Almost every freelancer has the same cash-flow problem: the work is delivered, the invoice is out, and the money arrives sometime later, if at all. The fix is rarely "be tougher". It is a set of small changes, in order of effect.
1. Invoice the day you deliver
Every day between delivery and invoice is a day added to the end of the payment term, for free. If the work is accepted on Monday, the invoice should be issued on Monday — not after the "admin day" at the end of the month.
2. Take a deposit on anything longer than two weeks
30–50% upfront is standard for project work and nobody serious objects. A deposit does three things: it funds the work, it filters clients who were never going to pay, and it makes the final invoice feel smaller to the client.
3. Keep the term short, then enforce it
Net 14 instead of Net 30 costs nothing to ask for and moves every payment two weeks closer. If a corporate client insists on 30, agree — and put a late fee in the terms so the 30 has a consequence.
4. Put the due date as a date
"Net 30" is a period that starts when someone decides it starts. "Due 11 November" is a fact. Same terms, different compliance.
5. Send to the person who can release the payment
The person who hired you usually cannot. Ask once, at the start: who receives invoices, do they need a PO number. That question alone saves the most common three-week delay.
6. Build a reminder schedule before you need it
Day 3: confirm the invoice arrived. Day 14: first reminder. Day 30: escalation with the interest clause. Day 45: final notice. Decided in advance, so you never have to choose a tone while you are annoyed.
7. Automate the reminders, not the relationship
A reminder sent automatically from your own address reads exactly like one you wrote — except it goes out on time instead of three days after you notice. This is the single highest-leverage change on the list: it removes the emotional cost, which is why reminders get delayed.
8. Track when the invoice was opened
Knowing that an invoice was opened four times and never answered changes what you write next. Knowing it was never opened means your email went to the wrong address — a different problem entirely, and a fixable one.
9. Decide your write-off threshold in advance
Some invoices are not worth chasing: too small for the time, or from a client who has disappeared. Decide the number now (£300? one day of your rate?) so the decision later is arithmetic, not a mood.
What to do today, in order
- Invoice everything that is delivered and not yet invoiced (this is usually the biggest win and takes an hour)
- Change the next invoice template: due date as a date, payment reference, late-fee line
- Set the reminder days in your calendar, or in a tool, for every open invoice
- Email the two oldest overdue invoices with a date request — not a reminder, a date request
If you are already owed money
Do the boring thing first: list every unpaid invoice with amount, issue date, due date, and last contact. The list is usually shorter than the anxiety suggests, and one or two of them are already paid but not matched to an invoice.
Then work down from the largest: a date request, then an escalation, then a decision. How to write those emails and when to stop chasing.
The structural fix
Freelancers get paid slowly because invoicing and reminding are treated as admin — the thing done after the real work, when there is time. There is never time.
The parts that can run without you: reading the invoice into data, setting the schedule, sending the emails. That is what DueBuddy does, from your own address, with your wording. Five invoices free.