Few things make a good agency owner more uncomfortable than asking for money that is late. The discomfort is usually a sign that something was left unsaid earlier. A calm follow-up is much easier when the terms were clear, the invoice was clear, and you know the client has seen it.
Settle the terms before the work
Put payment terms in your agreement or statement of work: when you invoice, how many days the client has to pay, and what happens if it is late. If you take a deposit, say so, and say what it covers. When these are written down in advance, an invoice is just the next step in a plan the client already agreed to.
Send it while the work is fresh
An invoice sent the same week as the delivery is rarely questioned. One sent a month later invites “what was this for again?” If you bill a retainer, send it on the same day each month so it becomes part of your client’s routine.
Make it easy to read
A good invoice has a short list of things, in this order:
- Who it is from and who it is to.
- The invoice number, the issue date and the due date, where the eye lands first.
- Lines that say what the money is for, in the client’s words.
- The total, and how to pay.
Our invoice checklist covers the full list. In BravaSpace, you start from a ready-made invoice such as a monthly retainer, a project deposit or hourly consulting, with amounts left blank for you to fill in, and choose a Classic, Modern or Minimal style that carries your brand.
Make it easy to pay
Every extra step between reading an invoice and paying it is a reason to wait. If your client can pay from the same place they read it, fewer invoices sit open. When Stripe is connected, a sent invoice has a Pay now button in the client’s Billing tab, and it is marked paid automatically.
Know whether it was seen
The hardest follow-up is the one where you do not know if the invoice arrived. An invoice’s Activity panel in BravaSpace shows when it was created, sent, viewed and paid. Knowing it was opened on Tuesday changes your next message from “did you get this?” to “any questions about the invoice?”
A follow-up routine you can decide once
- The day the invoice is due: nothing, unless the terms say otherwise.
- A few days after: a short, friendly note with the link.
- A week after: a call or a message asking whether anything is blocking payment.
- After that: follow the terms you agreed, which is why they were written down.
Choose the timings yourself and keep them the same for every client. A routine is fair to everyone, and it takes the personal feeling out of the message.
If a client pays another way, such as a bank transfer, mark the invoice paid so your records stay true. Void an invoice you issued in error rather than deleting it, so you keep a trail. See the step-by-step guide to sending an invoice.