Your first week of getting receivables under control: a checklist

You do not need new software to get on top of unpaid invoices. You need one sheet, one hour to set it up, and a few minutes a day for a week. Here is the order to do it in.

Day 1: Make the list

• Open a spreadsheet. One row per unpaid invoice: invoice number, customer, amount, due date.
• Add a column for days late and one for stage: before due, due today, 7, 15 or 30 days late, final.
• Do not message anyone today. Just see the whole picture once.

Day 2: Prepare your basics

• Write your payment details as one block you can paste: UPI ID, bank name, account name, account number, IFSC.
• Write three lines about your business, your usual terms and how you address customers. You will give this to the AI tool each time so that drafts sound like you.

Day 3: The three oldest

• Take the three oldest invoices and choose the honest stage for each.
• Draft each message with four facts and one question. Read it aloud.
• Send before noon. Log the date.

Day 4: Everyone else

• Send the stage message for every other overdue invoice, one per invoice.
• Send a friendly heads-up for anything falling due this week.
• Mark any invoice with an open complaint as on hold, and fix a time to resolve it.

Day 5: Handle the replies

• Turn every "next week" into a date by offering two days to choose from.
• Ask for the transaction reference when someone says it is already paid.
• Acknowledge each payment the same day with amount, date and invoice number.
• Where a customer is clearly short of cash, offer a part payment now and a dated balance.

Day 6: Fix the source

• Rewrite the payment terms in your quote template: advance, due date rule, how to pay.
• Put the due date on your invoice as a calendar date.
• Decide your credit rule for new customers, for example an advance on the first two orders.

Day 7: Make it weekly

• Block thirty minutes on one fixed weekday. Update payments, recalculate days late, send that week's messages, note next actions.
• Ask the customers who paid this week for feedback.
• Pick one reliable payer and thank them.

What to expect

At the end of the week not every invoice will be paid, and no checklist can promise that. But each one will have a stage, a last action and a next action, and you will know which two or three accounts truly need a call or professional advice from your CA or lawyer. That is a very different feeling from carrying the whole list in your head.

Paynudge gives you this week ready-made: the tracker with these columns, the playbook's 7-day plan, and a prompt for every message on the list.