Read by Denym Bird6 min
Summary
Send a payment reminder on Monday or Tuesday: inside the same business, about 6 more overdue reminders in every 100 are paid within 3 days than when sent Wednesday to Friday, in our analysis of over 1,000 Paidnice customers. Monday leads overall and Tuesday is level with it in Australia and the US.
- Inside the same business: Monday or Tuesday reminders are paid within 3 days about 6 more in every 100 than Wednesday to Friday ones, and it holds in 4 in 5 businesses, so one big payer is not skewing the average.
- Monday leads overall: 36% of overdue reminders sent on a Monday were paid within 3 days, against 23% for Thursday and 21% for Saturday.
- The UK gap is widest: In the UK, 44% of Monday reminders were paid within 3 days, against 22% on Thursday. 1 UK payment in 4 lands on a Friday.
It is Thursday afternoon. An invoice went overdue on Monday, the payer has gone quiet, and you are about to send the reminder before the weekend. Will it sit in a queue of Friday emails that nobody opens until next week?
In the video: Do customers pay on the due date? (0:38), does a weekend due date matter? (1:16), how fast do customers pay after a reminder? (2:04), which day should you send a reminder? (2:44), what to do (3:42).
Inside the same business, about 6 more Monday or Tuesday reminders in every 100 are paid within 3 days than Wednesday to Friday ones, and it holds in 4 in 5 businesses. The raw rates differ more: 36% of Monday sends are paid within 3 days, against 23% of Thursday sends. Businesses chose their own send days, so this shows a pattern, not a controlled test.
Paidnice customers are the businesses that use Paidnice. Their own customers, the people who owe the invoices, are called payers on this page.
Free: Payment reminder email templatesCopy the reminder emails for before, on and after the due date.Which day should you send a payment reminder?
Send payment reminders on a Monday or a Tuesday: inside the same business, about 6 more overdue reminders in every 100 are paid within 3 days when sent on those days rather than Wednesday to Friday, in our analysis of over 1,000 Paidnice customers.
Monday has the highest single-day rate: 36% of overdue reminders sent on a Monday were paid within 3 days. In Australia and the US, Tuesday is level with Monday, so the UK drives the Monday lead.
Monday reminders are paid within 3 days most often, at 36%
Overdue reminder emails, all countries.
- Monday36%
- Tuesday33%
- Wednesday28%
- Thursday23%
- Friday24%
- Saturday21%
- Sunday25%
Source: our analysis of invoice data from over 1,000 Paidnice customers.
| Send day | Overdue reminders paid within 3 days |
|---|---|
| Monday | 36% |
| Tuesday | 33% |
| Wednesday | 28% |
| Thursday | 23% |
| Friday | 24% |
| Saturday | 21% |
| Sunday | 25% |
The share of overdue payment reminders paid within 3 days by send day in Paidnice data runs from 36% on Monday down to 21% on Saturday.
Source: our analysis of invoice data from over 1,000 Paidnice customers.
The test that matters compares each business’s own Monday and Tuesday reminders with its own Wednesday to Friday ones.
Inside the same business, about 6 more Monday or Tuesday payment reminders in every 100 are paid within 3 days than Wednesday to Friday ones, in Paidnice data.
Source: our analysis of invoice data from over 1,000 Paidnice customers.
Businesses chose their own send days, so this shows a pattern, not a controlled test.
In the UK, Australia and the US, Monday and Tuesday send averages are above Wednesday to Friday.
Which reminder in the sequence gets the invoice paid is covered in how many payment reminders it takes to get paid.
What explains the Monday result?
Two likely reasons sit behind the Monday result in Paidnice data: a 3-day window from a Thursday send runs into the weekend, and in the UK 1 payment in 4 lands on a Friday.
The weekend effect is arithmetic: a Thursday reminder has Friday, Saturday and Sunday as its 3-day window, and a Monday reminder has Tuesday to Thursday.
The Friday figure suggests weekly payment runs. Many businesses pay suppliers in one weekly batch, and in the UK that batch lands on Friday more than any other day, so a Monday or Tuesday reminder is on the desk before the run is put together. The weekly payment run explanation is our reading of the pattern.
In the UK both reasons apply, and the gap is widest: 44% of Monday reminders were paid within 3 days, against 22% on Thursday.
UK Monday reminders are paid within 3 days twice as often as Thursday ones
Overdue reminder emails sent by UK businesses.
- Monday send44%
- Thursday send22%
Source: our analysis of invoice data from over 1,000 Paidnice customers.
1 UK payment in 4 lands on a Friday
Share of paid invoices by the weekday the payment landed, UK businesses.
- Monday22%
- Tuesday17%
- Wednesday17%
- Thursday16%
- Friday24%
- Saturday2%
- Sunday2%
Source: our analysis of invoice data from over 1,000 Paidnice customers.
Does the due date's weekday matter too?
Yes, the due date’s weekday matters: in Paidnice data, when the due date falls on a weekend, about 3 fewer invoices in every 100 are paid on time, inside the same business, in 2 in 3 businesses.
A weekend due date means about 3 fewer invoices in every 100 paid on time, and about 8 fewer in New Zealand
Same business, weekend due dates against weekday due dates.
Source: our analysis of invoice data from over 1,000 Paidnice customers.
A weekend due date costs more in New Zealand. The payer who meant to pay on the due date may pay on the Monday, and the invoice then counts as late.
Two rules follow:
- Due dates: pick the invoice date so the due date avoids Saturday and Sunday.
- Reminders: send on Monday or Tuesday, during business hours. For an invoice due on Friday, send the first overdue reminder the next Monday, so the 3-day window falls on working days.
Invoices due in December are paid on time as often as invoices due in other months, inside the same business, in Paidnice data.
Do customers pay on the due date itself?
In Paidnice data, only 1 credit invoice in 8 (13%) is paid on the exact due date.
More invoices are paid in the week after the due date (19%) than on it (13%). A further 41% are paid early.
Only 13% of paid credit invoices are paid on the due date itself
Paid credit invoices, all countries, by when the payment landed.
- Paid early: 41%
- Paid on the due date: 13%
- Paid 1 to 7 days late: 19%
- Paid 8 to 30 days late: 16%
- Paid more than 30 days late: 11%
Source: our analysis of invoice data from over 1,000 Paidnice customers.
More invoices are paid in the week after the due date (19%) than on it (13%). New Zealand is the exception, at 1 invoice in 5 paid on the day, because so many NZ invoices fall due on the 20th.
How fast do customers pay after a reminder?
Half of the payments that follow a payment reminder arrive within 3 days, among payments made within 14 days of the reminder, in Paidnice data.
1 in 4 of those payments arrive on the same day, which is why this page measures a 3-day window.
Half of the payments that follow a reminder arrive within 3 days
Payments made within 14 days of an overdue reminder, by days after the send. Green bars are the first 3 days.
- Same day23%
- Day 112%
- Day 29%
- Day 37%
- Days 4 to 723%
- Days 8 to 1426%
Source: our analysis of invoice data from over 1,000 Paidnice customers.
Send the reminder on a Monday and the first 3 days are working days.
Overdue invoices are paid 3 times as often on the day a reminder goes out (about 12 in 100 against about 4 in 100), in Paidnice data. Businesses chose which invoices to remind, so this is a pattern, not a controlled test. The day-by-day curve is in how fast customers pay after a reminder.
Does the time of day matter?
Payment reminders should go out during business hours, on a working day. We have not measured a best hour.
How to schedule Monday reminders in Paidnice
Paidnice reminder policies count time in weekdays, hold their own send hour and can be set to business hours only, so every reminder lands on 1 of the 5 working days.
- Count weekdays. On each reminder step, set the unit to Weekdays or Weekdays (or later) instead of Days. The skip weekend reminders guide shows the setting.
- Set the send hour. Each policy holds its own send hour, in your organisation’s time zone.
- Turn on business hours only. It is a setting on the reminder policy.
- One policy per region. Give each region’s policy its own send hour, so each region gets the reminder at its own local hour. The quick start guide covers policies.
- Check the result. The email performance report shows the share paid within 7 days per template, with an open-rate heatmap by day and 2-hour slot.
Set it up on email and SMS reminders, or book a demo and we set it up with you. The credit control statistics hub has the full set.
How we measured
Every figure on this page comes from our analysis of invoice data from over 1,000 Paidnice customers, with the outcome measured 3 days after the reminder unless the section says otherwise.
- Data and base: invoice data from over 1,000 Paidnice customers, and the reminder emails sent on those invoices. Credit invoices only: terms of 1 day or more, not paid on or before the issue date.
- Send-day result: overdue reminder emails grouped by weekday in the sending business's local time, measured by the share paid within 3 days, then compared inside each business. A Thursday send's 3-day window crosses the weekend, which explains part of the gap (UK Monday 44% against Thursday 22%). The weekly payment run is our reading of the rest.
- Due-date and December results: compared inside each business, with on time meaning paid on or before the due date. Median days late rises over the holiday shutdown across all businesses.
- Reminder response: an event study comparing invoices on the day a reminder was sent with invoices at the same days overdue and no reminder, both followed for 7 days. Some invoices get no reminder on purpose, so the comparison invoices may be harder to collect: a strong short-term response rather than an exact causal size.
- Response time: counts only payments that followed a reminder within 14 days, so it does not prove the reminder caused each one.
- Payment days: the Friday figure describes when payments land. Month-end due dates show no effect inside the same business.
FAQ
What is a good way to remind someone to pay you?
A short email on a Monday or Tuesday, during business hours, with the invoice number, the amount and a payment link. 36% of Monday reminders were paid within 3 days, against 23% on Thursday.
Should the first reminder go before the due date?
Yes, the first reminder should go before the due date as good practice: a reminder before the due date can catch an invoice that never reached the right person. Our weekday result covers overdue reminders only. We have not measured send day before the due date.
When should my invoice due date be?
Set the invoice due date on a weekday. When the due date falls on a weekend, about 3 fewer invoices in every 100 are paid on time inside the same business, and about 8 fewer in every 100 in New Zealand. If your terms land on a Saturday, issue the invoice a day earlier or later.
How late is too late to send a payment reminder?
Send the first overdue reminder on the next working day after the due date. Half of the payments that follow a reminder arrive within 3 days, so the sooner it goes, the sooner that clock starts. When you have a choice of day, about 6 more Monday or Tuesday reminders in every 100 are paid within 3 days than Wednesday to Friday ones, inside the same business.
What is a payment deadline?
A payment deadline is the invoice due date, the last day a payment counts as on time. Only 13% of paid credit invoices are paid on the exact due date, 41% are paid before it and 19% in the week after it, in Paidnice data.
Do weekends push payment to the next working day?
Yes, weekends push payment back: when the due date falls on a Saturday or Sunday, about 3 fewer invoices in every 100 are paid on time inside the same business, and about 8 fewer in every 100 in New Zealand. Only 2% of UK payments land on a Saturday and 2% on a Sunday, in Paidnice data.
About the editorial team
Denym started Paidnice in 2022 after customers paying late left his own business short on payroll. He has led it to $1 billion collected on time across more than 1 million invoices, and writes about credit control, late fees and getting paid on Xero and QuickBooks.
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