Brought in a payment right away" is exactly it. I was the same, thought templates made me look lazy. Finally made a short, direct one for overdue invoices and it works almost every time. Mine basically makes the client feel called out in a professional way. Stops the excuses before they even start typing.
Disagree with this take. Those short emails can come off as passive aggressive and piss off good clients. Lost a longtime customer once because my template felt too cold.
Imagine spending weeks carefully crafting each late payment email like you're writing poetry, only to get radio silence. Then you send a basic three line template and suddenly their checkbook magically works. I mean, we really out here doing mental gymnastics to avoid looking "lazy" while they're ignoring our novel length pleas. Maybe the professional call out is just what they need, a little digital tap on the shoulder. Idk, it's kinda funny how the simplest fix is the one we fight against the hardest.