Late Fees on Your Terms

More than half (55%) of small businesses on net-30 terms have overdue invoices, against 26% of those that ask to be paid on receipt, according to the QuickBooks 2026 Small Business Late Payments Report. Terms shape how clients pay. A late fee is one of those terms, and BillGrid now handles it.

Late Fees, Agreed Up Front

A late fee works best when nobody is surprised by it. So in BillGrid you set your terms once, under Invoice Defaults, and they're printed on every invoice you send from then on, and on your estimates, where a client who approves accepts them. Pick a ready-made set, 1.5% a month up to 10% of the invoice, a flat $25, or both, or build your own from up to two parts: a percentage of what's unpaid, a yearly interest rate, or a flat amount, once or on a schedule, with a cap or without. A worked example shows what your terms mean for a real invoice before you save.

An invoice keeps the terms it was sent with, even if you change yours later. Reminders tell your client before a fee is due, and how much it will be.

You Stay in Charge

When a fee comes due, BillGrid can ask you first: the invoice and the Outstanding list show it as ready, and a short morning email lists every fee that is. Add one, or all of them, in a click. Or let BillGrid add each fee on its day; your client sees it in their next reminder. Either way, you can waive a fee with a short note to your client.

It also knows when not to charge. A percentage counts only what's unpaid of the work, never earlier fees. There's no fee on a paid or archived invoice, on a payment plan, or while you've paused an invoice's reminders, and none more than a year overdue. A client can have terms of their own, or none at all.

In the UK, the law already sets terms for late business payments: interest at 8% above the Bank of England base rate and a fixed sum of £40 to £100 by the size of the debt. Accounts in pounds can pick those statutory terms, and each invoice keeps the rate in force when it's sent. As ever, this is general information, not legal advice.

What It Doesn't Do Yet

• A flat fee applies to invoices in your account's currency. For clients billed in other currencies, a percentage works everywhere.
• Every reminder step still uses the same wording you write, so a final notice reads like the first nudge.

The Help Center covers setting up late fees step by step, and Late fees shows how they work at a glance. To see what any terms come to on a sample invoice, try the late fee calculator.