Money · Templates · 8 min read

Chasing overdue invoices without losing the customer

The awkwardness is the tax you pay for not having a system. Four copy-paste templates that escalate properly, the legal rights behind them, and how to make the chasing happen without you.

By Connor McKay, founder of Trade PA · 22 September 2026

Why good people do not chase

Every tradesperson knows the maths: the £1,800 sitting unpaid is your money, for work already done. And still the chaser does not get sent, because the customer was nice, because there might be more work, because it feels like begging. Here is the reframe that fixes it: a professional chasing sequence is a courtesy, not a confrontation. Most late payment is disorganisation, not refusal. A clear, polite, predictable escalation gives the organised majority an easy path to pay and reserves the difficult conversation for the rare customer who has actually decided not to. The awkwardness lives entirely in improvising each message; a system removes it.

Your actual rights, briefly

For business-to-business work, the Late Payment of Commercial Debts legislation gives you the right to statutory interest at 8% above the Bank of England base rate on overdue invoices, plus fixed compensation per invoice (£40, £70 or £100 depending on size). You rarely need to collect it; its power is as a fact politely mentioned. For any customer, the route beyond letters is a Letter Before Action followed by a money claim (small claims online for typical trade sums). Interest and compensation apply to commercial customers; for homeowners your leverage is contractual terms and, ultimately, court, so quote payment terms clearly on every invoice either way.

The four-step sequence

Step 1: the nudge (day 3 to 7 overdue)

Step 2: the firm follow-up (day 14)

Step 3: the final notice (day 30)

Step 4: the Letter Before Action (day 37 or later)

Sent by post as well as email, this is the formal precondition to a court claim, and it resolves most cases by itself because it proves you follow through.

Making the sequence run itself

• Fixed days, no judgement calls. Day 5, 14, 30, 37. The sequence fires on dates, not on how brave you feel that morning.
• Every message carries the payment link. Remove every step between "oh no, I forgot" and paying you.
• One escalation pause per relationship, deliberately. Good customer, genuine reason, one message from you resets the clock on purpose. What you never do is let the whole sequence silently stall for everyone because chasing feels rude.
• Keep the record. Dates and copies of every chaser are exactly what a court, or a suddenly cooperative customer, respects.

This is also precisely the shape of thing software should do for you. In Trade PA, Eve drafts each chaser in your tone and sends on your nod, or a customer set to auto-chase moves through the whole ladder on schedule, with per-invoice pause when you want mercy, all the way to a Letter Before Action. "Chase the overdue invoices" is one sentence on the drive home, and the awkwardness stops being the reason you work for free. The cash-flow context, including why DRC made this matter more, is over in our DRC guide.