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Payment reminder email (before the due date)

The most underused email in receivables is the one sent before anything is late. A short heads-up 3 days ahead of the due date catches invoices that went to spam or to a departed employee, and it makes every later reminder fairer: nobody who got it can say they were ambushed. The disarming last line matters; keep it.

Send 3 days before the due date

Subject: Invoice {{invoice_number}} from {{business_name}} is due {{due_date}}

Hi {{customer_name}},

A quick heads-up that invoice {{invoice_number}} for {{amount_due}} is due on {{due_date}}.
You can pay online here: {{payment_url}}
Your full statement is here: {{portal_url}}

If it's already scheduled, please ignore this.

Thanks,
{{business_name}}

When to use it

3 days before the due date, on every invoice over a trivial amount
Especially for new customers, where you have no read on their AP process yet
Skip it for customers on autopay or card-on-file; it would just be noise

Getting the tone right

Purely informational; there is nothing to apologize for and nothing to demand
"If it's already scheduled, please ignore this" removes any sting
Keep it under five sentences; a long pre-due email reads as nagging

The merge fields, explained

Placeholders in double braces fill from the invoice when Duebay sends this template; replace them by hand if you are pasting it into your own email client.

{{customer_name}}: The billing contact's name
{{business_name}}: Your business name (the sender)
{{invoice_number}}: The invoice reference
{{amount_due}}: Outstanding balance, formatted (e.g. $1,250.00)
{{due_date}}: The invoice due date
{{days_overdue}}: Whole days past the due date
{{payment_url}}: Online payment link, if you have one
{{portal_url}}: The customer's statement page

In Duebay the payment line is conditional: it renders only when the invoice has a payment link, so an invoice without one never says "pay online here:" followed by nothing. The copies below have that line included and the conditional markers removed, so they paste straight into an email client.

Adjacent rungs of the ladder

Invoice due today emailEmail Overdue invoice email (first nudge)Email Dunning email sequence (all four steps)Sequence

Put this template on autopilot

This is a live Duebay template: sequences send the ladder on schedule, log every send, and stop when the invoice is paid.

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