How VigilPay chases.

The reminder templates in VigilPay are grounded in published research on what actually gets bills paid. Here's what that means in practice.

The problem we design against

Chasing invoices is a persistent cost for UK freelancers, sole traders and small business owners: 3 in 5 UK small businesses are owed money right now and 58% say late payment is their biggest cashflow problem.

Generic reminder templates treat all of this as a matter of tone. Firmer, softer, apologetic, direct. That is not the useful axis. The useful axis is behavioural: what specific framing choices actually shift the recipient's likelihood of paying?

6 principles behind every VigilPay template

Reference the client's own payment history where we can.

In the UK Behavioural Insights Team's studies with HMRC, letters and texts referencing personal past payment behaviour produced by far the biggest lifts in payment rates. Reminding a recurring late payer they were late last time increased payment by roughly 50% in the SMS trial. So when we know a client has paid you before, we say so.

Use specific social norms, not generic pleas.

BIT found that framings like "the great majority of business owners in your sector pay on time; most with debts like yours have paid by now" produced a 15% relative lift in payment rate on their own. Where our templates surface social norms, they do it specifically: most invoices like this, most clients at this stage, not just "please pay."

Frame consequences as automatic, not threatened.

Research consistently shows that "statutory interest begins accruing on 4 October 2026" outperforms "we will charge you interest if you do not pay." Automatic-consequence framing removes the emotional negotiation of a threat.

Give specific dates, not durations.

"Please pay by 26 September 2026" outperforms "please pay within 7 days." Concrete dates create a specific mental deadline.

Include escape hatches for the honest case.

Every VigilPay template offers a way out: "If you have already paid it, please ignore" or "If there is a specific issue with the invoice, tell me and I will look into it." This removes the awkwardness that stops good-faith clients from replying and creates a low-friction path for legitimate disputes.

One clear next step per email.

Simplification consistently beat clever wording in trials, especially for larger debts. Each of our templates asks for one thing at a time. Never a mixture of "please pay AND please confirm AND please contact us."

How principle 01 appears in practice

Before

Hi Sarah, just a reminder that invoice 042 is now overdue. Please arrange payment at your earliest convenience.

After

Hi Sarah, just a quick nudge on invoice 042 for £1,800, which fell due on 12 September 2026. Most invoices like this are settled within a few days of the due date, so wanted to check in. You paid my previous invoice 4 days after the due date, thank you. If you've already paid it, thank you and please ignore. If it slipped through, could you let me know when I can expect payment?

The second version applies principles 01 (personal history), 02 (social norm), 04 (specific date), and 05 (escape hatch), all in 1 email. That is the compound effect.

The initial send

The first email is not a chase, so it's not written like one. It carries the invoice and sets the tone for anything that follows.

Delivers the invoice rather than persuading.
Provides specific dates, both issued and due, up front.
One clear next step for the client, either a payment link or the invoice.
An escape hatch, inviting the client to reply with any questions.

After the final notice

The 4 stage chase cycle is where the behavioural research applies. Past that point, the decision is yours, not ours.

The 4 stage cycle is informed by the Behavioural Insights Team research, and it is where the wording does most of its work.
Beyond that, escalation stops being about behavioural nudges and becomes a business decision specific to you, the client, and the sum involved.
VigilPay lays out the options rather than automating anything. You keep control over whether to escalate, write the invoice off, or simply wait.

One thing we deliberately don't do

Many services will encourage you to escalate quickly and lean on legal language early. Research doesn't back that approach. Warmth and specificity in the early stages preserves the relationship, and hard specifics land with more impact later.

Our default schedule follows the same logic: a heads-up 5 days before the due date, then reminders at 3, 14 and 30 days after it. These are our defaults, informed by the research. Don't worry, you can override them in Settings if your business runs on different terms.

Calculating statutory interest and fixed compensation

Statutory interest under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 is the Bank of England base rate plus 8%, the statutory premium. It is applied as simple interest, not compound interest, from the day after the invoice was due until the day it is paid. Fixed compensation is a one-off amount: £40 for debts under £1,000, £70 for debts from £1,000 to £9,999.99, and £100 for debts of £10,000 or more.

VigilPay uses the current Bank of England base rate as published on the Bank of England's official rate schedule. When the base rate changes, our calculation reflects the change from the effective date the Bank published, not the day we noticed. If the invoice was overdue across a rate change, we apportion the interest correctly across the 2 rate periods.

Worked example: A £4,000 invoice paid 45 days late while the base rate is 4.75%: statutory interest = £4,000 × (4.75% + 8%) × (45 / 365) = £62.88. Fixed compensation = £70. Total late payment charge = £132.88.

These calculations are indicative and are provided to help you understand what you may claim under the 1998 Act. You should verify the amount before you enforce it, particularly if the invoice period crossed a rate change or if there is any dispute about the invoice itself. VigilPay is not a substitute for legal advice.

Use our free statutory interest and late payment calculator to estimate the interest and fixed compensation on an overdue business invoice.

UK Behavioural Insights Team, "Reducing Fraud, Error and Debt" (2015-16 update). Field trials on personalised past-behaviour messaging, social norms, and monitoring framings across HMRC self-assessment tax, corporate tax, and other UK debt-collection contexts.

The Decision Lab, "How normative messaging increased tax compliance by 15%". Summary of the BIT and HMRC normative-messaging intervention.

Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. The UK statute setting the rate at which statutory interest and fixed compensation apply to late commercial payments.