Get invoices paid faster: turn 50 days into 15

Every day a customer takes to pay is a day your business lends them money for free. Cut your average payment time from 50 days to 30 and, for a business invoicing $60k a month, roughly $40k of cash comes back into your account and stays there. No loan. No interest. Just better habits.

This guide covers the practical changes that make the biggest difference, in roughly the order they matter.

How long do your customers really take?

Before changing anything, measure. Take your last 30 paid invoices and work out, for each one, the days between sending and being paid. Average them. Then do the same for your five biggest customers individually.

What you might find	What it tells you
Average close to your terms	You’re in good shape; focus on the outliers
Average 10–20 days past terms	Follow-up is the problem
One or two customers far slower	Terms for those customers need attention
Invoices sent days after the job	Your own process is adding to the gap

This number is your baseline. Every improvement below should move it.

1. Invoice the same day the work is done

The payment clock doesn’t start until the customer has your invoice. If you finish a job on Monday and invoice on Friday, you’ve added four days to every payment before the customer does anything.

• Invoice from the job site using your phone or tablet.
• For recurring work, schedule invoices to go automatically.
• For long jobs, invoice each stage when it’s complete, not at the end.

Business Victoria’s cash flow advice puts it simply: invoice as soon as a job is complete.

2. Ask for money upfront

The fastest invoice is the one paid before the work starts.

• Deposits. For materials-heavy jobs, a deposit covering materials is reasonable and common.
• Progress payments. For jobs longer than a couple of weeks, bill at milestones.
• Payment on booking. For services, take payment when the booking is made.
• Subscriptions or retainers. For ongoing work, bill in advance.

Customers rarely object when it’s presented as standard practice from the first conversation.

3. Set terms that suit your cash, not your customer’s

Many small businesses copy “30 days” from somewhere and never revisit it. Consider:

• 7 or 14 days for small jobs, consumers and new customers
• 30 days only for larger, established customers who pay reliably
• Deposits or progress billing whenever a large customer insists on longer terms

Put terms on your quote, your acceptance and your invoice, so there’s no surprise.

4. Make the invoice easy to approve and pay

Larger organisations often pay late because an invoice can’t be processed, not because they don’t want to pay. Every invoice should show:

• the correct legal name of the customer and their ABN if they need it
• any purchase order or job number they require
• a clear due date (a date, not just “30 days”)
• your bank details and BSB, with your business name
• a payment link for card or instant transfer, if you can offer it
• a contact for questions

business.gov.au also suggests offering flexible ways to pay. The fewer steps between “approve” and “paid”, the better.

Cash tied up in invoices right now? Tell us how much and for how long, and we’ll look at bridging it while your new habits kick in.

5. Follow up on a schedule, starting early

The best follow-up feels like customer service, not debt collection. A schedule that works for many businesses:

When	What	Tone
3 days before due	Friendly email: “Just a reminder, invoice 1234 is due Friday”	Helpful
Due date	Short email with the payment link	Neutral
3 days overdue	Phone call to the accounts contact	Polite, specific
10 days overdue	Email confirming the agreed payment date	Firm
21 days overdue	Pause new work; formal reminder	Firm
30+ days overdue	Letter of demand or next steps	Formal

Invoicing software can automate the emails. The phone call is the step most owners skip and the one that works best.

6. Use phone scripts that get a date

When you call, aim to leave with a specific date, not a vague promise. Questions that help:

• “Has invoice 1234 been approved for payment?”
• “Is anything missing that’s holding it up?”
• “Which payment run is it in?”
• “Can you email me that date?”

Write down the name of who you spoke to and the date they gave. If it slips, you can reference it next time.

7. Consider early-payment incentives, carefully

A small discount for paying within seven days can work well on large invoices. Before offering one, compare what it costs with what the wait costs you, including the cost of any finance you use to cover the gap. For some businesses it’s clearly worth it; for others it just gives away margin to customers who would have paid on time anyway.

8. Know when to escalate

If an invoice is well overdue and the customer has stopped responding, business.gov.au recommends a clear path:

1. Review your contract and gather evidence of the agreement.
2. Send reminders and discuss a payment plan if appropriate.
3. Send a letter of demand.
4. Seek dispute resolution help; the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman has a tool to find low-cost services.
5. Consider a debt collection agency or legal action.

At the same time, stop doing new work on credit for that customer.

Setting terms with new customers

The easiest time to set good terms is before the first job. A short checklist for every new account:

• confirm the legal entity you’re invoicing and their ABN
• agree payment terms in writing on the quote or acceptance
• ask who approves invoices and how they want to receive them
• ask whether they need a purchase order number
• take a deposit on the first job, even if later jobs are on account

It takes five minutes and prevents most of the delays that otherwise show up 45 days later.

Bridging the gap while you fix it

Changing payment habits takes a few months to show up in your bank balance. Customers on existing terms will pay on those terms, and big customers won’t change overnight. In the meantime, the gap still needs covering.

That’s where a business cash line earns its keep: draw on it while invoices are outstanding, repay as they’re paid, and use it less as your payment times improve. For one specific slow invoice, see our page on a delayed customer payment.

Run your current numbers through the cash gap calculator to see how big the gap is today, then run them again with your improved payment times to see how much it shrinks.

Worked example

Illustrative only. A Brisbane electrical contractor invoices around $95k a month. Invoices go out on Fridays for the whole week’s work, terms are 30 days, and the average payment time is 47 days. After switching to same-day invoicing from the van, adding payment links, taking 30% deposits on jobs over $5k and calling every invoice three days after it’s due, the average falls to 26 days over four months. Roughly $65k of cash that used to sit with customers is now in the business account.

While your invoices catch up, we can help

Getting paid faster is the cheapest cash a business can find. But when customers are still on old terms and payroll won’t wait, bridging the gap can be the smart move. We help business owners do exactly that.

Tell us how much is tied up in invoices and how long it usually takes to come in. The enquiry takes around 60 seconds, and simply asking doesn’t touch your credit file. We don’t pass your details to a crowd of lenders who’ll all call at once; a real person looks at your situation and rings you to talk it through.

Please be accurate about turnover and your typical payment times. That’s how we size a facility that fits your cash cycle.

See if you qualify →