Sending the invoice was easy. Writing the email that says it is late was not.
The numbers were fine, the due date was in the contract, the work got delivered. What kept breaking was the sentence that opened the chase. "Just checking in" sounded passive. "Following up on the overdue invoice" sounded like a legal notice I had no authority to send. I rewrote that paragraph until I noticed I had more drafts of the reminder than I had invoices outstanding.
That is what I was fixing when I built Dunner. The drafting, not the sending.
The three emails I was writing by hand
Every late invoice used to get the same three-step escalation, and I wrote every step from scratch each time. A friendly nudge first, something firmer after the client went quiet, and a last one I would rewrite twice because it was the one that might damage the relationship.
The tone I needed was a choice I made dozens of times without noticing: soft now, firmer later, final only if it has gone on too long. Wringing that out of a blank editor every time was the actual tax. The wording was not hard. The choice of which wording to send was.
What goes into the form
Dunner takes four fields and nothing else: the client name, the amount owed, how many days overdue it is, and which tone I want to lead with.
| Field | What I type | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Client name | whoever owes me | Acme Co |
| Amount owed | the number from the invoice | $1,200 |
| Days overdue | how far past due we are | 14 |
| Tone | which version to make primary | Friendly, Firm, or Final |
That is the whole payload:
{
"client": "Acme Co",
"amount": "$1,200",
"days": 14,
"tone": "Friendly"
}
It knows nothing about my clients. No client list, no account to connect, no record of what I chased last time. I paste the result into my own email client and send it from the inbox I already use.
Three drafts, and the one I actually send
Every run returns three emails, always the same three: Friendly, Firm, and Final. Each one comes with a subject line and a body I can copy as-is. On top of that, the tone I selected becomes the primary draft, so the version I want to send first sits at the top, and the other two are already written for later.
So the escalation stops being a writing task. I send the friendly one at the first sign of silence. If nothing comes back, the firm version is sitting there, and I edit the amount and the date instead of rebuilding the paragraph. The final one is for when I am done being casual.
The thing I like most is what does not happen. The tool does not decide when to escalate and it does not send anything. The tone selection and the sending are both mine.
The checklist I run before I hit send
Dunner hands you a verify checklist to run before the email goes out, and that step became the most valuable part of my routine. Before send I check the amount, the client name spelling, the days-overdue number, and whether the tone suits where the relationship actually is.
Then I read for overreach. A reminder should not promise a discount, should not quote a late fee unless my contract has one, and should not hint at legal action I have not thought through. Reading a machine-written draft with a suspicious eye is easier than writing one. The last read belongs to me.
What the invoice rules actually say
Part of my hesitation was not wanting to overstate my rights, so I went and read what the rules are.
In the United Kingdom, the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 (1998 CHAPTER 20) gives qualifying creditors a statutory right to interest on late payments. The current government framework summarises the regime: public authorities are expected to pay within 30 days, and enterprises are expected to pay invoices within 60 days unless they expressly agree otherwise and that agreement is not grossly unfair. Statutory interest runs automatically at least 8% above the European Central Bank's reference rate, and the UK position is the Bank of England reference rate plus 8 percentage points. On top of that there is a fixed recovery cost of £40 for debts under £1,000, £70 between £1,000 and £10,000, and £100 above £10,000.
None of that belongs in a reminder email. Dunner does not know my contract or my jurisdiction. What I take from it is the opposite: the email should ask for the money and stop there, while the legal framework stays a separate question I answer with a qualified person.
What it is not
Dunner drafts reminder emails that I send myself. It does not send email, it does not collect payment, it does not run dunning or credit control, and it is not legal or accounting advice.
More concretely: there is no scheduled follow-up sequence, no automatic escalation on a timer, no late-fee calculation, no credit checking, no payment plan, and no bookkeeping. It does not track who has paid, so it will not remind me that I already chased someone. It is not a collections agency, and it is not trying to be one. The Federal Trade Commission's Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is aimed at third-party debt collectors pursuing consumer debts, and that is the opposite of what this is: a drafting tool for a freelancer with a legitimate invoice who wants to ask for it once, clearly, without burning the relationship.
If a client disputes the invoice, that is a contract question, not a tool question.
The price and where to try it
Dunner is $19/mo, or $190/yr. The free tier gives 3 AI runs / day and 15 / month, and the $19 Pro tier gives 40 AI runs / day and 300 / month, which is plenty for a freelancer chasing a handful of clients. You can try it at Dunner.
The pricing comes from the product's own pricing page. The UK figures above come from the government sources linked below.
FAQ
Q: Does Dunner send the email for me?
A: No. It drafts subject lines and bodies, and you paste them into your own email client and send them yourself. It does not connect to an inbox, schedule a follow-up, or track replies.
Q: Which tone should I pick first?
A: Whichever fits where you are with that client. Friendly is the usual opening move, Firm comes after the client has gone quiet, and Final is for when the delay has gone on long enough that you want the request to read as final. You get all three every run.
Q: Can I use it before an invoice is actually overdue?
A: You can, but the form asks for days overdue, so the drafts are written for the chasing stage. If you want an invoice paid before it is late, you are better off sending a normal invoice email.
Q: Is this legal advice, or is this debt collection?
A: Neither. It writes an email you send. It does not collect money, act as a collections agency, or tell you what your contract or your local law says. If you need to know what you can legally demand, ask someone qualified in your jurisdiction.
Q: How much does it cost?
A: $19/mo or $190/yr. The free tier includes 3 AI runs / day and 15 / month. Every run returns three emails plus the primary draft for the tone you picked.
References
- Late payment common framework — GOV.UK — 30-day public authority payment terms, 60-day enterprise terms, statutory interest at least 8% above the reference rate, and the £40 / £70 / £100 fixed recovery costs.
- Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 — legislation.gov.uk — 1998 CHAPTER 20, the statutory interest right for qualifying creditors.
- Fair Debt Collection Practices Act — U.S. Federal Trade Commission — what a regulated third-party debt collector is, which is the category this tool is not in.
One form, three drafts, you send the mail. Try Dunner.
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