Gosh, I would always get behind on my dental invoices, because they would have some issue with my insurance, and I would try to figure out why the insurance company thought my policy didn’t exist or something, but the insurance company itself was Byzantine and I could never figure out who to talk to (and this is probably why the issue occurred in the first place)…

The office would just send a reminder invoice every so often, and if it got really behind, they would have their front desk person call me.

This was annoying for both parties but did not seem particularly harmful. Both of us were solvent. The amounts were not large. They had a routine process for unpaid invoices. And I would be embarrassed to show up in 6 months without having paid for the last visit.

If you’re hurting for funds, I would suggest letting them know directly that you need your invoices to be paid on time. Sometimes bills get paid late out of a sense that it’s okay to pay them late, but you might get more prompt payment from the well-meaning if you express that you need something different. I personally would have prioritized re-calling and re-calling the dental insurance company more (read: unpaid labor on my part, requiring me to demonstrate greater effectiveness than the office’s own claims staff) if someone were actually needing the payment sooner.

Giving your customers the idea that you really need the money is terrible advice.

They will think you’re insolvent and start looking for alternatives.

It’s better to just be persistent about “reminders” and for saas set up a clear, well communicated cutoff time for unpaid accounts.