The Invoice Chaser

# The Invoice Chaser — Prompt

Paste this into Claude (or any capable AI chat), fill in the bracketed details, and send. You'll get back a ready-to-edit follow-up email calibrated to the stage of the chase and the relationship.

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You are helping me write a follow-up email for an unpaid invoice. I run a small business and I am the one who sends these. I want the email to be professional, firm enough to move the client, and matched to the stage of the chase we're on.

## Invoice details

- **Client name**: [first name or first and last]
- **Client company** (optional): [company name]
- **Invoice number**: [e.g., 1047]
- **Amount**: [e.g., $2,400]
- **Original due date**: [date]
- **Days overdue today**: [number]
- **Relationship type**: [pick one: long-term client, former long-term client now paying slow, repeat client, one-off project, referral from a friend, cold new client, was-my-boss, friend who became a client]
- **Original payment terms**: [e.g., "net 15," "due on receipt," "50% upfront then 50% on delivery"]
- **What the work was**: [one short phrase, e.g., "branding package" or "kitchen cabinet install"]
- **Any prior contact about this invoice**: [none / I sent one reminder on [date] / they said they'd pay by [date] and didn't]

## What stage to use

Figure out the right chase stage from the days overdue and the prior contact:

- **Stage 1 — First nudge.** Invoice is 3–14 days past due, no prior reminder. Tone: warm, assumes the invoice got buried. "Floating this back to the top of your inbox." Keep it short. Do not reference the contract. Do not say "overdue."
- **Stage 2 — Firm reminder.** Invoice is 15–30 days overdue, or one prior reminder has been sent. Tone: professional and direct. Name the original due date. Ask for a specific action by a specific date ("can you confirm a payment date by end of week?"). One sentence of understanding if the relationship is long-term; skip it if it's a cold one-off.
- **Stage 3 — Final notice.** Invoice is 31+ days overdue, or two prior reminders have been sent with no response. Tone: polite but serious. Reference the agreement. State the outstanding amount and the original due date. Name the next step if the invoice is not resolved by a specific date (usually: "I'll need to pause further work" or "I'll need to send this to collections" — but only say the one that actually applies to my situation, which I'll tell you below).

Tell me which stage you picked and why in one sentence before the draft.

## Tone rules

- Never "I hope this email finds you well." Never.
- Never hostile. Never passive-aggressive. No all-caps. No "as per my last email."
- Contractions are fine.
- One clear ask per email. Not three.
- Always include the invoice number and amount in the first two lines so it's scannable.
- Always offer a specific next step the client can take in one click — reply with a payment date, confirm receipt, etc.

## Relationship modifiers

- **Long-term client**: use first name, keep the first half-sentence human ("I know things have been busy on your end"). Still firm.
- **One-off or cold**: skip the warmth, go straight to the facts. Polite but not chatty.
- **Friend who became a client**: harder. Acknowledge the awkwardness in one short line, then be a professional. "I know this is always weird to send, but I want to keep this clean on both sides."
- **Was-my-boss**: formal, crisp. No first name unless they've explicitly told me to use one.

## The escalation I'm willing to name

If we're at Stage 3, here's what I'm actually prepared to do next — use only this in the email, not anything else:

[pick one and delete the others:
- "I'll need to pause current work until this is resolved."
- "I'll need to hold delivery of remaining files until this is paid."
- "I'll need to refer this to a collections service."
- "I'll need to send a formal demand letter from my attorney."
- "I'd rather not escalate — I'll keep this between us but I need a payment date by [date]."]

## How I want the output

1. **Stage picked** (one sentence, why)
2. **Subject line** (short, specific, invoice number in it)
3. **The email body**, ready to copy and paste
4. **One suggested small edit I might consider** (optional — only if you see a spot where a specific fact from me would make it land harder)

## What you will not do

- You will not write a legal demand letter. If my situation has crossed into "needs an attorney," say so, say why, and stop.
- You will not invent a reason the client might be late. If I haven't told you one, don't guess.
- You will not threaten anything I haven't said I'm willing to do, above.
- You will not add filler closing lines like "Thanks for your attention to this matter."

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## Using the prompt

Run it once for each overdue invoice. Keep a text file of the ones that worked — after three or four, you'll have a personal library of chaser drafts you can reuse with name-swaps.

One real thing to know: a lot of these emails don't need to be sent twice. Stage 1 resolves 60–70% of the backlog for most solo operators, because most late invoices are not a client refusing to pay — they are an invoice that got lost in a busy inbox. Send the first nudge. You'll be surprised how much of the money was already waiting for you to ask again.

And if Stage 3 is where you actually are, that's a different conversation — one about your process, your contract, and whether this client should be a client next year. The chaser can't fix that. What it can do is make the email stop being the reason you're not getting paid.