to communicate through a social media account.

If everything fails and you realize your client will not pay. Then, the only solution is to contact a lawyer and get legal advice. However, make sure that you take legal advice when you find that every approach is useless.

Example of Payment Reminders Messages

Let’s have a look at some examples of payment reminder messages in email format for better understanding. Here, we represent emails for different scenarios:

Reminder for Upcoming Payments

Subject line: Upcoming Payment Reminder for Invoice [Invoice Number]

Hi [Client Name],

We hope you are doing great!

We are writing this email to remind you that invoice [Number], with a total amount of [Due Payment], is due for payment on [Date].

If you have queries about the invoice or the payment, you can reach us at any time. It will be a pleasure to assist you.

Thanks You

[Your Name]
[Company Name]
[Signature]

Reminder for Due Date Reminder

Subject line: A gentle reminder of the due date [date] for invoice [invoice number].

Hi [Client Name],

We hope you are doing well!

This is a reminder that invoice [Number] is due for payment date [Date].

Here are some more details:

Project name: [Project Name]
Due date: [Date]
Amount: [Amount Due]

You can find the attached invoice in this email. You can make the payment through check, bank transfer, credit card, or debit card.

Thank You
[Your Name]
[Company Name]
[Signature]

Late Payment Reminder

Subject line: A gentle reminder for late payment for invoice [invoice number]

Hi [Name],

As per the email reminder, the payment for invoice [Number], with a total amount [Total Number], is due from the last one week.

You can make a payment via bank transfer, direct deposit, or check. Kindly note that late fees will be applied if the payment is not made in the next 3 business days.

We have attached an invoice for your convenience. Please find the same.

Thank You

[Your Name]
[Company Name]
[Signature]

What Payment Details to Include?

Never forget to cover the payment details whenever you write text messages to remind someone to pay you. The following are the payment details to cover:

Total Amount: State the total due amount along with the currency.

Due Date: Always highlight the payment deadline in your reminder message.

Invoice Number: An invoice number is very helpful in tracking invoices. It is helpful for the client and business professionals.

Preferred Payment Method: Showcase the preferred payment method you accept to receive the payment. The method could be PayPal, credit cards, bank transfers, or checks.

Payment Terms and Instructions: Be clear in sharing payment terms and instructions when you share your payment reminder message.

Payment Portal Link: Mention the payment portal link when you accept a digital payment.

Contact Information: Include your contact details (email and contact number). This will help your clients contact you whenever necessary.

Thank you Note: Adding a thank you note will represent and convey your professional language to your customers.

Use the Right Tools to Avoid Late Payments

How do you politely remind someone to pay you? The best way is to use the right tools.

These tools automate your payment reminders and play as the right business partner. Additionally, business professionals can find ready-to-use email templates to send payment reminder emails.

Generate Invoice Automatically

Professionals can generate and send invoices automatically to the client. It is also possible to set up recurring invoices for repeat services. This will generate invoices automatically as per the schedule.

Payment Reminder

Professionals can save time and effort by cutting down on manual approaches and getting into automation.

Invoice Tracking

Professionals can track their invoices and get the real status of an invoice. This helps them to know the actual scenario of an invoice.

Tracking Expenses

It is handy to track expenses with Moon Invoice. Users can record the expenses, categorise them and track them whenever needed.

Final Touch

Sending a payment reminder is crucial for the best cash flow. It keeps your on-time payments active and prevents your business from becoming economically weak. As a professional, you must always be open to asking about your overdue payments as it is your right. Also, you must be careful about professionalism and the proper approach.

We hope you receive enough knowledge on how to remind someone to pay you. Are you seeking the right automation solution for your payment reminders? Sign up for Moon Invoice today!

Frequently Asked Questions