I Automated the Late Payment Follow-Up (Here's the Script)

If you've been freelancing for more than a month, you've lived this: invoice sent, due date passed, radio silence. The follow-up email is easy to write once. It's annoying to write on a schedule, for every client, consistently. So most people don't — and late payments drag on. I automated it. What the script does It reads a CSV of your invoices (client name, amount, due date, email, status). Once a day, it checks for overdue invoices and sends the right email for the right stage: Day 1 overdue : friendly nudge, warm tone Day 7 : direct ask, invoice re-attached Day 14 : firmer, references previous emails Day 30 : final notice before escalation You set the templates once. The script handles the cadence. # invoice_followup.py — core logic import csv , smtplib , datetime from email.mime.text import MIMEText STAGES = [ ( 1 , " just checking in " , " warm " ), ( 7 , " following up again " , " direct " ), ( 14 , " third notice " , " firm " ), ( 30 , " final notice " , " formal " ), ] def days