How to chase late invoices — a practical playbook for UK freelancers
When a client misses an invoice payment, what you do in the first 48 hours, the first two weeks, and the first month matters more than anything else. Here's the day-by-day timeline used by professional accounts teams — adapted for solo freelancers and small businesses.
Why timing is everything
The probability of getting paid on a late invoice declines steeply with time. Industry data is brutal: after 90 days, the recovery rate drops from near-100% to around 70%, and at 6 months it's closer to 50%. Every week you wait is money you may not see.
The good news: a clear, consistent chasing routine, started early, recovers the overwhelming majority of late payments without any need to escalate. Most "late payers" are actually accounts departments with a paper-pushing problem — not bad-faith actors. The sooner and more clearly you remind them, the sooner you're paid.
The five-stage timeline
Use this whether you're chasing manually, by template, or with an automated tool. The stages and their timing are based on what professional credit-control departments do.
Stage 1: Friendly reminders (days −5 and −1)
Send a single-paragraph email a few days before the due date. Tone: assume good faith. Goal: surface the invoice so it doesn't get buried.
Hi [Name], just a quick note that invoice [Ref] for £[Amount] is due on [Date] — payment by then keeps everything on the original terms. Let me know if anything's needed your end. Thanks!
A friendly nudge five days before is the single highest-leverage thing you can do. Most invoices that would otherwise have slipped through the cracks get paid on time after this reminder alone.
Stage 2: First chase (day +1)
The day after the due date, send a firm but professional follow-up. Reference the Late Payment Act explicitly. Add the statutory interest and the fixed debt recovery cost. This is the most important email in the sequence — it sets the tone for everything that follows.
The reason this email works: most clients have never seen interest applied to an overdue invoice. The first time it happens, they take you seriously. They pay quickly to stop the meter. After this email, the dynamic shifts: they are the one being inconvenienced, not you.
Stage 3: Regular chasing (days +6 to +25)
If the first chase doesn't trigger payment, send escalating reminders every 2–4 days for the next three to four weeks. Each one should:
- Restate the current total owed (original + accruing interest + fixed sum)
- Reference any previous communications
- Note that interest continues to accrue daily
- Indicate the next step if unresolved (formal letter, recovery referral)
The aim isn't to be aggressive — it's to be inevitable. The client should understand that nothing will happen to make the problem go away except payment.
Stage 4: Letter Before Action (day +30)
At around 30 days overdue, send a formal Letter Before Action. This is the standard pre-court step under the Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct, and it triggers a 14- or 30-day response window depending on the type of dispute.
Use our free template — it includes the exact statutory wording and the layout required.
The Letter Before Action is, in practice, the most effective single document in the whole sequence. Many clients who've absorbed the earlier emails will pay within days of receiving this one, because it signals you're prepared to escalate.
Stage 5: Formal recovery (day +45 onwards)
If the Letter Before Action also goes unanswered, you have three real options:
- Money Claim Online (MCOL). For straightforward debts under £10,000, you can issue a claim through gov.uk's MCOL portal. Fees scale with claim size (around £35 for a £1,000 claim, £185 for £5,000–10,000). Win rate for undefended claims is very high — and even the issue of the claim often triggers payment.
- Debt recovery agency. Typically charge 10–20% of the recovered sum, no win no fee. Useful if you'd rather not handle court paperwork. Pick one regulated by the FCA.
- Solicitor's letter / instructed claim. The most expensive route but appropriate for larger debts, ambiguous facts, or where you suspect the client will defend the claim.
Maintaining the relationship
Many freelancers don't chase because they're worried about damaging the client relationship. The data, and our experience, suggests the opposite: clients respect suppliers who manage their cash flow professionally. What does damage relationships is:
- Chasing emotionally or accusingly ("you still haven't paid me")
- Disappearing for weeks then resurfacing with an angry email
- Bringing it up at the start of every meeting
- Discounting your fee to make the late-payment problem go away
What doesn't damage them: a series of clearly-worded, dispassionate emails that look like they came from an accounts department. Which is why so many freelancers use tools that send chases on their behalf — the chase is professional and impersonal, while you stay the warm human contact.
A worked example
£4,500 invoice, paid 21 days late
Sarah, a freelance designer, invoiced an agency for £4,500 on 1 March, due 31 March (30 days net). When it went unpaid on 1 April, she sent the first chase citing the Late Payment Act. Three more chases at days 7, 14, and 21. The agency paid on day 21 to "avoid further interest".
| Original invoice | £4,500.00 |
| Fixed debt recovery cost (£1,000–£9,999.99 tier) | + £70.00 |
| Interest (21 days at 11.75% p.a.) | + £30.41 |
| Sarah received | £4,600.41 |
The £100.41 extra covered her time spent chasing — and the agency now pays her on time every month, because they know she enforces.
What to send vs what to do yourself
At Hielda we've seen thousands of late invoices, and the pattern is consistent: freelancers who send chases manually do it inconsistently, late, or not at all, because chasing is emotionally taxing. The work that produced the invoice is fun; the chasing is not.
The single biggest unlock for getting paid faster is taking yourself out of the chasing loop. Whether that's a virtual assistant, a credit-control freelancer, or a tool — anything that sends the chases without you having to write each one. Hielda is one option: it runs the entire timeline above automatically, calculates daily interest, applies the fixed debt recovery cost, and escalates through eight weighted chases in the first 30 days, then monthly formal reminders until it's paid. You're BCC'd on everything but never have to draft a single email.
Frequently asked questions
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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