What this looks like in a trade business
The job's finished, the van's already on the way to the next one, and the invoice gets raised whenever there's a spare half hour, which some weeks is never. By the time it goes out, the customer's moved on mentally, and chasing it two weeks later feels like an awkward phone call rather than a routine nudge.
It's rarely one big unpaid job that hurts. It's the drip of smaller ones: a boiler service here, a callout there, each one small enough that chasing it feels like more hassle than it's worth, right up until you add them all up at the end of the month and realise they're the difference between a comfortable month and a tight one. Materials get paid for upfront, fuel and wages go out every week regardless, and the cash that's supposed to come back in sits in someone's online banking app, unpaid, because nobody's actually asked twice.
Where trade cash flow has its own rules
Domestic jobs and commercial work behave differently when payment runs late. On a domestic job, a polite reminder and a phone call usually does it, because most homeowners aren't trying to avoid paying, they've just forgotten or deprioritised it below their own bills. On commercial and subcontract work it's a different picture: main contractors routinely hold retentions, apply payment terms of 30, 60 or even 90 days, and if you're working under the Construction Industry Scheme, the invoice itself needs the CIS deduction handled correctly before anyone even gets to the question of when it's paid. On an £8,000 labour plus £2,000 materials invoice, for example, the deduction applies only to the labour: at the standard 20% rate for a verified, registered subcontractor, that's £1,600 held back, materials untouched, so getting the split right on the invoice matters more than the rate itself (always check gov.uk for the current rate). The Late Payment of Commercial Debts Act gives a business-to-business trade the legal right to charge statutory interest, currently 8% a year plus the Bank of England base rate (3.75% as of October 2026, so a combined rate of around 11.75%, though this moves and is worth checking), plus a fixed compensation sum on a late commercial invoice, which is worth knowing even if, like most small trade businesses, you rarely enforce it against a customer you want repeat work from.
Meet Dan
Dan runs a plumbing and heating firm with two vans. Invoices go out through Xero whenever he gets a quiet evening, and chasing unpaid ones happens the same way, by hand, whenever he remembers. He also does a small amount of subcontract work for a local builder, invoiced under CIS, where the payment terms are longer and the chasing feels riskier to get wrong.
"I know roughly who owes us money. I don't always know how long it's been owed, and that's usually the problem."
Dan is an illustrative example, a composite of the trade businesses we talk to, not a real client.
How we'd fix it
- Quote and invoice automation through Xero or QuickBooks, raising the invoice the moment a job's marked complete in Tradify or ServiceM8, rather than whenever there's a spare half hour back at the yard.
- A scheduled reminder sequence that goes out automatically at fixed points, say seven and fourteen days overdue, with a different, firmer tone for the second one, so chasing happens on a timetable instead of by memory.
- CIS-aware invoicing for subcontract work, so the deduction is calculated and shown correctly on every invoice to a contractor, and the reminder schedule reflects the longer terms that commercial work usually carries rather than treating every invoice the same.
- A single automated reminder workflow on its own, if a full invoicing overhaul isn't needed yet, such as a nudge a week before a recurring maintenance contract invoice is due.
- Direct debit or card-on-file collection through GoCardless or Stripe for repeat customers, like landlords on a maintenance contract, so payment happens automatically rather than needing a reminder at all.
- Clear payment terms agreed and written on every quote upfront, including when interest becomes chargeable on a late commercial invoice, so the clock on getting paid starts from the quote, not after an awkward conversation.
What it costs and how long it takes
These are guide prices for a typical setup, with the fixed quote following a free 30-minute call once we know how much of your work is domestic versus commercial.
| Setup | Guide price | Typical time |
|---|---|---|
| Quote and invoice automation (Xero or QuickBooks) | From £750 | 2 to 3 weeks |
| CIS-aware invoicing add-on | Scoped on the call | Added to the above |
| Direct debit or card-on-file collection add-on | Scoped on the call | Added to the above |
| A single automated reminder workflow on its own | From £350 | 1 to 2 weeks |
The trade-offs worth knowing
Automation gets the invoice out faster and chases it more consistently than a tired evening ever will, but it doesn't replace judgement on a customer dispute, a snagging list that's genuinely holding up payment, or a relationship you want to protect by picking up the phone yourself. Statutory interest under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts Act is a right, not an obligation, and most trades still choose not to enforce it on good customers, relying instead on clear terms and consistent reminders. The automation handles timing and consistency. It still won't make a slow-paying contractor pay faster than their own cash flow allows.
What you get back
Jobs get invoiced the same day they finish, and the reminders that follow come from your business, in your voice, on a schedule, rather than depending on you remembering who's overdue and by how long.
Related
Read the general guide to we're always chasing unpaid invoices, see the wider picture for trades, and the related example of a plumbing firm going from missed calls to booked, invoiced jobs. For more detail, see automating quotes and invoices with Xero or QuickBooks.