Get Paid Faster: 15 Data-Backed Tactics [2026]

Businesses that follow up on 100% of their overdue invoices every month are 76% more likely to be paid within one week than businesses that leave some invoices uncontacted, according to Chaser’s 2026 Accounts Receivable Report. That’s the single biggest lever in this list, but it’s one of 15, each backed by its own named, dated source rather than a general “best practice” claim: wording, timing, payment terms, payment method, and how you track whether any of it is working.

Figure 1: The three tactics with the largest measured effect on payment speed, ranked by the size of the gap between businesses that use them and businesses that don’t. Sources: Chaser, 2026 Accounts Receivable Report.

What’s the single fastest way to get an invoice paid?

Three tactics, all measured against the same underlying behavior: how consistently and automatically a business chases what it’s owed.

1. Follow up on every overdue invoice, not just some. This is the biggest documented gap in the data. Chaser’s 2026 report found businesses that follow up on 100% of their overdue invoices in a given month are 76% more likely to be paid within one week than businesses that leave some invoices uncontacted, 28% paid within a week versus 16%. Yet 31% of businesses admit to leaving some invoices uncontacted every month, and 16% of that group leaves 31 to 50% of their overdue book unchased entirely. A BillyPaid payment reminder runs that follow-up automatically on every invoice, so full coverage doesn’t depend on someone remembering.

2. Automate the reminders instead of chasing manually. Of the businesses Chaser surveyed, 43% had adopted AR automation software, and those businesses get paid within two weeks 71% of the time, compared to 47% for businesses still relying on manual follow-up, a 52% relative advantage. A separate, larger study reaches a similar conclusion: Billtrust’s 2025 research, run by Wakefield Research among 500 finance decision-makers at companies with revenue over $250 million, found 99% of companies using AI in accounts receivable had reduced their days sales outstanding, and 75% cut it by six days or more. For the fuller breakdown of every lever that shortens payment time, see how to get paid faster.

3. Run a structured, escalating cadence instead of a single reminder. Roughly 80% of unpaid invoices are collectible by email alone, per Chaser, but the sequence matters: a structured, escalating cadence collects 78% of invoices by day 15, versus just 52% for businesses with no defined follow-up sequence. One reminder that never changes tone or urgency leaves a lot of that gap on the table. For a full cadence breakdown, see payment reminder effectiveness data.

Does the wording on the invoice itself change whether it gets paid?

It does, and the effect shows up even before an invoice becomes overdue. FreshBooks’ analysis of more than 1 million small-business invoices measured paid rates by wording variant, all against a 78.62% baseline for invoices with no special phrasing at all.

Figure 2: Every wording variant FreshBooks tracked outperformed the 78.62% all-invoice baseline, with a stated Interest note at the top. Source: FreshBooks, analysis of more than 1 million invoices.

4. Add a stated late-fee or Interest note. This was the single strongest wording variant in the FreshBooks dataset: invoices carrying an Interest note are paid 92.15% of the time, 13.5 points above baseline, and a stated late fee also functions as a firmer tone before a single reminder is even sent.

5. Close with a “Thank You” line. A warm, appreciative closing line lifts the paid rate to 89.61%, second only to the Interest note.

6. Use direct, courteous “please” wording. A polite, specific ask, rather than a vague or silent invoice, moves the paid rate to 88.07%. None of these three wording changes proves causation on its own, but all three share a pattern: specificity and a clear consequence or a clear ask both beat leaving a client to infer the urgency for themselves.

What should happen before an invoice is even overdue?

The strongest levers in this list are decisions made before a payment is ever late, not reactions to lateness.

7. Shorten stated payment terms to 7 days instead of 30. FreshBooks’ 1.39-million-invoice dataset found invoices billed with “7 Days” terms are paid within 7 days 58.05% of the time, against just 40.22% for “30 Days” terms, an 18-point gap measured against the same fixed window. A “14 Days” term sits closer to the 7-day behavior at 52.84%, which suggests the relationship isn’t purely mechanical. Full breakdown at Net 30 vs Net 7 payment data.

8. Send a reminder before the due date, not just after. The clearest causal evidence in this entire list comes from outside invoicing: a Behavioural Insights Team and SAT Guatemala randomized controlled trial of 107,756 taxpayers found every reminder sent 4 days before a tax deadline raised the on-time rate to 82.2 to 82.3%, against an 81.4% control baseline. The identical message sent after the deadline showed no statistically significant lift. Separately, debtor-management platform Trove found 70% of businesses with the highest collection rates send a reminder before the invoice is even due, a correlation rather than a controlled result, but consistent with the trial. Full data at pre-due reminder data.

Figure 3: All three before-deadline message variants beat the no-message control, with almost no difference between them, evidence that timing, not wording, drove the lift. Source: Behavioural Insights Team / SAT Guatemala.

9. Put a payable link directly on the invoice. Xero reports invoices with an online “Pay Now” option get paid up to twice as fast as invoices without one, and QuickBooks separately measured a 1.4x speed gain from its Online Invoice feature over 90 days of payments data ending April 2025. A BillyPaid invoice includes a payable link by default.

Does how and when you invoice matter, beyond wording?

Three more tactics, each addressing a different point of friction between sending an invoice and getting paid.

10. Move clients off checks and onto bank transfer or digital payment. Just 26% of B2B payments in the US and Canada were made by check in 2025, down from 81% in 2004, according to the AFP Digital Payments Survey, and the shift is not just about speed. Checks are the most fraud-targeted payment method: 63% of organizations were hit by attempted or actual check fraud in 2024, versus 38% for ACH debits and 30% for wire transfers, per AFP’s 2025 Payments Fraud and Control Survey of 521 corporate practitioners. Smaller businesses lag the shift: the Federal Reserve’s 2024 Business Payments Study of 2,005 US businesses found 83% of “Small” revenue firms still used checks in the past 12 months, versus 65 to 66% of “Large” and “Very Large” firms.

Figure 4: B2B check usage has fallen by two-thirds over two decades as businesses shift to ACH, wire, and card payments. Source: AFP, 2025 Digital Payments Survey.

11. Send on the day and time that gets opened. This is the smallest lever in this list, worth doing because it’s free, not because it moves the needle much. Omnisend’s 2026 analysis of roughly 26 billion sends found Tuesday emails get opened at a 31.27% rate, the week’s highest, against a 29.67% low on Monday, and Tuesday’s own best hour is 7 a.m. at a 33.41% open rate. That 1.6-point gap between the best and worst day is far smaller than the 17.83-point gap that shortening payment terms produces.

12. Fix invoice errors before they trigger a manual hold. An invoice that bounces for a data error can’t start the payment clock at all. Ardent Partners’ State of ePayables 2025 report, based on 204 accounts payable professionals, found 18.4% of invoices trigger an exception that blocks straight-through processing, but Best-in-Class AP teams hold that rate to 11.1%, against a 20.9% average for the rest of the market. Getting the basics right, correct totals, a valid PO reference, consistent formatting, keeps an invoice out of that exception queue in the first place.

How do you know any of this is actually working?

The last three tactics are about measurement and prevention rather than a single reminder or line of wording.

13. Resolve pricing and timing disagreements before they become disputes. A Skynova survey of 510 freelancers and 234 small-business owners found 65% of freelancers and 38% of small-business owners dealt with an invoice dispute in the past year, and disputes show up directly as a reason for late payment: 23% of US businesses and 27% of UK and Australian businesses name invoice disputes among their top four reasons customers pay late, according to Atradius’s 2025 Payment Practices Barometer. Pricing disagreements are the top-cited cause for small-business owners; timing disagreements are the top cause freelancers point to.

14. Track your Days Sales Outstanding against a real benchmark, not a gut feeling. The Credit Research Foundation’s National Summary of Domestic Trade Receivables put the median US company’s DSO at 40.12 days in Q1 2026, 8.53 days above CRF’s own Best Possible DSO benchmark of 31.59 days for the same quarter, a gap credit teams call collection slippage. The Hackett Group’s 2025 US Working Capital Survey found top-quartile performers among the largest 1,000 US public companies collect roughly 18 days faster than the median company, a gap worth $600 billion in trapped working capital. Full benchmarks by region and company size at DSO benchmarks.

Figure 5: The gap between the median company’s actual DSO and the Best Possible DSO benchmark for the same quarter is what credit teams call collection slippage. Source: Credit Research Foundation, National Summary of Domestic Trade Receivables, Q1 2026.

15. Know what unchased invoices are costing in time, not just cash. 65% of mid-sized US businesses spend an average of 14 hours a week on payment-collection admin, according to a Wakefield Research survey of 2,000 US businesses commissioned by QuickBooks, close to two full working days lost every week to chasing money that’s already owed. Every tactic above is aimed at shrinking that number. Full data at time spent chasing payments.

Tactic	Documented effect	Source
Follow up on 100% of overdue invoices	76% more likely paid within 1 week	Chaser
Automate reminders instead of manual chasing	71% vs 47% paid within 2 weeks	Chaser
Structured, escalating reminder cadence	78% collected by day 15, vs 52%	Chaser
Add an Interest / late-fee note	92.15% paid, vs 78.62% baseline	FreshBooks
Add a “Thank You” closing line	89.61% paid, vs 78.62% baseline	FreshBooks
Use direct “please” wording	88.07% paid, vs 78.62% baseline	FreshBooks
Shorten terms to 7 days instead of 30	58.05% vs 40.22% paid within 7 days	FreshBooks
Send a reminder before the due date	82.2-82.3% vs 81.4% control	BIT / SAT Guatemala
Add a payable link to the invoice	Up to 2x faster (Xero); 1.4x (QuickBooks)	Xero / QuickBooks
Move clients off checks	26% still paid by check, down from 81%	AFP
Send Tuesday morning	31.27% opens, vs 29.67% Monday low	Omnisend
Fix invoice errors before they hold	11.1% exception rate (best-in-class) vs 20.9%	Ardent Partners
Resolve disputes before they escalate	65% of freelancers hit a dispute last year	Skynova
Track DSO against a real benchmark	8.53-day gap to Best Possible DSO	CRF
Measure the time cost of chasing payments	65% spend 14+ hrs/week on collections	QuickBooks/Wakefield

Table 1: All 15 tactics ranked in the order they appear above, with each one’s documented effect and primary source.

The Bottom Line

None of these 15 tactics require a harder conversation with a client or a bigger finance team. The single biggest one, following up on every overdue invoice, closes a 76% gap in the odds of being paid within a week on its own; automation, terms, wording, payment links, and payment method each add a further, independently sourced improvement on top of that. What they have in common is that all 15 are decisions made before, or immediately at, the point an invoice goes unpaid, not reactions to it weeks later. A BillyPaid invoice ships with a payable link by default, and BillyPaid’s payment reminders run the follow-up automatically on the cadence that the data above says actually collects, which is exactly where the 2026 evidence says the most repeatable gains sit.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the single most effective tactic for getting paid faster? Following up on every overdue invoice, every month, shows the largest documented effect of any single tactic. Businesses that follow up on 100% of their overdue invoices are 76% more likely to be paid within one week than those that leave some invoices uncontacted, according to Chaser’s 2026 Accounts Receivable Report (163 validated responses). In absolute terms, that’s 28% of full-follow-up businesses paid within a week versus 16% of businesses with gaps in their follow-up.

Does invoice wording actually change whether you get paid? Yes, measurably. FreshBooks’ analysis of more than 1 million small-business invoices found a stated late-fee or Interest note lifts the paid rate to 92.15%, a Thank You closing line to 89.61%, and courteous please wording to 88.07%, all above the 78.62% baseline paid rate for invoices with no special wording at all.

Is it worth automating payment reminders instead of sending them manually? The data says yes. Businesses using AR automation software get paid within two weeks 71% of the time, versus 47% for manual follow-up, a 52% relative advantage, per Chaser’s 2026 report. Separately, a Billtrust and Wakefield Research study of 500 finance decision-makers found 99% of companies using AI in accounts receivable reduced their days sales outstanding, and 75% cut it by six days or more.

Does sending a reminder before the due date actually help? Yes, in the one large randomized trial that has tested it directly. A Behavioural Insights Team and SAT Guatemala study of 107,756 taxpayers found every reminder sent before a deadline raised the on-time rate by about 1 percentage point, from an 81.4% control baseline to 82.2 to 82.3%. The identical message sent after the deadline showed no measurable effect.

Sources and References

1. Chaser: The 2026 Accounts Receivable Report (163 validated responses, UK/Australia-led, fielded late 2025-early 2026), follow-up-coverage collection rates, structured-cadence collection rate, and AR automation adoption/effectiveness data.
2. FreshBooks: Use Your Invoice Payment Terms to Get Paid Faster (analysis of more than 1 million small business invoices), paid rate by payment term length and by invoice wording variant.
3. Behavioural Insights Team & SAT Guatemala: Evaluating the Impact of SMS Reminders on Tax Compliance (October 2019, seven-arm randomized controlled trial, 107,756 taxpayers), declaration rate by reminder timing and content arm.
4. Billtrust: Study Finds AI in Accounts Receivable Reduces DSO (Wakefield Research survey of 500 finance decision-makers, October 2025), share of AI-in-AR adopters reducing days sales outstanding.
5. Xero, online invoice payment speed data.
6. QuickBooks (Intuit), Online Invoice payment-speed data (90 days ending April 2025) and Wakefield Research payment-collection admin time survey.
7. Association for Financial Professionals (AFP), 2025 Digital Payments Survey Report (223 respondents, May 2025), B2B check payment share, 2004 to 2025.
8. Association for Financial Professionals (AFP), 2025 Payments Fraud and Control Survey Report (521 respondents, fielded January 2025), check usage rate and fraud rate by payment method.
9. Federal Reserve Financial Services, 2024 Business Payments Study (2,005 US businesses, fielded Q3 2024), payment method usage by business revenue segment.
10. Omnisend: The Best Time to Send an Email (2026 Research, roughly 26 billion sends), email open rate by day of week and hour.
11. Credit Research Foundation, National Summary of Domestic Trade Receivables, Q1 2026, median DSO and Best Possible DSO benchmark.
12. The Hackett Group, 2025 US Working Capital Survey, top-quartile DSO gap and trapped working capital.
13. Trove: When to send invoice reminders before the due date, pre-due reminder correlation with collection rate.
14. Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025: AP’s Unfinished Journey (204 AP professionals surveyed, June 2025), invoice exception rate by AP team performance tier.
15. Skynova, “Strategies for resolving common invoice disputes” (survey of 510 freelancers and 234 small-business owners), dispute frequency and cause.
16. Atradius, Payment Practices Barometer (2025), invoice disputes as a top-4 reason for late payment.

Note: All figures verified as of October 2026.