How to follow up on late brand payments

Before you write to anyone, it helps to know where invoices usually get stuck. In most cases nobody at the brand has decided not to pay; the invoice has stopped somewhere between the person who approved the campaign and the team that sends the money:

• It went to the wrong person. The marketing contact who signed the agreement forwarded it, or didn’t, instead of it reaching accounts payable.
• It can’t be matched. The brand needs a purchase order number, or bills through a subsidiary with a different name, and the invoice has neither.
• Vendor setup isn’t finished. A new brand can’t pay your agency until it has your Form W-9 and payment details on file.
• It needs a portal. Some brands only pay invoices submitted through their supplier portal, and an emailed invoice waits there until someone enters it.
• Something is disputed. The brand hasn’t approved a deliverable, questions the usage period, or expected a different amount.
• It is waiting for the next payment run. Many brands pay in weekly or fortnightly batches, and their terms may be longer than you assumed.

Each of these has a different fix, so the first follow-up should find out which one you are dealing with.

The best follow-up happens before anything is late. A few business days after sending an invoice:

1. Ask accounts payable to confirm they received the invoice and when it is scheduled for payment.
2. Ask whether they need a purchase order number, a portal submission or any vendor paperwork.
3. If there is a portal, submit the invoice there and keep the reference it gives you.
4. Note the payment date they give you, and the name of whoever gave it.

Ten minutes here saves weeks later: a missing PO found on day three is a quick fix, while the same problem found on day thirty is a month of lost time.

Decide once how your agency follows up, and follow the same routine for every brand, so nothing depends on who remembers. One person owns each open invoice, and every invoice always has a next follow-up date.

Keep the tone the same at every step: factual, short and polite. The people you are writing to rarely caused the delay, and your talent will want to work with this brand again.

A reminder that gets paid gives accounts payable everything they need to find the invoice, and asks one question. For example:

Subject: Invoice INV-1041 for $6,000.00, due Oct 31, 2026

Hi Jordan,

I’m following up on invoice INV-1041 for $6,000.00, for the fall campaign with Talia Brooks, purchase order 4500-2291. It was due on Oct 31, 2026.

Could you let me know when it is scheduled for payment, or whether anything is missing on our side?

Thank you,

Sam

Attach the invoice again, and send it to accounts payable rather than to your campaign contact alone. Leave out anything you wouldn’t want forwarded: the talent’s personal details, your commission, other brands’ terms. Mention a late fee only if the agreement provides for one.

Group every open balance by how many days late it is: not due, 1 to 30, 31 to 60, and 61 or more. A balance due today isn’t late. Here is an agency’s list on Nov 20, 2026:

That is $3,000.00 not due, $6,000.00 1 to 30 days late, $2,500.00 31 to 60 days late and $4,200.00 more than 60 days late: $12,700.00 overdue in all. Work from the oldest and largest balances first. Anything past 60 days has usually hit a real problem, a dispute or a missing step, and needs a person, not another reminder.

An overdue balance is money a brand owes you, not money you have. Keep the two apart in your reports and in what you tell talent.

Every contact should leave a line in the invoice’s history: what happened, and when you will look again. Some answers need more than a note:

• A promise to pay. Write down the date promised and, if it is part of the balance, the amount. If the money hasn’t arrived a few days after that date, the promise is broken and you follow up again.
• A portal step. Log when you submitted the invoice, when it was approved and the payment date the portal shows, or why it was rejected and when you resubmitted it.
• A dispute. Write down what is disputed and how much of the balance it covers, then settle it with your campaign contact, not with accounts payable.
• A short payment. Brands’ banks sometimes take a fee from a wire transfer.

If the brand paid $5,975.00 on a $6,000.00 invoice, record the $5,975.00 that arrived. The remaining $25.00 stays open until the brand pays it or your agency decides, with a note saying why, to stop chasing it.

A late brand payment is also a late payment to your talent, and they usually hear about it last. Tell them early, in plain terms: which brand, how much, what you have done and when you will look again. Don’t pass on a payment date you haven’t had in writing, and don’t describe money as on its way until it has arrived.

Decide in advance whether your agency ever pays a talent’s share before the brand pays. If you do, treat it as an advance: agree it with the talent, record it with its date, and take it off their share when the brand’s payment arrives, so the talent’s statement shows exactly what happened.

Record the payment on the invoice with the date it reached your bank and the amount that arrived. That, and only that, lowers the balance: an approved portal submission, a remittance email or a promise is not money received. If the brand paid several invoices in one transfer, record each invoice’s part separately.

Then tell the talent. If your agency collects from the brand, the talent’s share becomes owed when the brand pays, and your payout clock starts; see Commission splits and talent statements. If an invoice was sent late in the first place, How to invoice brands as a talent manager covers when to send each one.

One last check: a reminder should never go out for an invoice that has been paid. Record payments on the day they arrive, before the next round of follow-ups, and no brand gets a reminder for money it already sent.