Draft an AI invoice reminder: an Australian example

Start with the payment check

A polished reminder is still wrong if the invoice was paid yesterday. In this example, three invoices appear in an old ledger extract. One has a verified unpaid balance, one has a newer payment, and one is disputed. The useful first output is a decision about which message to draft.

This is an original Fieldwork exercise with fictional records and an editor-written sample email. It is not a report of a model run, a tested integration or measured time savings. No business account connection is required for the exercise.

Use this fictional sample

Assume the review date is 19 October 2026. All amounts are AUD. The balances are supplied figures; this exercise does not calculate tax or fees.

• FW-101 / Customer A: AUD 880.00, due 12 October. The owner has checked that it remains unpaid as of the review date.
• FW-102 / Customer B: AUD 450.00 in the old extract, due 10 October. A payment of AUD 450.00 appears on 16 October. Hold it for reconciliation.
• FW-103 / Customer C: AUD 1,200.00, due 9 October. There is an open dispute. Hold it for owner review.

Download the fictional CSV ↓

For a real trial, use only records you are permitted to share in your chosen service. Replace customer identifiers where practical and leave out bank details and unrelated history. Keep the date and limits of your payment-status check with the input.

Copy the draft-only prompt

Paste this prompt and its fictional CSV into a text conversation in the AI service you already use. This is Fieldwork’s manual exercise, not an installation of Anthropic’s invoice-chase skill or a claim of native ChatGPT plugin support.

This is a fictional Australian business exercise. Today is 19 October 2026.
Use only the supplied CSV. Draft text here; do not use connected apps, create mailbox drafts, send anything, or change records.

First produce a review table: invoice, proposed action, supplied evidence, and missing checks.
Hold any invoice with a recent payment, a dispute, or without an explicitly verified current unpaid balance. Do not infer that missing payment data proves non-payment. If required facts are absent or inconsistent, hold it and say what the owner must check.

For eligible invoices only, write one polite first reminder per customer, in Australian English, with a subject and a body under 100 words. Preserve the supplied invoice number, AUD amount and original due date. Do not invent fees, payment links, bank details, deadlines, prior reminders or legal consequences. Do not recalculate tax.

Use Customer A/B/C as placeholders. Sign as [Business owner]. End with an owner checklist: verify recipient, current payment status, amount, due date and wording before any manual send.

CSV:
invoice,customer,currency,ledger_balance,due_date,recent_payment_amount,recent_payment_date,disputed,unpaid_verified_as_of_2026_10_19
FW-101,Customer A,AUD,880.00,2026-10-12,0.00,,no,yes
FW-102,Customer B,AUD,450.00,2026-10-10,450.00,2026-10-16,no,no
FW-103,Customer C,AUD,1200.00,2026-10-09,0.00,,yes,no

Download the prompt and sample ↓

Check the decision before the wording

The intended decisions are draft FW-101, hold FW-102 for payment reconciliation, and hold FW-103 for the dispute. If the answer drafts all three, reject the batch. A friendly tone does not repair an incorrect recipient list.

For FW-101, check that the draft retains AUD 880.00 and 12 October 2026. It should introduce no new payment instruction or consequence. Missing or contradictory facts should produce an owner question.

Compare with an editor-written draft

The wording below is an illustrative hand-written reference, not output captured from Claude or ChatGPT. Your draft need not match it word for word.

Subject: Invoice FW-101 — quick check-in

Hi Customer A,

I’m following up on invoice FW-101 for AUD 880.00, due on 12 October 2026. Our latest review shows it is still outstanding.

Could you let me know when payment is expected? If you have paid since our review, please reply so we can check our records.

Thanks,
[Business owner]

Before manually sending anything real, recheck the recipient and current records in the system your business uses. Review the amount, due date and voice. A draft does not authorise a fee, payment instruction or escalation.

If you want the packaged workflow

The invoice follow-up source record describes Anthropic’s invoice-chase instructions and their setup limits. The publisher’s pinned file describes ledger and payment checks, draft preparation and owner approval; its full plugin also has supporting references. Fieldwork has inspected the source and has not executed that connected workflow.

Read the platform setup guide before choosing a packaged skill. For more office work around a job, browse home-services workflows and the small-business collection.

Keep the result you can compare

Save your supplied sample, prompt, date, chosen service and reviewed result. Note any wrong invoice selection, missing facts and editing work. Compare preparation and review effort with how you normally write a reminder before deciding whether to repeat the workflow.

For the next practical example, join Field Notes. Future sponsorships and affiliate links will be labelled; this example has neither.