Last month, I mismanaged a few invoices and found myself hounding clients for payments way too late. Some even acted like they forgot about their overdue bills.
Now, I’m anxious about missing anything again. What methods do you use to ensure you always know who owes you money?
I learned this lesson the hard way too. My approach now is setting payment terms upfront and sticking to them.
When I send an invoice, I write the due date on my desk calendar. Not digital - the physical one right in front of me. Hard to ignore when it’s staring at you every day.
I also started requiring partial payment upfront for bigger jobs. Cuts down on the stress of chasing large amounts later.
One thing that helped was changing my invoice template to say “Payment due within 15 days” instead of “Net 30.” Shorter terms mean less time for clients to forget or put it off.
The biggest change was realizing that following up isn’t rude. Most clients just need a reminder. The ones who get defensive about it are usually the problem clients anyway.
Use a basic spreadsheet to track invoice dates, amounts, due dates, and payment statuses. Update it weekly to reflect when you send invoices and mark them as paid upon receiving payment.
Set calendar alerts to remind yourself to follow up. I contact clients 7 days past due for a friendly nudge, then again 14 days later for a firm reminder. Staying on top of it keeps clients paying instead of waiting for overdue accounts.