Hielda vs chasing invoices yourself: what £3.99 a month actually buys
Chasing your own invoices is free, and in the first fortnight it works. The problems are consistency, the awkwardness of asking for interest, and the hours it eats. This page sets out exactly what doing it yourself involves, what Hielda takes off your hands, and where DIY is still the right call.
What doing it yourself actually involves
Properly done, chasing is not one email. It is a sequence: a friendly reminder before the due date, a firmer one on the day, then chases at days 1, 7, 14, 21 and 30, each stating the amount now owed with statutory interest at 11.75% a year and the £40, £70 or £100 fixed recovery cost added, then a Letter Before Action, then monthly formal reminders until it is paid. Each one needs the interest recalculating, a tone a notch firmer than the last, and sending on the day it is due, not when you next remember.
Most people do the first two steps, then go quiet for three weeks, then send something angry. Inconsistent chasing teaches a client that ignoring you works. The sequence works because it never stops and never escalates faster than it promised.
Hielda vs doing it yourself at a glance
| Hielda | Doing it yourself | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | £3.99 a month, or £34.99 a year | Free |
| Time per late invoice over a month | A few minutes: confirm each step | Two to three hours |
| Chases sent on schedule, every time | Yes | Depends on you |
| Statutory interest recalculated for every email | Yes | By hand, with a calculator |
| Fixed recovery cost added | Yes | If you remember and feel able to ask |
| Tone escalates in measured steps | Yes | Usually polite, polite, silence, angry |
| Letter Before Action | Drafted from the invoice at day 30 | Write it yourself from a template |
| Reminders to you before each step | Yes | Calendar entries, if you make them |
| You confirm every email | Yes | Yes |
| Handles part payments, disputes, pauses | Yes | Manually |
| Personal touch and phone calls | No | Yes |
| Free trial | 6-week free trial, no card | n/a |
The awkwardness problem
The hardest part of DIY is not the arithmetic. It is that asking for interest on top of an unpaid invoice feels like picking a fight, so almost nobody does it, and the Act's whole purpose, making late payment cost the payer rather than the supplier, goes unused. A chase from Hielda states the charges as what the law provides, in a measured tone, with the breakdown attached. You are not the bad guy; the Act is. That alone is why many users switch: not because they could not do it, but because they were not doing it.
When DIY is the right answer
- One client, long relationship, rare lateness. A friendly email from you is enough and the subscription is not worth it.
- A disputed invoice. No sequence beats a phone call to find out what the actual problem is. Hielda pauses chasing on disputed invoices for exactly this reason.
- You genuinely enjoy credit control. Some people do. The playbook and the free calculator and letter generator are there for you regardless.
How to decide
Do it yourself if lateness is rare and you will actually follow the schedule. Use the free tools on this site for the interest and the letter.
Use Hielda if you have ever let an invoice drift past 30 days because chasing felt like a chore, or ever written off interest you were entitled to. The 6-week trial covers one full chase sequence end to end, so you can judge it on a real invoice.
Frequently asked questions
One email: what to put on every invoice, when to chase, what to charge, and the letter that gets stubborn clients to pay.
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Stop writing chase emails and calculating interest by hand. Hielda does it all on your behalf — automatically, professionally, and legally backed.
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