The short answer
- Keep one list of invoices, with the date each one went out and the date it was due - not in your head, not in an email folder.
- Add one column for ageing: how many days past due each invoice is today. That single number tells you what to chase.
- Chase in age order, oldest first, and write down what you did each time you chased it.
- Never start new work for someone with an invoice more than 60 days old without a payment plan in writing.
- Review the whole list once a week. Weekly beats daily, because daily turns into never.
Set it up once, in about twenty minutes
- Write your last twelve invoices on one page or one sheet: client, invoice date, due date, amount, and whether it is paid.
- Mark the ones that are still open. Most people find one or two they had quietly forgotten about.
- Add a column that works out days past due, so the arithmetic stops being your job.
- Add a column for notes: what you sent, when, and what the client said. Memory is not evidence.
- Sort by days past due, descending. The invoice at the top of that list is today's job.
The weekly five minutes
Pick a fixed moment - Monday morning works for most people - and do only these four things. The point is not to build a system you admire. It is to never lose track of money you have already earned.
Send one chase per open invoice that is past due. Short, plain, no apology, no threat: the invoice number, the due date, the amount, the payment link or bank line.
- Mark anything paid since last week as paid.
- Chase everything past due, oldest first.
- Note anything a client said that changes the date.
- Glance at the total outstanding. That number is the real size of your business this month.
Where this goes wrong
- Mixing personal and business invoices on one list, so the total stops meaning anything.
- Chasing newest first, because those clients are friendlier. The oldest money is the money most likely to be forgotten.
- Waiting for the right tone. A short factual reminder works far better than a clever one.
- Keeping it in three places. One list, or you have none.
The free tool for this
Invoice total, with a discount and a tax rate - Invoice total, with a discount and a tax rate. It runs in the page, asks for your own numbers, and sends nothing anywhere.
If you would rather not build it yourself
This is the job ClientOS was built for: five linked tabs, one ageing column, and a per-client roll-up of what is billed, paid and still owed. ClientOS is $19. See it on the shop, and there is a plain page about it here: what it holds.
Questions people actually ask
How long should I wait before chasing?
One short reminder the day after the due date, then one a week. Most late payments are administration, not refusal, and a weekly nudge is the cheapest way to find out which one you have.
What if I use an app already?
Then use its report instead of this list, as long as it shows invoice date, due date, amount and days past due on one screen. If it does not, it is not answering the question.
Read next
What to look for in a client tracker before you pay for one, How to write a late payment reminder that actually gets paid, The client onboarding checklist that prevents every later argument, The one-page weekly review for a one-person business, What every invoice line item should say (and what never to write).