DAY 1
Friendly, right on schedule
A thank-you and the receipt, sent the moment the invoice goes out. Most clients need nothing else.
EMAIL
WATCHING· NEXT CHASE FIRES THU 09:00 · HOUND NEVER FORGETS AN INVOICE
Automated invoice follow-up
Send the invoice.Hound does the rest.
Hound follows every invoice from sent to paid — a four-step cadence that gets firmer the longer a client goes quiet, so you never have to write the awkward reminder yourself.
INVOICE #114 · DAY-5 STEP QUEUED WATCHING
Studio Okonkwo
Brand identity system
Billed to
Priya RaoRao & Co.
priya@raoco.pt
Pay to
Studio OkonkwoACH · Card · Apple Pay
Due$2,400.00
Jul 9 · 09:14Invoice SENT — email + link
Jul 11 · 20:02OPENED again — 2×
Thu · 09:00HOUND — Day-5 email QUEUED
Hound sends the Day-5 nudge Thursday at 09:00. You don’t lift a finger.
4
Escalating tones — friendly to firm
1 → 15
The day span Hound runs on its own
2
Channels — email and SMS
0
“Just following up” emails you write
How it chases
Every invoice gets the same relentless treatment.
Add an invoice once. Hound runs a fixed four-step cadence underneath it — the tone escalates on its own, you only step in if it flags you.
DAY 5
A nudge, not a nag
Still unpaid five days in, Hound sends a short, polite reminder — a bump, not a scolding.
EMAIL
DAY 10
Brisk, on two channels
Ten days out the wording tightens and a text goes out alongside the email — hard to miss, still civil.
EMAIL + SMS
DAY 15
Firm, with an out
By day 15 Hound gets direct and offers a payment plan — the last automatic step before it's your call.
LAST AUTOMATIC STEP
The loop
Add invoice → let Hound run → intervene only if flagged.
Every artifact updates as the chase runs — the timeline, the cadence rail, the dashboard numbers. Nobody retypes a reminder.
01 — SENT
Invoice #114 emailed, pay link included.
02 — TRACKED
Opened — Lisbon, mobile. Hound notes it, says nothing yet.
03 — ESCALATED
Still quiet past day 5 — tone steps up: nudge, then brisk, then firm.
04 — CLEARED
Marked paid the moment it lands. The cadence stops instantly.
Hound activity
Sent Day-10 email to Brightwater — brisk
06:02
SMS delivered to D. Kern — no reply
04:41
Priya Rao opened #114 twice
02:18
Lang & Vaz paid #112 — $1,200.00
Yesterday
You see everything
Every send, open, and click — logged, not summarized away.
Skim the feed in a few seconds each morning, or open any invoice’s live timeline to see the whole chase — from the first email to the moment it clears. Nothing Hound does happens quietly.
Some invoices need you
Hound flags it. It doesn’t guess for you.
Push an invoice hard enough and Hound stops trying to out-nice it. Past the last automatic step, it lands on your dashboard with a suggested next move instead of escalating forever on its own. Relentless doesn’t mean reckless.
Needs you
D. Kernhasn’t paid #118 — Ghosting · SMS queued.
Hound suggests: switch to Firm + a call →Pricing
One recovered invoice covers the year.
Most freelancers
Studio
$49/mo
- 150 active invoices
- Email + SMS cadence
- Payment-plan step at Day 15
Or 90¢ per invoice chased, 40-invoice minimum. One recovered $2,000 job pays for the year.
“I used to type ‘just following up’ myself, every time. Now Hound writes it — firmer than I ever would, right on schedule — and I only hear about the ones that actually need me.”A. OKONKWO · STUDIO OKONKWO
Questions
The things worth asking.
Does Hound send real emails out of the box?
Out of the box Hound runs in demo mode — cadences, tones, and timing all behave exactly as they will in production, and every step is logged to the invoice timeline. Connect your email and SMS provider keys and delivery goes live, with no change to your data or your cadences.
Does Hound ever email a client without me knowing?
No surprise sends. Every cadence step is scheduled the moment you add the invoice, and every one of them — sent, opened, clicked, queued — lands in that invoice's live timeline the instant it happens.
What happens the second a client pays?
Mark it paid and the cadence stops immediately. No more steps fire, and the invoice drops out of your Overdue and Expected-this-week numbers right away.
What if a client never opens a single email?
Hound keeps going on schedule regardless — a nudge on day 5, a brisk email-plus-text on day 10, a firm one with a payment-plan offer on day 15. Still quiet after that? It's flagged Needs You on your dashboard instead of escalating forever on its own.