To remit payment means to send money to pay a bill or invoice. The word remit comes from the Latin remittere, meaning to send back, and in business it has kept that narrow sense: you remit funds to the person or company you owe. So when an invoice says "please remit payment", it is simply a formal way of saying "please send the money you owe us".
You will meet the phrase most often on invoices, account statements, and payment reminders. It sounds stiff, but it carries useful precision: remit points to money moving from the payer to a named destination, whether that is a bank account, an online payment link, or a mailing address for checks. The related noun, remittance, is the payment itself.
Remit means send.To remit payment is to send money to settle a bill or invoice, nothing more exotic than that.
It is formal invoice language."Please remit payment to..." tells the customer exactly where and how to pay.
A remittance is the payment.Remittance advice is the note saying which invoices that payment covers.
The phrase lives in formal payment documents. Invoices use it in the footer next to the bank details or mailing address. Monthly statements use it to point customers at the total due. Demand letters and collection notices use it because the formal register signals that the request is serious. Software that generates invoices, from accounting systems to billing platforms, often bakes the wording into its default templates, which is a big part of why the phrase survives.
Typical examples look like this:
In every case the sentence is doing the same two jobs: telling the customer that money is due, and telling them where to send it. If a document says "remit to" followed by an address or account, that is the destination for your payment.
Remit and pay mean the same thing on an invoice; remit is simply the formal, written form that emphasizes sending money to a specified place. Nobody says "I remitted the plumber" out loud. But in billing documents the formal word earns its place for a few practical reasons.
First, precision. Pay covers everything from tapping a card to settling in cash. Remit specifically means transmitting money to a named destination, which is exactly what a business wants when the invoice lists a "remit to" account or address. Second, tone. Invoices, statements, and demand letters are semi-legal documents, and the formal register makes the obligation feel official rather than casual. Third, habit: the wording has been standard in business correspondence for decades, and accounting templates keep reproducing it.
None of that means you must use it. Plenty of businesses write "please pay this invoice by..." and are understood perfectly. What matters is that the amount, the due date, and the payment destination are unmissable.
A remittance is the money sent to settle a bill, and remittance advice is the note from the payer telling the supplier which invoices the money covers. If remit is the verb, remittance is the noun: the payment itself. The word also has a second common use for personal transfers sent across borders, typically workers sending money to family at home, but in business billing it just means the funds a customer sends against an invoice.
Remittance advice matters more than it sounds. When a customer pays three invoices with one bank transfer, the supplier sees a single lump sum arrive with a vague reference. The remittance advice, whether an email, a PDF, or a slip returned with a check, lists the invoice numbers and amounts being paid, so the supplier can match the cash to the right invoices. That matching step is the cash application process, and missing remittance advice is one of the main reasons it goes slowly. If you send payments, including advice is basic courtesy; if you receive them, asking customers to quote invoice numbers saves hours of reconciliation.
A good payment request removes every excuse not to pay. Whether you use the formal wording or plain English, make sure the invoice answers three questions at a glance: how much, by when, and where to send it.
Wording that works:
A few rules make the request land. State an exact due date rather than "net 30" alone, because plenty of customers will not translate payment terms into a date. Give one obvious payment path, ideally an online link or a customer payment portal next to the bank details, since every extra step delays payment. Ask for the invoice number as the payment reference so the money is easy to match when it arrives. And say what happens if the date passes, for example a late fee or interest, in one neutral sentence.
Writing "please remit payment" on an invoice is the easy part. Getting the money to actually arrive usually takes follow-up, and that is where most small businesses lose time and cash. Automated email and SMS payment reminders repeat the request at the right moments, before the due date, on it, and after, with the payment link attached each time, so invoices get remitted without anyone writing another chasing email. Pair that with clear terms and one-click payment and "remit" stops being something you have to ask for twice.
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