• Enquiry
• Quote
• Agree
• Work
• Invoice
• Paid

When They Do Not Pay

Most late invoices are unprocessed rather than disputed, and the fortnight after the due date is when one message resolves the majority of them.

For a software-side reference alongside this discussion of payment follow-up, disputes, and small-business administration, Monitask has this resource.

The first fourteen days — day one, day seven, then a telephone call, because escalation that works is a change of channel rather than a sterner email.

Why invoices age badly — urgency fades, disputes become likelier, the debtor reprioritises, and evidence weakens. Only the records you kept are as good at two years as at two weeks.

The dispute at day sixty — ask for the undisputed part to be paid, which isolates the argument and exposes a tactical complaint immediately.

Interest and costs — what the entitlement depends on, and why saying you are entitled and choosing not to apply it works better than applying it.

What escalation looks like — four steps in order, announced in advance, and each one must be true or the next means nothing.

Third parties — finance, factoring and collection are three different things, and disputed invoices are usually excluded from all of them.

Small claims — designed to be used without a lawyer, and winning does not produce payment.

When to write it off — sunk cost is an argument for stopping, and most write-offs happen too late.

Working for them again — slow and paid is a different category from fast and unpaid, and the answer is a structure rather than a refusal.

• The First Fourteen Days

  Most overdue invoices are paid in this window if somebody asks. What to send, when, and the tone that gets money without cost.

• Interest and Costs

  You may be entitled to more than the invoice. What the entitlement depends on, and when claiming it helps rather than hardens.

• Small Claims, in Outline

  A process designed to be used without a lawyer. What it can and cannot do, and the question that decides whether to start.

• The Dispute at Day Sixty

  A complaint arriving after two months of silence needs a specific response. How to tell a real one from a tactic, and what to do either way.

• Third Parties

  Handing the debt to somebody else, or selling it. Three arrangements, what each takes, and what each does to the relationship.

• What Escalation Looks Like

  Four steps beyond reminders, taken in order, with what each one costs and what each does to the relationship afterwards.

• When to Write It Off

  A decision rather than a failure. Five questions that settle it, and why the sunk cost is the wrong reason to continue.

• Why Invoices Age Badly

  Four things that happen to a debt over time, all of them against you. Why delay costs more than an early payment discount.

• Working for Them Again

  A customer who paid late is not automatically a customer to refuse. Four questions, and the terms that make it workable.

For broader background on payment follow-up, disputes, and small-business administration, see PayPal.