The past-due invoice checklist

Day one — confirm the due date and re-send the invoice

Before anything escalates, confirm the invoice actually went past due: the trigger date, the count of days and the copy that was sent. A due date stated in days is what every later step counts from, and a customer who never saw the invoice is a mailing problem, not a collections problem.

Re-send the invoice the same day, with the original date on it, and note the re-send in your file. If the work was construction, this is also the day to confirm the pay request carried the statutory notice that switches on the monthly interest.

On a job with real estate work, do one more thing on day one: write down the last day you furnished labor or materials. The lien clocks count from that date, whether you ever file or not, and it is the one date that cannot be reconstructed later from a bank record.

21 daysA performing contractor is entitled to the undisputed amount of a pay request within 21 days of the owner's receipt, and must pay each subcontractor within 7 days of receiving payment. — South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 29, Chapter 6, retrieved 2026-09-29

The first week — the demand letter with the interest arithmetic

The demand letter is one page: the balance, the rate, the days, a total, and a date. Certified mail, return receipt, to the last known address. The paper trail starts here, because the certified-mail receipt is what a magistrate reads first.

The arithmetic depends on the debt. An account stated draws the legal rate of eight and three-fourths percent per annum. A construction payment past its statutory deadline draws one percent a month where the notice was on the pay request.

A check that came back has its own letter, and it is not this one. The bounced-check demand has a required form, a 30-day window and treble damages behind it, so what to do when a check bounces is its own item on this checklist and it goes out before the generic demand does.

8.75% per annumThe legal rate on accounts stated is eight and three-fourths percent per annum, and delayed construction payments draw one percent a month where the statutory notice was on the pay request. — South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 34, Chapter 31, retrieved 2026-09-29

The first two weeks — protect the lien window if there is one

If the unpaid work improved real estate, the lien window is the deadline that matters more than the debt. The sworn statement of account must be served on the owner and filed with the register of deeds within 90 days after the last furnishing, or the lien is dissolved.

Inside the same fortnight, work out whether you were hired by the owner. If a contractor or another party stood between you and the owner, the lien needs written notice to the owner first, and a sub-subcontractor or supplier needs the certified-mail notice to the contractor to lift the aggregate cap.

A landscaper has one extra check: the lien section for landscape services needs a written agreement and a job over $5,000. If either is missing, the lien was never coming, and the road is the courthouse rung of this checklist instead.

90 daysA mechanics' lien is dissolved unless the sworn statement of account is served on the owner and filed with the register of deeds or clerk of court within 90 days after the last furnishing. — South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 29, Chapter 5, retrieved 2026-09-29

By day thirty — decide the courthouse rung on purpose

Thirty days past due is the point where the file either becomes a lawsuit or becomes a habit. Filing in magistrate's court costs the $25 state assessment plus the county's filing costs, and buys a claim on a contract for money up to $7,500.

The decision is arithmetic, not anger. Compare the invoice against the filing costs, the service cost and the time, and compare the customer against the pattern. A first late invoice from a good customer is a phone call; a third from a bad one is a filing.

If the debt is construction and the lien was filed, the suit deadline is already running, because the enforcement action and its notice of pendency are due within six months of the last furnishing. The two courthouse clocks are not the same clock, and the shorter one governs.

$25An assessment equal to $25 is imposed on all summons and complaint filings in magistrates court, which also hears contract claims for money only up to $7,500. — South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 22, Chapter 3, retrieved 2026-09-29

6 monthsUnless suit enforcing the lien is commenced with a notice of pendency filed within six months after the last furnishing, the lien must be dissolved. — South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 29, Chapter 5, retrieved 2026-09-29

The file that makes every later step cheap

Everything on this checklist moves on paper you already hold if the job was run right: the signed contract or booking form, the invoice with its due date, the delivery or completion record, the certified-mail receipts, and the payment history.

For a construction debt, add the last-furnishing date, the notices and the lien filing. For a bounced check, add the stamped reason from the bank, the identification taken at the counter and the deposit slip showing the ten-day deposit.

The file is what makes the courthouse rung cheap, because the magistrate's court guide is mostly an argument about dates, and the dates are the file. What each rung costs in cash is priced in what it costs to chase a payment, and the terms that prevent the next one are in how to write payment terms.

10 daysThe fraudulent check chapter does not apply to a check not deposited to the payee's account within ten days from the date it was presented to the payee. — South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 34, Chapter 11, retrieved 2026-09-29

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