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Getting paid on time

Customers pay late, and you spend hours chasing.

Reminders go out from your own email before, on and after the due date. Replies get read and sorted. You see one list each morning and deal only with the disputes.

What Changes

The journey for getting paid on time in a construction and home services business. Today: 4 steps you do and 3 times it waits. With the fix: 1 and 0.

Construction and Home Services: “the snagging isn’t finished”

Today

  1. You: Job done, you type the invoice that evening.
  2. Waiting: Due date passes and nobody notices.
  3. You: Weeks later you remember and send a text.
  4. Waiting: No reply.
  5. You: You ring, and they raise a query.
  6. You: You sort it out and chase again.
  7. Waiting: Paid [n] days late.
Steps You Do
4
Times It Waits
3

With the Fix

  1. Runs on its own: Job done, invoice goes from your accounts.
  2. Runs on its own: Reminder a few days before it’s due.
  3. Runs on its own: Reminders on the day and after.
  4. Runs on its own: Reply sorted: promised by [date].
  5. You: The query comes to you with a reply drafted, and you approve it.
  6. Runs on its own: Paid, and the morning list updates.
Steps You Do
1
Times It Waits
0
  1. Reminders go out before the due date, on it and after it. Polite at first, firmer as time passes.
  2. Customer replies are sorted: paid, promised a date, querying the invoice, disputing it or ignoring it.
  3. Anything out of the ordinary comes to you with a reply drafted.
  4. Each morning you get one list: who owes what, who has promised a date, who has gone quiet.

Illustrative example. Today: The accounts screen shows [n] invoices overdue, £[x] in total. A note on the phone: “Rang [Customer] [date]? Said end of month?” Nothing else is written down. After the fix: “Morning, [Name]. Owed: £[x] across [n] customers. Promised: [Customer], £[x] by [date]. Gone quiet: [Customer], [n] days, second reminder sent [date]. Needs you: [Customer] says the snagging on [job] isn’t finished. Reply drafted. [Approve]”.

Illustrative. Your business carries your own details.

What It Costs You

Late payment is a major obstacle for 36% of construction firms, and a business it hits spends 86 hours a year chasing.

Source: DBT LSBS 2024; London Economics for DBT/OSBC 2025

What Chasing Costs You

Change it to your own.86 hours is the average for a business hit by late payment. London Economics for the Department for Business and Trade, 2025.
What you’d charge for an hour, or pay someone else.

Fill in each box to see your number.

An estimate. Before we start, we count your real numbers for a week.

Late Payment Interest Calculator

What You Do

Approve the reminder wording once. After that, you only see the disputes.

What It Runs On

Your accounting system and your email.

Agreed Before We Start

How many days it takes you to get paid and how many hours a week go on chasing, from your own records, before and after.

What We Agree Before We Start

MeasureBeforeAfter
Days to get paid
Hours a week spent chasing

We fill this in with you before any work starts.

Questions Owners Ask

Will my customers know the reminders are automatic?
They come from your own email address, in wording you approve before anything goes out. Anything out of the ordinary comes to you to answer.
Does it chase a customer who has disputed the invoice?
No. A disputed invoice is never chased automatically. It comes to you with a reply drafted.
Which accounting systems does it work with?
We plan around Xero, QuickBooks Online and Sage. If you use something else, tell us and we’ll say whether we can connect to it.
Can the reminders add late-payment interest?
Only if you choose to. Statutory late-payment interest applies only to invoices between businesses. You or your adviser decide whether to use it; we don’t give legal advice.

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