A freelance designer had £8,340 sitting in overdue invoices. Manual chasing felt too awkward to do consistently. We built a system that did it for her — professionally, persistently, and automatically.
Most freelancers have the same issue: the invoice goes out, NET 30 terms, and then nothing. Following up feels uncomfortable. You write one polite email, wait a week, write another. Some invoices just quietly age into uncollectable debt.
Our client had six overdue invoices ranging from £400 to £2,200. The oldest was 94 days old. Total outstanding: £8,340.
Four email templates that escalate in tone without becoming hostile:
Stripe's due_date field is only set if you configure payment terms explicitly. We fell back to created + 30 days when it's null. The Gmail OAuth setup needs a Google Cloud project — straightforward, took about an hour.
Within the first week, three of six overdue clients paid. Two responded to Tier 1 — they'd genuinely forgotten. One responded to Tier 2 with a same-day payment. The remaining three needed Tier 3. The 94-day invoice took a Tier 4 message plus a manual call, but the automated escalation created the urgency that made her finally pick up the phone.
If you want this running for your freelance or agency business, we build it for a fixed price — typically recovered within the first invoice it chases.