Writing a friendly first reminder with AI

A first reminder should read like a nudge, not a notice. The AI can get you most of the way there if your brief is clear.

What to put in the brief

• The goal in one line. "Write a short, friendly email reminding a customer that an invoice is now overdue." Plain is fine.
• The tone. Say "warm, calm, no pressure" or "neutral and direct". Otherwise you're leaving the voice to chance.
• Placeholders for the facts. Write [CUSTOMER NAME], [INVOICE NUMBER], [AMOUNT] and [DUE DATE] in the brief. Fill them in yourself afterwards, so the tool never has to guess.
• A length limit. Ask for under a set number of words, or for "three short paragraphs at most".
• One request. The message should ask for one thing: payment, or a reply if there's a problem.
• Your voice. Paste two or three sentences you've written before, with no customer details in them, and ask the tool to match that style. Don't paste a whole old email thread.

What a good first reminder contains

• A friendly opener. Plain greeting, no guilt.
• The invoice, identified clearly. Number, amount and due date, so the customer can find it. In Australia, a tax invoice must show the date the invoice was issued, and ATO says it can be sent digitally rather than on paper.¹
• How to pay. Your usual payment link or bank details, copied from your own records, not from the AI.
• An easy way out. "If this has already gone through, please ignore this note" and "tell me if anything looks wrong".
• A thank-you. Short.

What to leave out

• Threats and deadlines you haven't set. Don't let a draft invent a late fee or a date. Fees and interest depend on your contract and your country's rules.
• Legal wording. In the UK, for example, GOV.UK says that where no payment date is agreed, the law says the payment is late after a set period.² That is a UK rule for business customers. Look up the official rule for your own country before quoting anything like it.
• Guilt and sarcasm. Ask the tool to remove them if they creep in.
• Anything the AI added that you didn't give it. If a name, amount or promise is new, delete it.

Example brief

Write a friendly, short email from a small business to a customer. The invoice [INVOICE NUMBER] for [AMOUNT] was due on [DUE DATE] and hasn't been paid yet. Ask them to pay or let me know if there's a problem. No threats, no late fees. Under one hundred and twenty words. Match the tone of the sample below. [two plain sentences of your own writing]

Then read the result slowly. Australia's privacy regulator warns that AI answers can be wrong.³ It also expects organisations to keep the personal details they put into AI tools to a minimum.³ That's why the brief above uses placeholders. The privacy page on this site goes further.

Finally, run the checks on the page about proofreading drafts. In Australia, a customer who asks for a tax invoice must get one within 28 days, with an exception for small sales.¹ Ask your accountant about anything beyond that.