Did you know there are over 31.7 million small businesses found in the United States? Depending on the nature of your small business you might use invoices to bill your clients for your services.
Unfortunately, this can prevent a problem for small businesses. What happens when you have a client with an unpaid invoice?
How do you politely remind them to pay their bill? If you want to learn the answer to these questions, you’re in the right place. In this article, we’ll teach you everything you need to know about dealing with this annoying problem.
Establish Your Preferred Invoice Payment Method
You never want to save the invoice conversation for the end of the transaction. When you meet a new client you should discuss two things. First, who should get the invoice?
Sometimes it’s the client themselves and other times it’s the billing department. Next, you should ask about the payment methods you accept.
If you want to make things easier, you should try to accept as many payment methods as you can. While checks can be convenient some clients might not use them. This can make getting payment difficult.
Make Your Invoice As Clear As Possible
You need to make sure your invoices are as clear as possible in terms of what the client is paying for. in the invoice payment section. This should include both the materials and a clear timeline of the hours you spend on the project.
We recommend that you use an invoice generator that produces simplified invoices. That way, there’s no room for any confusion as an excuse to not pay the invoice.
Have a System When You Encounter an Unpaid Invoice
You’re going to have late invoices. That’s just part of the way things work. What’s important is to have a system to deal with it so you’re not needlessly stressing out.
We recommended following up with clients using a reminder email on the first day that they’re late. Then, send another one once two weeks have passed.
When they’re one month late you can email them again and start calling them. From there you can either consider a lawsuit for nonpayment or hire a collection agency to handle the situation.
The important thing is to remain calm and collected throughout the process. Losing your temper isn’t going to help the client pay anything faster.
Appreciate Learning About Unpaid Invoices? Keep Reading
We hope this article helped you learn how to follow up with a client on an unpaid invoice. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, there are going to be some clients that just refuse to pay what they owe you.
When you’re backed into this corner, then your best option is either to let it go or contact a collection agency. Did you learn something from this article? Keep exploring to find hundred of more guides just like it on our website.
