← Help Center

Industry templates

Last updated: 2026-06-06 Available on every plan

Most service businesses have a specific way they actually want to talk to their clients about money — and a generic invoice reminder rarely matches it.

Industry templates give you a starting point that's already tuned to how your kind of business usually handles collections. You apply one, and your reminder schedule is replaced with a complete 5-step sequence designed for that industry: a gentle heads-up just before the due date, an invoice/due-date email, then overdue follow-ups that escalate in tone.

What's included

Cadence is shown relative to the invoice due date: = days before, 0 = on the due date, + = days after.

Industry Tone Cadence
Freelancer / Solo creative Friendly −3 / 0 / +7 / +14 / +30
Design / Creative agency Friendly → firm −3 / 0 / +5 / +14 / +30
Consulting / Coaching Formal −3 / 0 / +7 / +14 / +30
Legal services Formal → final notice −5 / 0 / +10 / +20 / +30
Accounting / Bookkeeping Warm-formal −3 / 0 / +7 / +14 / +30
Marketing / SEO agency Friendly −3 / 0 / +7 / +14 / +28
Health / Wellness practice Gentle throughout −2 / 0 / +7 / +14 / +30
Trades / Contractors Direct → final −3 / 0 / +5 / +10 / +20

Each step has its own subject line and email body, and uses the same placeholder variables as the regular reminder editor — {{contact_name}}, {{invoice_number}}, {{amount}}, {{payment_link}} and so on — so once a template is applied you can still tweak every step from Settings → Reminder schedule without losing the industry shape.

Applying a template

  1. Open Settings → Industry templates. The cards are grouped by tone — friendly first, then formal, then firm — and each carries a colour-coded tone chip so you can see at a glance how hard the sequence pushes.
  2. Browse the cards. Preview steps on each one opens a pop-up showing all five emails with sample data swapped in, so you can see exactly what your client would receive.
  3. Click Apply this template on the one that fits best. The currently-applied template (if any) is highlighted and shown in the header.
  4. Confirm. Duefy replaces your current sequence with the preset.

What happens to invoices already in flight?

Applying a template does not re-send emails for invoices that already had reminders go out. Step-by-step:

  • Invoices whose sequence hasn't started yet — they'll use the new template from their first send.
  • Invoices already partway through the sequence — the next send picks up the new step at the corresponding day-offset. Past sends are not re-issued.

If you accidentally apply the wrong template, just apply the right one — there's no penalty for switching.

Who can apply a template?

Only the Owner or an Admin of the org. Member / viewer roles can browse and preview, but the Apply button is disabled.

After applying — fine-tune any step

Each industry template is a starting point, not a fixed contract. Once applied, head to Settings → Reminder schedule and you can edit subject lines, change the tone, adjust day offsets, or even add extra steps (up to 8 total). Everything you'd expect on the schedule editor still works.

Was this helpful?