I'm testing a simple tool for freelancers who struggle with unpaid invoices
I'm researching how freelancers handle clients who haven't paid an invoice yet.
The problem I'm interested in isn't creating invoices. It's what happens afterwards:
When should I follow up?
Did I already contact this client?
Which invoices are overdue?
What should I say?
Did I forget to follow up with someone?
I'm testing a very simple idea called FollowUp.
The concept is:
Add an invoice → FollowUp tracks the due date → it tells you when it's time to follow up.
I'm considering pricing it at around $9/month.
I'm mainly looking for honest feedback from freelancers who regularly work with clients.
How do you currently keep track of unpaid invoices and follow-ups?
Spreadsheet, invoicing software, reminders, notes, or just memory?
I also made a very early landing page for the idea:
https://payment-pal-early.lovable.app
I'd especially like to hear from people who have actually dealt with late client payments.
Honest take from the problem side: tracking isn't where freelancers lose on unpaid invoices. Most invoicing tools already show what's overdue. The part people avoid is writing the second and third message without sounding desperate, or rude to a client they want to keep.
If FollowUp drafts that message for the stage the invoice is at (a friendly nudge at day 3, firmer at day 14, a final notice at day 30) and lets them send it in one click, that's worth $9. A due-date reminder on its own competes with a calendar entry.
One question worth asking your testers: have you ever not followed up because you didn't know what to say? If most of them say yes, that's the product.
The pain is real, but I reckon “add an invoice” is the step to test before building much else.
The freelancer already created that invoice in Stripe, Wave, QuickBooks, a spreadsheet or a PDF. Asking them to enter it again gives them another system to forget, which recreates the problem FollowUp is meant to solve.
I’d test the smallest ingestion loop first: forward an invoice email, upload the PDF, or connect one existing source. Then measure whether FollowUp reduces days-to-payment or catches follow-ups the freelancer would genuinely have missed.
A strong early signal would be five freelancers trusting it with a real overdue invoice—not simply saying the reminder dashboard looks useful.