You are owed money. You know roughly who by. What you do not have is twenty minutes on a Tuesday to work out which invoices are overdue, who to email, what you said last time, and how to word it without sounding desperate.
So it slides. Then it slides again.
We build custom systems that run that whole sequence for you, and stop the moment a human is genuinely needed. This is what one looks like.
The problem is the sequence, not the email
Writing one chaser is easy. The job that beats people is the sequence.
Check what is overdue. Remember whether you already chased. Find the right contact, because the person who hired you is rarely the person who pays. Write something firm but not rude. Do it again next week, and the week after.
Each step takes two minutes. Together they take your Tuesday, and the moment you get busy they stop happening entirely. That is the gap the money falls through.
What we build
A system that owns the sequence end to end.
Reminders that go out whether or not you remember. A courtesy note before the due date, one on the day, then chases at seven, fourteen and twenty one days. Same schedule every time, regardless of how busy the workshop is.
A payment link in every message. Most late payment is friction, not refusal. Two taps to pay removes the excuse and usually the delay with it.
Reminders that stop the instant they should. The system reads your accounts at the moment of sending, not from an overnight copy. If the invoice was paid an hour ago, nothing goes out.
A reply that pauses everything. If a customer writes back, the sequence halts and the message lands with you. Nobody gets chased while they are mid conversation with you.
Escalation that flags, never acts. At twenty one days the invoice arrives on your desk marked for a decision. The system will not suspend work, add interest or mention solicitors on its own.
Voice follow up when you want it. For the final stage we build agents that ring, confirm the invoice arrived, and either take payment or book you a call. They never negotiate and never threaten. That line is deliberate.
The rule we build to
Automation may escalate pressure. It may never escalate consequence.
Reminders can get firmer on a schedule, because tone is reversible. Anything with a real world consequence, such as downing tools, charging interest or involving a solicitor, waits for a person to approve it.
That single rule is what separates a system that quietly collects your money from one that costs you a customer.
The failure we design against
There is one failure that turns a good customer into a former customer: chasing an invoice they already paid.
It happens when reminders run off yesterday's data, or when a bank transfer sits unreconciled for two days. The customer gets a demand for money they sent, and every earlier reminder retroactively reads as harassment.
We connect to wherever payment truth actually lives and check at send time. It is unglamorous, and it is the single most important part of the build.
What it connects to
The system is only as good as what it can see, so we build it against what you already run.
Your accounting software, so payment status is live rather than a stale export. Your job or project records, so a chase can reference the actual work. Your contact data, because reminders sent to the wrong person at a company simply do not land. Your calendar, if a call needs booking.
We build around your existing tools. You should not have to change how the business runs to get paid on time.
Why custom rather than a bolt-on
Plenty of accounting packages send reminders, and for many businesses that is genuinely enough. Use it if it fits.
It stops fitting when your process has rules the package does not know about. Different terms for different customers. A retainer that is chased differently from a one-off job. Work that must not be chased at all while a dispute is open. A group of companies where one contact pays for several sites. A sequence that has to pause for a customer on a payment plan.
That is the point where a bolt-on starts fighting you, and where we build something that fits the way you actually work.
What building one involves
Three conversations, not a six month project.
First, your rules: when a chase starts, how firm it gets, what stops it, and what has to reach you. Second, the connections to your accounting and job systems. Third, the escalation path, meaning who gets a flagged invoice and what they are allowed to do about it.
We then build it, run it alongside your current process until you trust it, and hand it over.
Frequently asked questions
Can invoice chasing really be automated?
The sequence can, and that is the part costing you time. Reminders, payment links, stopping on reply or payment, and flagging what has gone too far all run without you. The decisions about how to handle a difficult customer stay yours.
Will automated reminders annoy my customers?
Only if they are wrong or relentless. Reminders that stop on payment, stop on reply and stay civil until terms are genuinely breached are usually welcomed, because most late payment is forgetfulness.
Do we have to replace our accounting software?
No. We build around what you already use. Your accounting system stays the source of truth for payment, and the chasing system reads from it.
Can it phone people as well as email?
Yes. We build voice agents for the final stage that confirm the invoice arrived and either take payment or book a call. They escalate to a person rather than negotiating.
How long does it take to build?
It depends on how many systems it has to talk to and how complex your rules are. The rules conversation is usually the longest part, and the connections are usually the quickest.
What if a customer disputes the work?
The sequence stops immediately on any reply, and the message comes to you. Chasing somebody who is disputing the job makes the dispute worse, so the system is built never to do it.
If this is your Tuesday
If you are owed money and the chasing keeps sliding, the fix is not more discipline. It is a system that does the boring part reliably and brings you only the calls that need a person.
That is the kind of thing we build. Tell us how your chasing works today and we will tell you what could run itself.
Get in touch for a no obligation conversation, or see the rest of our work and what we build.