A Freelancer's Guide to Recovering Late Invoices

One of the biggest problems for any freelancer is when clients don’t pay their invoices. It’s likely you’ve already invested time and sometimes money into the project. You may have even turned down other opportunities.

Late invoices

Chasing invoices can be time-consuming and stressful. Spending time on administrative tasks distracts from building your business or working on profitable projects. Nonetheless, it’s still important to professionally handle the situation to avoid damaging important client relationships.

As a freelancer, you probably don’t have a contract or retainer which means that clients can easily stop collaborating with you. When dealing with clients, it’s essential to use good judgement. If you’ve worked for a company for a long time and they suddenly don’t pay, it may be worthwhile cutting them some slack.

In most cases, you’ll want to follow a set of standard business practices for chasing a late invoice. Sage has put together the infographic below to help you recover late invoices.

What to do when your invoice hasn't been paid

Debt recovery

Remember to stay calm and collected throughout this process. Hopefully, the matter will be resolved, but if you still haven’t been paid, you may want to consider debt recovery options. Once you begin debt recovery the relationship with your client is probably unsalvageable, so we only recommend using it as a last resort.

More on late payments and running your business.