An invoice slips past its due date and your stomach does a little flip. Don’t sweat it: a calm, well-timed reminder gets most freelancers paid without a single awkward phone call. Fee-Lion helps you spot what’s overdue, send a clean nudge, and give your client a one-click way to settle up.
Spot what’s actually late
Before you chase anyone, get clear on who owes you. An invoice only counts as “late” once its due date has passed and it hasn’t been paid — and Fee-Lion tracks that for you automatically.
- Open Invoices in the left sidebar and scan the status column. Anything marked Overdue is your shortlist.
- For the bigger picture, head to Reports and open Invoice Aging. It buckets unpaid invoices by how long they’ve been outstanding — 1–30 days, 31–60, and beyond.
- Start with the oldest, largest balances. Those are the ones worth a personal touch first.
If the statuses ever feel fuzzy, the difference between Sent, Overdue, and Paid is worth a quick read so you know exactly what each label means.
Tip: Set your default payment terms at Settings → Preferences so every invoice carries a clear due date from the moment you send it. A reminder lands much harder when the original terms were never vague.
Send the nudge
Open the overdue invoice and resend it. The client gets a fresh magic link straight to the same payment page they had the first time — no login, no hunting through old email.
- Click into the overdue invoice from your Invoices list.
- Resend it to the client. They land in the portal on a page that shows the amount due, the original line items, and a prominent Pay button.
- They pay by card, and the money flows directly into your own connected Stripe account — you’re notified the moment it clears and the invoice flips to Paid.
In a hurry? Pop open the command palette with ⌘K and type something like pay INV-204 or jump straight to the invoice by number. It’s the fastest way to act on a specific late one without scrolling.
Keep the tone right
Firm and friendly beats frosty every time. A short, human note — “just floating this back to the top of your inbox” — paired with a working Pay button does most of the work. The easier you make paying, the faster it happens.
Stop the next one before it starts
The best late invoice is the one that never goes late. A few small habits keep your aging report short and your cash flow steady.
- Turn on auto-pay for repeat clients so recurring invoices settle themselves on the due date.
- Collect a deposit up front on bigger jobs — set a default deposit % at Settings → Preferences so it’s baked into every estimate.
- Check Invoice Aging once a week. A two-minute glance keeps small slips from becoming awkward 60-day conversations.
Handle the late one today, tighten the terms tomorrow, and overdue invoices stop being a thing you dread.
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