Payment reminder templates

Three levels of reminder for an unpaid session fee, from gentle nudge to clear final note. Nothing shouty.

1. First nudge

Send around a week after the session.

Subject: Session fee for [session date]

Hi [Client's first name], Just a gentle reminder that the fee for our session on [session date] (£70) is still open. No rush, the details are below. [Your bank details] Best wishes, [Your name]

2. Second reminder

Send two to three weeks after the session.

Subject: Session fee for [session date]

Hi [Client's first name], A quick follow-up on the fee for our session on [session date], £70. If you can settle it in the next week, that would be a help. If anything is making payment difficult, tell me and we will sort something out. [Your bank details] Best wishes, [Your name]

3. Final note

Send around a month after the session.

Subject: The fee for our session on [session date]

Hi [Client's first name], The fee for our session on [session date], £70, is still unpaid. Our counselling agreement sets out the payment terms we agreed at the start, so I will keep this short. I'd rather we talk about this at our next session than keep emailing about it, so let's make a little space for that. [Your bank details] Best wishes, [Your name]

Why these are written this way

Money is clinical material. How a client relates to paying you, promptly, late, apologetically, not at all, is information about the work, and persistent non-payment is almost always something to bring into the room rather than something to escalate in writing. These templates are built for that: the third one does not threaten anything, it moves the conversation to where it belongs.

A reminder’s job is to make paying easy and forgetting impossible, not to punish. That is why every level restates the amount and the date, why the bank details ride along, and why the first nudge carries no deadline at all. Most unpaid fees are a busy week, not a statement.

The word you will not find anywhere above is the one every invoice tool reaches for first. A therapy fee is part of a working relationship, not an aged-debtor line, and clients can feel the difference in one word.

And an honest structural note: if you are sending these every month, the templates are not the problem, the payment terms are. Payment before or at the session, agreed in the counselling agreement, makes this whole page something you visit once and never need again.

Frequently asked questions

Bloom sends the first reminder for you, automatically, with the amount and the details already in it, so the gentle nudge happens without you ever composing it.