Automatic payment reminders: get paid on time without chasing anyone

Automatic payment reminders: get paid on time without chasing anyone

Most invoices aren't paid late because of insolvency: they're paid late because nobody claimed them in time. And manual chasing is the task every freelancer postpones — it's awkward, it interrupts, it gets forgotten. The solution isn't more discipline: it's a system that does it alone.

The sequence that works

Decades of credit management boil down to three well-placed touches:

1. 3 days before the due date — the friendly nudge: "your invoice F-2026-0142 is due on Friday". Not pressure: service. It kills the "it slipped my mind" and surfaces disputes before the invoice is overdue. 2. The day after the due date — neutral and factual: the invoice, the amount, the new status ("outstanding"). Most payments arrive here. 3. 15 days after — the tone shifts: late-payment interest is mentioned and a specific payment date is requested. From here on, it's personal, not automatic.

In InvoSeal, the Reminders section lets you schedule this sequence per recipient or globally, with templates in the customer's language. Every send is logged — the complete claim trail that later matters in court or for the bad-debt corrective invoice.

What Spanish law puts on your side (and almost nobody uses)

• Automatic late-payment interest (Law 3/2004): between businesses, interest runs without any notice from the due date — at the ECB rate + 8 points, published twice a year.
• A fixed 40-euro recovery fee per unpaid invoice, also automatic.
• Legal payment terms: 60 days maximum between businesses (30 by default): the "120-day terms" some large customers impose are legally void — whether you enforce that is a commercial decision.

You don't have to charge these amounts every time. Your customer just needs to know that you know them.

When a reminder is no longer enough

• +30/45 days of silence: a burofax or verifiable demand — it interrupts prescription and prepares the payment-order procedure.
• Proceso monitorio: for debts documented with an invoice and a claim trail (the one your reminders already created), it's fast and lawyer-free up to certain amounts.
• The bad-debt corrective invoice: remember the VAT calendar — 6 months or 1 year from accrual, then 3 months to rectify. A badly-timed default also costs you the VAT.

Recommended setup in 5 minutes

1. Activate the standard sequence (−3, +1, +15) for all recipients. 2. Personalise the third touch's template: you sign it, not "the system". 3. Combine with the recipient portal: accepted invoice + scheduled reminders = the full collection loop with zero manual work. 4. Check the outstanding panel every Monday: the states tell you where to call.

The cheapest money to recover is the money not yet lost. Questions while setting up your sequence? Open a Support ticket and we'll get it running together.