Unpaid invoice: chasing, formal notice, and what comes next

An invoice that drags is not a lost cause. Swiss law sets out a path, and it is simpler than people think. Here is the order.

Step 1, the reminder

An email is enough, and it settles most cases: a great many late payments are simply forgotten. Give the invoice reference, the amount, the due date that has passed, and a short new deadline, ten days, say. Stay factual; you may well work with this client again.

Step 2, formal notice

This is what starts the interest running. If you set a due date on the invoice, your client is in default automatically once it passes. Otherwise you need a formal demand: a clear, dated request to pay. Write it, keep a record, and say what will follow.

Default interest: 5% a year

Unless another rate was agreed in your contract or your terms, the statutory rate is 5% per year. On CHF 4,000 outstanding for three months that is roughly CHF 50, small, but the sum is not the point: it signals that the debt is being taken seriously.

Step 3, debt enforcement

If nothing moves, you request a payment order from the debt enforcement office where your client lives. You advance the fees and recover them if they pay. It is an administrative procedure, not a lawsuit: no lawyer required.

What avoids all of this

A payment term written on the quote AND on the invoice, a deposit on order, and an automatic chaser after a few days. Together they remove most late payments, less heroic than enforcement, but a great deal more effective.