Why the Invoice You're Not Chasing Is Getting Harder to Collect
Most business owners know exactly which overdue invoices they are avoiding chasing. This article explains why delay makes collection harder, and sets out a simple three-stage process that protects cash flow without making the call feel confrontational.
Most business owners know exactly which overdue invoices are sitting in their ledger. They also know which ones they haven't chased, and why. The customer is a good one. The relationship matters. The call feels confrontational. So the invoice sits. According to the Federation of Small Businesses, the average UK small business is owed around £22,000 in overdue invoices at any one time, and UK businesses collectively spend an estimated £1.6 billion a year on the time required to chase payments that should have arrived on their agreed date. Avoidance is expensive - and the longer a payment stays unpaid, the harder it is to collect in full.
Why Earlier Is Easier
The instinct is to give customers the benefit of the doubt for a week or two before making contact. This feels polite. In practice, it means your first chase arrives when the customer has already mentally filed your invoice away, their spending has moved on to next month's commitments, and the debt feels larger on their side too.
Chasing the day after a payment is due is not aggressive - it is administrative. The message can read as a simple prompt: invoice number, amount, due date, and a question asking whether payment has been scheduled. That tone treats the overdue invoice as an administrative oversight, which in most cases is exactly what it is. Accounts payable teams miss things. Finance queries pile up. A prompt, low-key reminder almost always produces a faster result than waiting and then escalating.
Xero Small Business Insights data shows that 52% of UK SME invoices were paid late in 2024. Most of those late payments are not disputes - they are administrative delays that a prompt reminder would have resolved before they became a problem.
A Three-Contact Sequence
Build a simple escalation process before you have a problem with any specific customer. Written down in advance, it removes the need to make a judgment call each time.
Contact 1 - day one overdue: Email. Friendly, brief, administrative tone. Reference the invoice number and amount. Ask whether payment has been scheduled and whether there is anything holding it up.
Contact 2 - seven days overdue: A second email, slightly more direct. State the original due date, the number of days overdue, and ask for a confirmed payment date. This is also the right moment to check whether there is a query on the invoice itself.
Contact 3 - fourteen days overdue: A phone call, not a third email. Speaking directly removes ambiguity and gives the customer a clear moment to commit to a date. Keep the tone professional. Ask directly whether there is anything on your side holding the payment up.
Get a specific date, not a vague promise
In the third contact, push for a date rather than an assurance. "We'll pay it by Friday the 29th" is a commitment you can follow up against. "We'll look into it" is not.
Good credit control is not about pressure - it is about consistency. Customers who know a business follows up promptly tend to prioritize its invoices over those from businesses that wait in silence.
Your Legal Rights on Late Payment
If the invoice is still unpaid 30 days beyond the due date, you have the right to add late payment interest under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. The statutory rate is 8 percentage points above the Bank of England base rate - currently making the applicable rate 11.75% per annum. You can also claim fixed debt recovery costs: £40 on invoices under £1,000, £70 on invoices between £1,000 and £9,999, and £100 on invoices of £10,000 or more.
Most small businesses don't invoke these rights for fear of damaging the relationship. That's a reasonable call on a valued customer - but notifying them of the rights in writing, as a matter of course rather than a threat, often produces payment without formal escalation.
Avoid chasing by text message
Text messages create ambiguity about whether the communication was received and produce no usable paper trail. Email creates a record. A phone call creates accountability. Text chasing often produces neither.
The businesses with the fewest overdue invoice problems are not the ones with the best customers. They're the ones with a process - prompt contact after the due date, a consistent escalation sequence, and a record of every communication. None of that has to feel confrontational. In fact, the more routine it becomes, the less fraught any individual chase will be. If a customer objects to being reminded promptly that payment is overdue, that tells you something worth knowing before the debt grows larger. For more on how to structure payment terms and invoicing so that disputes are less likely, see The Late Payment Problem That Starts Before You Send the Invoice.
Sources
- UK Late Payment Statistics 2026Market Invoice (sourcing FSB, Xero Small Business Insights, Debitura) · accessed 2026-08-21
- Payment Times Are Improving As New Legislation DawnsSmall Business Commissioner · accessed 2026-08-21
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