Chase soon after the due date, keep the first message short and personal, and make paying easy by including a link. Most clients who miss a due date aren't refusing to pay, so a friendly check from someone they know tends to land better than a formal reminder. Decide in advance which clients get a personal touch, which get an automatic sequence, and when you'd pause chasing altogether.
In this article
The short version
- Chase within a day or two of the due date, while admin problems are easy to fix.
- The first reminder tends to work best from someone the client knows, with a payment link.
- Vary the wording and get a little firmer with each reminder.
- Sort clients in advance into personal-only and automatic chasing.
- Pause chasing during a dispute or payment plan, and push harder when promised dates pass.
Chase now or give a good client more time?
The client who's three weeks late on a £6,900 fee is often the same one with two more roles you'd like to fill. That tension is behind a lot of hesitant chasing in recruitment. The fee is yours, but you want the next brief too.
Waiting feels safer, and with a client who always pays in the end it may cost you little. It does have a cost, though. The fee is cash you've earned and can't use, your consultant's commission may be waiting on it, and the longer it sits the harder the conversation tends to get. On some agency terms, a client who pays late also loses its rebate if the candidate leaves early, which is easier to raise a week after the due date than two months later.
Chasing straight away tends to carry less risk than it feels like it will, as long as the first message reads as a check and not a demand. Many late fees are stuck on something dull: a missing purchase order number, an invoice sent to a hiring manager who never forwarded it, or a payment run that happens once a month. A message on day one or two after the due date finds that out while it's still easy to fix.
Who the reminder comes from and how it reads
The first reminder tends to work best coming from someone the client knows, whether that's the consultant who made the placement or the founder. Something like:
"Hi Priya, hope Daniel's settling in well. Our invoice for his placement was due on Friday and I can't see it's come through yet. Is there anything you need from us? Here's the link if it's easier to pay online."
That message asks a question, offers help, and puts the way to pay one tap away. It doesn't mention interest or terms. If the second reminder is needed, a week later, it can be a little firmer and copy in the client's accounts team. The third can state the amount, the due date and the date you'd like it paid by.
Try not to send the same wording three times. A client who ignored the first version is unlikely to respond to an identical second one, and it can start to read as automated even when it isn't.
Email, phone or WhatsApp
Each channel suits a different stage. Email leaves a record and reaches accounts teams. A phone call to the hiring manager is often the quickest way to find out what's actually holding things up. WhatsApp or SMS gets read, which is why many founders end up messaging a client directly when emails go unanswered, though it can feel too informal for a client you mostly deal with by email.
If you'd rather not send every reminder by hand, Adfin can chase over email, SMS and WhatsApp with a payment link in each message. Emails can come from your own email address once you connect Gmail or Microsoft 365, so the client sees your name in their inbox. SMS and WhatsApp reminders use standard Adfin wording, so keep your own personal messages for the clients where tone matters most.
When to pause and when to push harder
It helps to sort clients before anything is late. A small agency might put its handful of key accounts on a personal-only list, where the founder makes the first contact, and let everyone else follow an automatic sequence. Clients with a known reason for paying late, such as a care provider waiting on local authority funding, might get a longer gap between reminders.
Pause chasing for a client when there's a live dispute about the fee, when you're agreeing a payment plan, or when the founder is handling the conversation personally. In Adfin you can pause reminders for a single client while that's going on and restart them once it's settled. Its AI Customer Agents can also learn when and where each client tends to respond and adjust timing and channel to suit, within rules you approve.
Push harder when a client stops replying, when promised payment dates pass, or when the client offers a token amount with no plan for the rest. At that point, a formal written reminder with statutory late payment interest added is a reasonable next step, because your client is a business and the right to statutory interest applies unless your terms set a different rate.
Common questions
How soon after the due date should I chase a placement fee? Within a day or two is common. An early, friendly check tends to catch admin problems like a missing purchase order before they turn into weeks of delay.
Will chasing a client put them off using my agency again? A polite, personal reminder is unlikely to. Repeated identical messages or a sudden formal demand are more likely to cause friction.
Should I chase the hiring manager or the accounts team? Often both, in that order. The hiring manager can confirm the invoice is approved and the accounts team can tell you when it's due to be paid.
Is it OK to chase a client on WhatsApp? Plenty of agencies do, especially where the founder already messages the client. It works best as a short, friendly nudge with a payment link.
Can I add interest to a late placement fee? Yes, if your client is a business. Statutory late payment interest is 8% above the Bank of England base rate, currently 11.75% a year.
How many reminders should I send before escalating? Many agencies send three, each a little firmer, before a final written demand. It tends to help if each one asks a question or gives a date.
Sources
- GOV.UK - Late commercial payments: charging interest on commercial debt (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.gov.uk/late-commercial-payments-interest-debt-recovery/charging-interest-commercial-debt
- Adfin - Credit control (accurate as of October 2026) https://adfin.com/credit-control
- Adfin - Saved messages: send adapted emails from your own inbox (accurate as of October 2026) https://support.adfin.com/en/articles/12585141-saved-messages-send-adapted-emails-from-your-own-inbox
- Brook Street - Permanent terms of business (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.brookstreet.co.uk/rails/active_storage/blobs/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBBOHNLUUE9PSIsImV4cCI6bnVsbCwicHVyIjoiYmxvYl9pZCJ9fQ==--aabee74b1bce7842b1e5434e5907452fe14914ef/BrookStreetPermTOBs2022.pdf
