How to chase brand procurement without losing the next deal
Brand procurement departments pay on NET 60–90 terms and rarely reply to a first nudge. Here's how to follow up firmly without souring the relationship with the marketing team who booked you.
Your marketing contact loved the campaign. Procurement has had your invoice for 47 days and hasn't moved. You need the money, but you also need the renewal conversation that's already happening in a Slack channel you're not in.
This is the creator's version of a tightrope walk: push too hard and the marketing manager hears about it; stay silent and you're funding someone else's cash flow for three months.
Why procurement and marketing live in different worlds
The marketing manager who briefed you has no authority over payment. Once you submit an invoice, it lands in a queue managed by a procurement or accounts payable team that has never watched your content, doesn't know what a "deliverable" is, and measures success in purchase order compliance, not engagement rate.
Their delays are almost never personal. Common reasons an invoice sits:
- Missing PO number. Many enterprise AP systems reject invoices without a matching purchase order. If you didn't ask for a PO before the campaign started, ask now before you follow up on payment.
- Wrong entity name. Your invoice says your trading name; their system only recognises your registered legal name.
- VAT or tax ID absent. For EU or UK brands, missing VAT details can send an invoice back to ground zero.
- Wrong email address. Your contact forwarded your invoice to AP themselves instead of giving you the direct submission address. That forwarded copy often gets lost.
Fix these four issues in your follow-up email and you eliminate 80% of AP rejections before they happen.
The follow-up sequence that doesn't annoy anyone
The goal is a paper trail, not a confrontation. Here's a sequence that works across NET 60 and NET 90 deals:
Day 1 after sending the invoice
Confirm receipt. One line: "Just checking this landed in the right inbox and has the correct PO number for your system." This starts the clock and signals you're organised, not desperate.
Day 30 (for NET 60) or Day 45 (for NET 90)
A short status check to AP directly (not to your marketing contact). Reference the invoice number, the amount, and the due date. Ask if there are any holds or missing documents. Keep your marketing contact off this thread entirely.
Five days before the due date
If still unpaid, loop in your marketing contact with a light, factual note: "Invoice [number] for the [campaign name] collaboration is due on [date]. I wanted to flag it in case anything needs sign-off on your side." This is not a complaint. It's a courtesy that gives them a chance to unblock it internally.
Three days after the due date
Now you follow up directly with AP and CC your marketing contact. The tone stays neutral: "This invoice is now three days past terms. Please confirm the expected payment date." You're not threatening. You're documenting.
The pattern: AP first, marketing only when timing makes it natural, and always with invoice numbers so nothing looks emotional.
What goes on the invoice matters more than the follow-up
A sloppy invoice creates the delay you'll spend weeks chasing. Before you send anything to a brand:
- Confirm the legal entity name on their PO or contract.
- Get the AP submission email, not just your marketing contact's address.
- Add the PO number as a reference line.
- Include your tax ID or VAT number if the brand is in the EU or UK.
- Set a specific due date (not "Net 60" as a note, but an actual calendar date).
If you work with EU or UK brands and you're VAT-registered, you also need to handle reverse-charge VAT correctly for B2B invoices across borders. Getting this wrong is another reason invoices bounce.
How most creators invoice brand deals
- Copy-paste a PDF template and email it to the marketing contact's inbox.
- Manually track due dates across a spreadsheet, missing the five-day window.
- Chase late invoices by memory, sending awkward cold emails with no paper trail.
- Forget to add VAT number or reverse-charge wording for EU B2B deals.
How ZenPay handles it
- Shareable invoice links go straight to AP without a portal login required.
- Auto-reminders fire N days before and after the due date, in your name, with your editable template.
- Per-invoice payment tracking shows partial payments, write-offs, and status at a glance.
- Reverse-charge VAT toggle adds compliant wording and your VAT number to every EU B2B invoice automatically.
Protecting the marketing relationship while you chase AP
Your marketing contact is your repeat-business engine. Procurement is a process. Keep them separate in your mind and in your emails.
A few rules that help:
- Never CC marketing on an AP thread until payment is past due. Before that, it reads as an escalation.
- Frame every follow-up around process, not money. "Making sure nothing is stuck in your system" lands better than "I still haven't been paid."
- Document everything. A timestamped email thread is your leverage if a deal ever goes to dispute.
- Invoice the second a deliverable is signed off, not when you feel comfortable asking. Waiting two weeks to send the invoice is two extra weeks at the back of the payment queue.
The bigger picture: predictable income from unpredictable deals
Brand deals are not going to start paying faster. NET 60–90 is baked into enterprise procurement policy and no amount of relationship warmth changes that. What changes is how well you manage the gap.
When you have auto-reminders running, an invoice link you can resend in one click, and a clear view of what's overdue versus what's coming, chasing procurement stops being a stressful guessing game. It becomes a system that runs in the background while you focus on the next campaign brief.
The creators who get paid reliably are rarely the most assertive. They're the most organised.
Less admin.
More of what matters.
Your first invoice
within 2 minutes.
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