PDF payment demands: what to check before sending

Creditor and debtor details

Check each party’s full name, address and identifiers recorded in the case. Verify which entity actually entered the transaction. A similar company name or a shared address is no substitute for checking the customer’s details. Include contact information so mistakes can be clarified.

Invoices, balance and calculations

The document should connect the requested amount to specific invoices. Before approval, compare invoice references, deadlines and outstanding amounts with your records. Any partial payment needs to be reflected in the balance before the demand is sent.

Saldora displays principal, calculated interest and compensation using the case data and stored rates. Check that the inputs and basis for these amounts match your transaction. A number appearing in the preview does not itself establish that the claim is justified.

Deadline, account and approval

Review the demand’s deadline, payment account and wording. In Saldora, generating the PDF preview and sending the message are separate actions. Ordinary demands require approval and an available email channel. A send request alone is not proof that the addressee received the document.

PDF included in amicable recovery

The pre-litigation PDF demand is included in every amicable recovery price band. It does not need to be purchased separately. If the balance remains unpaid after the demand, with your approval we can prepare the e-court claim file, which you file yourself, after checking eligibility, at a separate price.

Interest and compensation in the demand

A demand that asks only for the invoice amount leaves money on the table. A commercial debt also carries statutory late-payment interest from the day after the due date, plus the flat compensation under article 10(1) of the Polish Act of 8 March 2013 on counteracting excessive delays in commercial transactions: EUR 40 up to PLN 5,000, EUR 70 above PLN 5,000 and below PLN 50,000, EUR 100 from PLN 50,000.

Two calculation traps are worth knowing. First, the rate for commercial transactions is the NBP reference rate plus 10 percentage points — a different, higher rate than ordinary statutory late-payment interest under the Civil Code. Using the lower one understates the amount in the demand and later in the claim. Second, a delay longer than six months spans several periods at different rates, because the rate changes on 1 January and 1 July. Saldora settles each period separately and shows the breakdown.

Compensation is converted at the NBP mid-rate from the last working day of the month preceding the month in which payment became due — not the rate on the day the demand is sent. If we do not hold a confirmed rate for a given day, the calculator refuses to produce a result rather than estimating it.

What a demand should not contain

A pre-litigation demand is a document the debtor may show to a lawyer and you may show to a court. So it does not threaten consequences we do not intend to carry out. Warning of inevitable court costs at the amicable stage has already been treated by the Polish competition authority as misleading, in decisions concerning large recovery firms.

Nor do we include amounts we cannot justify: flat "recovery costs" beyond the statutory compensation, interest charged on interest, or handling fees. If a number appears in the document, it must have a basis that can be pointed to.

A separate note on references to business information bureaus. Listing a debtor in a register such as KRD or BIG has its own statutory conditions — among them a prior demand containing a warning and compliance with the required intervals. Saldora can add such a warning to the demand, but it is off by default: announcing an entry you will not make is exactly the kind of threat we avoid.

Proof that the demand was sent

A send request is not proof of delivery. Saldora records every contact attempt — successful or not — with the content, address, date and the provider's identifier. That log is what you show a court, and what lets you reconstruct the case months later.

When you need stronger evidence, the demand can go by registered post with acknowledgement of receipt. That is a separately priced add-on rather than part of the package, because the postage is a real cost. The acknowledgement and the actual delivery date are recorded against the case — and the deadline stated in the demand runs from it.

In the electronic writ-of-payment procedure the court does not examine attached documents before issuing the order, but the evidence listed in the claim must exist and must match the amount sought. A consistent demand, a consistent contact log and a consistent balance are in practice the same work done once and used three times.