Payment plan
Offering a payment plan for an overdue invoice
Send this when the full amount is the problem and you would rather get it in pieces than not at all. Two or three payments, with dates, is a plan. “Pay when you can” is not.
A payment plan is you offering smaller amounts on set days. It does not erase the invoice. The whole balance is still owed. You are only changing when it arrives.
Pick two or three payments that add up to the invoice. Put a date on each one. The first date should be soon, this week or next, so the plan starts. Later dates can follow their usual payment run. Write the amounts and the dates in the email so you both have the same list.
Ask them to reply yes to the dates, or to propose different dates that still add up. Keep that reply. If they don’t answer, the original invoice is still the amount due. Once they agree, confirm the plan in one line and don’t rewrite it every week. If a date passes with nothing, write about that date.
Say what a missed payment means. If you are still on the job, new work pauses until the plan is current. If the work is already done, a missed payment means the final reminder for whatever is left. Say that once. The example below leaves that line off so you can add the one that fits the job.
Copy this and change the names, the amounts, and the dates.
Subject: Invoice 1842 — split into two payments Hi Priya, Invoice 1842 is still open. It is $1,800 for the March furnace replacement, and it was due March 1. We can split the balance into two payments: $900 by March 15 $900 by April 15 Reply to confirm those dates, or send two other dates that still add up to $1,800. I’ll mark the invoice paid once both payments have arrived. Jordan Hale Hale Heating