//Free tool
late payment calculator
The invoice is twenty-two days overdue and you have checked the bank app eleven times. This puts a number on it: the interest your contract has earned, and the hours of chasing that never appear on any invoice. The number is motivation. The fix is the three emails below it.
The invoice
What waiting is costing
Late fee accrued
$42
Your chasing time
$135
Total cost of waiting
$177
The math, shown:
3 weeks overdue. The late fee accrues at your contract’s monthly rate, pro-rated by day; the chasing line prices your follow-up time at your own rate — the part every freelancer writes off as free. It isn’t.
The fix isn’t a spicier email — it’s a system: a named late fee in the contract, and a calm three-step escalation sent on schedule instead of when the frustration peaks.
Now send the right email
The figure above does not move money. What moves money is whether you still hold something the client wants, and a follow-up sent on a schedule you keep. The three emails are written out whole, a week apart, and the next contract should name its late terms before the work starts (the checklist). The longer argument, including why both of your levers expire the day you hand over the files, is on the blog.
Common questions
- How common are late payments for freelancers?
- Common enough to plan for rather than take personally. Bonsai's own invoice data puts the share of freelance invoices paid at least a day late at 29% (Bonsai). There is no reliable global figure beyond that, and several widely quoted ones did not survive checking, so treat the chase as ordinary bookkeeping that happens to most people and build a routine for it.
- How much late fee can I charge?
- Whatever your contract named before the work started, within the limits of where you are. A fee that appears for the first time after the due date reads as retaliation and tends to stall the conversation you actually want. In the UK and the EU there are statutory interest rates for business-to-business debts that apply even when the contract is silent; the research page on late-payment interest has the figures with their sources.
- When should I follow up on an unpaid invoice?
- The day after it is due, with a short note that assumes it got stuck. A week later, naming the days overdue and asking where it is in their process. At about three weeks, treating it as a dispute rather than a delay and asking for a date or a plan. Put the dates in your calendar when you send the invoice, so the calendar sends the email and not your mood.
- Does this calculator store my numbers?
- No. Everything runs in your browser; nothing you type is sent, stored or logged anywhere.