Chasing late payments

Most clients pay on time. For the ones who don't, Arvello shows you who is late and by how much, and makes resending the invoice one click. The chasing itself — the email, the phone call, the decision to claim interest — stays with you. This page covers both halves: what Arvello does, and what Estonian law gives you to work with.

Seeing who's late

• The Overdue status. A sent invoice that isn't fully paid turns Overdue the day after its due date, counted in Estonian time. Nothing to do on your part.
• The invoice list shows a running Overdue total next to Outstanding and Paid This Month, and filters by status.
• The Sales dashboard has an Overdue Invoices card with the total and count, and an Overdue Invoices table listing each one, earliest due date first, with what's still outstanding and how many days overdue it is. See Sending invoices & getting paid.
• Who Owes You, under Reports, groups unpaid invoices by client into Current, 1–30, 31–60, 61–90 and 90+ days overdue, largest debtor first. It's included in the Growth and Business plans. See Aging reports.

Sending a reminder

Open the invoice and press Resend Email. The client gets the same email again, with the current PDF attached. Hover over the button to see when the invoice was last sent; every send is also listed on the invoice's Activity tab. An invoice delivered as an e-invoice goes through Peppol instead — see E-invoices & Peppol.

Arvello doesn't send reminders by itself. There's no automatic reminder schedule and no separate reminder letter: the resent email is the invoice email again, so anything you want to add — a polite nudge, a final notice — goes in your own message to the client.

Setting terms before it happens

• Payment terms. Give each client their Payment Terms (days) on the client record. Every new invoice to them gets its due date from the issue date plus that many days. Without payment terms, the due date is yours to enter on each invoice. See Clients & suppliers.
• Terms on the invoice. Customer Notes on an invoice and the Custom Footer Message in the invoice designer both print on the PDF — the place for your terms, such as the late-payment interest rate you've agreed with the client.

Arvello doesn't calculate late-payment interest and doesn't add interest or the €40 compensation described below to an invoice.

What Estonian law says

These rules come from the Law of Obligations Act (VÕS) and apply between businesses. A few of them work differently when the client is a consumer.

When payment falls due. If no payment date was agreed, payment falls due at the latest 30 days after the invoice reaches the client. The 30 days count from when the client receives the goods or service instead if the invoice arrived before them or it isn't clear when it arrived, and from the acceptance or inspection if the law or the contract requires one and the invoice arrived by then (VÕS § 82¹ lg 1). A business client can't rely on an agreed term longer than 60 days, unless it was expressly agreed and isn't grossly unfair to you (lg 2).

Late-payment interest (viivis). You can claim interest from the day payment fell due until it's paid. The rate is the § 94 rate plus 8% a year; a higher rate agreed in the contract applies instead (VÕS § 113 lg 1). The § 94 rate is set twice a year: the European Central Bank's main refinancing rate last in force before 1 January and 1 July. Eesti Pank publishes it.

€40 for collection costs. When you can charge late-payment interest, you can also claim €40 compensation for the costs of collecting the debt (VÕS § 113¹ lg 1). This doesn't apply when the client is a consumer (lg 4).

Three years to claim. A claim arising from a transaction expires after three years (TsÜS § 146 lg 1). For an agreed price, such as an unpaid invoice, the three years start at the end of the calendar year in which payment fell due — or, when payment falls due on invoicing, at the end of the year in which you could have invoiced (TsÜS § 147 lg 3). An invoice due in March 2026 can therefore be claimed until the end of 2029.

VAT on an invoice that's never paid

A VAT-registered company can reduce the VAT it declared on an invoice that remains unpaid, but only if every condition in KMS § 29¹ lg 1 is met. Among them:

• At least 12 months, and no more than three years, have passed since the due date.
• The claim has been written off in the books because it couldn't be collected despite every effort, or because collecting it would cost more than it would bring in.
• For a claim containing more than €30,000 of VAT, it's confirmed by a court judgment that has entered into force.
• The client isn't a related person.
• The client has been told in writing, in the month of the write-off, with the VAT amount stated.

The reduction goes on the return for the period in which the claim was written off (lg 2). If the client pays later, the VAT is due again for the period of payment (lg 3).

Arvello can't do this yet. It has no write-off for an unpaid invoice and no manual journal entries, and its KMD has no line for the reduction.

Official text: Law of Obligations Act, General Part of the Civil Code Act, Käibemaksuseadus.