Reminder Letter- one of the varieties of business correspondence. This form of correspondence can be used in a completely different situations, in particular, when it is necessary to remind the second party

  • on the fulfillment of the obligations assumed,
  • on compliance with the law,
  • about the approach of some important event or date, etc.

Usually a letter is preceded by a verbal reminder, but if it does not have the desired effect, the sender resorts to a written notice. Thus, this letter not only serves as a reminder, but also is proof of the action taken.

In some cases, reminder letters are used when another form of message transmission from one party to another is impossible for any reason (for example, in accordance with the terms of the contract).

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Who is writing the letter

Usually the writing of such letters is assigned to the head structural unit whose interests are affected, a lawyer or secretary of the organization. But, regardless of who is directly involved in compiling it, it is advisable to give the letter for signature to the head of the enterprise - in this way, it will acquire solidity and more significant significance for the addressee.

Rules for writing a reminder letter

The letter does not have a standard, unified form, so it can be drawn up in a free form. Nevertheless, when making it, it is worth adhering to some norms and standards of business correspondence.

The reminder letter must contain

  • information about the sender and addressee (full names of companies, and if it is about the addressee, then also the position and full name of a particular employee),
  • reason for the reminder
  • as well as references to laws and regulations that are relevant to the issue or situation being recalled (if necessary).
  • If the case concerns non-fulfillment of obligations or violation of the law, references to them should be listed, as well as possible sanctions and measures that the sender is ready to take to resolve the issue (with an indication of the timing or period).
  • It would not be superfluous to recall the possibility of resolving the problem peacefully, which suits both sides.
  • In cases where any additional documents are attached to the letter, this should also be noted in its content, indicating the number of attachments and pages of each of them separately.

The tone of the letter should be extremely polite and correct, if there is an appeal to a specific official, be sure to use the epithet "Dear". In a reminder, the distortion of facts, the provision of incorrect information, and there are more threats are completely unacceptable. When compiling a reminder letter, it is important to remember that at any time it can become a legally significant document.

This letter can be either very short, consisting of just one phrase, or expanded, including several points. In addition, a reminder can be sent more than once, several times (in such cases, you need to enter phrases into it, such as “we remind you again”, “we remind you again”).

It is allowed to write a letter both by hand and in printed form, but regardless of which option is chosen, it should be certified with a “live” signature. In addition, it must be registered in the journal of outgoing documentation. It is not necessary to certify the message with a seal, since since 2016 the requirement to use seals and stamps in activities for legal entities, as before and canceled for IP.

An example of writing a reminder letter

  1. At the beginning of the letter is indicated sender, i.e. in the required lines, the full name of the company (in accordance with the constituent documents), address and telephone number for communication are written. Further fits recipient: his name and the specific person to whom the appeal is made directly (position, surname, first name patronymic).
  2. Then you should put date writing a letter and room on the internal document flow of the company, as well as designate Title of the document with a short designation of its meaning (in this case, "on the transfer of payment under the contract").
  3. Then you can go to descriptive part. First you need to specify the reason for the reminder. If this is a violation of a clause of the contract, then enter its date, number and essence, if we are talking O cash, then they must be indicated both in numbers and in words. Then you should formulate a reminder and offer to fulfill your obligations within a specific timeframe (also in numbers and in words). Finally, you can list the actions that the sender is ready to take to more radically solve the problem.
  4. At the end, a letter is required subscribe, with decryption of the signature and indication of the position of the signatory.

How to send a reminder email

The letter can be sent via

  • email,
  • fax message
  • or via Russian Post.

You can combine the two options, for example, email with a "live" departure, especially if you back up the last receipt (this will serve as another proof that the letter was sent and, more importantly, that it was delivered to the right hands). In any case, it is worth remembering that letters go through Russian mail for quite a long time, therefore, using it, it is advisable to have some time left or duplicate this method of sending to others.

If the reminder email did not work

The unwritten rules of business correspondence imply that a reminder letter requires a mandatory response from the recipient (also in writing). If the reminder did not have the result that the sender expected, the next step is writing, which, as a rule, is more solid and directly precedes going to court.

Reminder letter with a proposal for cooperation

When an organization is in active search partners, she can direct potential party future relationship letter with a proposal for cooperation. So you can not only expand the sales market, but also find profitable suppliers, performers of the desired service.

Such an offer letter can be targeted, but it can be addressed to several possible counterparties at once or created in a generalized form for a wide range of acquaintance.

You can send such a letter in any convenient form:

  • by mail;
  • by courier;
  • by e-mail;
  • fax;
  • convey in person.

Later, such a letter can be reformulated into a reminder letter if there was a signal from the other side about possible cooperation, but the first letter, for example, due to lack of time, was not carefully considered.

Mandatory elements of a reminder letter:

  • appeal to the addressee (to the head of the organization, by name or position, to a specific person or, if the letter is generalized, a form is chosen that is as close as possible to individualized);
  • title of the document (offer of cooperation, commercial proposal, business proposal, etc., depending on the purpose);
  • a summary of data about the sending organization, important for future cooperation;
  • the conditions under which the interaction is proposed;
  • contact details (phone, fax, e-mail, address)

Be sure to indicate the date, the name of the head of the organization, fixing it with your own signature and seal.

Sample letter-reminder with a proposal for cooperation

Reminder letter on fulfillment of obligations

Such a letter is sent to the organization if, for some reason, it has not fulfilled its previously undertaken obligations with respect to its counterparty on time, or if their deadline is approaching, and the partner’s intentions are not clear.

It is important that the letter is just a reminder, and not a reproach or threat. Goodwill tone is a must. Without knowing the reasons for the delay, the partner's accusation may be reckless, it is quite possible that he has objective circumstances.

The reminder can be repeated. If such a letter is not sent for the first time, then at the end you should inform about your final intention, for example, go to court.

Usually you send reminder emails for two reasons: you just want to remind yourself, or you need an answer to an important question very urgently.

If you've ever been interviewed, you're probably familiar with the first situation. You may have checked your inbox several times a day, hoping to hear some work-related news. Yes, deathly silence in this case is depressing.

The second variant of events - when you urgently need an answer on any issue, but they don’t write to you - can also infuriate you.

But the worst thing is when you have to wait for an overdue project or news from your boss on a very important issue. Such situations require a slightly different approach. Friendly reminders of yourself will no longer work.

If you need to remind yourself and urgently get an answer to a question, use these four tips.

Do not apologize

"I don't want to disturb you." "Sorry for flooding you with letters." "I'm sorry to disturb you again."

Familiar phrases? Most likely, it is with them that you usually begin your reminder letter. This opening is great for an HR letter, but what if you remind the person that they have to answer your question?

In this case, you no longer need to apologize. You need an answer in order to continue your work, and there is nothing to apologize for. You are not doing anything wrong.

So resist the urge to start your letter with an apology - you don't need it.

Write easier

If you are writing a reminder letter, then you have already contacted this person. So in your previous messages already had all the necessary information.

Of course, context does not hurt - the recipient should understand the main essence of the case from one letter, so that he does not have to look through the entire correspondence. But remember - you need to specify only the main points of the question.

If you really need an answer, try to compose a letter as simply as possible - which means, give up unnecessary words and go straight to the point.

Do not include the standard "Reminder" in the subject line. It is better to write the essence of the question there. Try to break the letter itself into paragraphs, use short sentences and bulleted lists - this will make it easier to perceive.

What else? Add at the end the exact date by which you need to receive the answer - it is desirable to highlight it in bold. The easier your message is to read, the higher the chances that it will be answered and you will get what you want.

Here is an example of a short letter:

Good day,

I want to remind you that I still don't have your charts for the monthly report. Please send:

  • Customer Growth Chart
  • Production Schedule

Try Other Methods

Images from the movie "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"

We all usually rely on email - and for good reason. This is a convenient and easy way to get in touch.

But sometimes our mail is so inundated that some letters are simply lost. The person read your message and decided to reply to it later - only "later" never comes.

If you're just hoping to get a response (from an employer, for example), then it's best to continue relying on email. But if you urgently need to resolve the issue, it is better to get up from the computer and try other methods to get through to the right person.

Call him, go to his workplace (if this is your colleague), or remind him of your business at lunch. Yes, this may make you seem pushy. But in moments of despair, one has to resort to desperate methods.

Describe your next steps

If nothing works out for you, you should indicate in the letter what you will do if you do not receive a response. It happens that none of the methods work, and you do not get an answer. And that doesn't mean you have to give up. You need to adapt to the situation and move on.

Usually you understand that this is the last reminder letter and the last chance to get the person to answer you. End the message with words about what will happen if you don't get what you want.

Yes, it sounds a little ominous. But it is important to convey the essence to the recipient. Add the following lines at the end of the letter:

“If I don’t receive the charts on time, I will have to finish the report without them and report that I never received them from you”

Sounds harsher than you're used to writing? Of course. But it works.

The deathly silence in response to your letters is very annoying - but it infuriates even more when you urgently need an answer, but there is still none. In this case, you will have to abandon the usual delicacy.

Use these tips, and the chances that you will receive a long-awaited answer will increase. But what if they didn't help? Well, at least you tried your best.

Business correspondence is one of the most important components of the organization of the design process. The basic documents that the project manager relies on in his work are the contract, the work schedule, the design task and the initial data. However, the project development process is so complicated that it is not possible to reflect all its nuances in the assignment in advance at the stage of concluding a contract. In this regard, during the design process, there is a need to clarify information, agree on technical solutions, confirm the most important data, and so on.

Practice shows that any conversation with the customer related to the design object should be accompanied by official letter, with date, number and signature. Modern communication technologies make their own adjustments to the correspondence process: today sending a paper letter by mail is rather an exception. However, the closer we adhere to the canons of office work, the result of which is a solid folder with collected chronological order correspondence, the better.

The official letter must be dated and numbered. Also always indicate the subject of the letter.

The main reasons and reasons to write a letter to the customer

Experienced GUIs and project managers say: the more paper, the cleaner the ass. It does not sound beautiful, but it reflects the essence of the relationship with the customer correctly. Any technical decision made without the participation of the client or agreed with him only verbally can turn into a problem in the future.

Firstly, the customer's representative may forget about the oral conversation (or pretend to have forgotten), and secondly, the contact person with whom there were agreements may change from the customer's side. Therefore, all discussions of design decisions, in without fail must be documented. Letters must be dated, numbered and signed, and officially arrive at the Customer's office (possibly - by e-mail, but to the official address of the customer organization).

The main reasons why you should write a letter to the customer are the following:

  • any preliminary drawings, sketches, technical solutions sent to the customer for approval must be accompanied by transmittal letter, which clearly indicates when, to whom and for what the documentation is sent;
  • if the customer does not provide any initial data or there is no official agreement technical solution- it should be notified in writing, and the more often, the better. When the deadlines for the project start to "burn" - a bunch of such letters will not allow the designer to be extreme;
  • in the absence of planned payments by the customer - an advance payment or interim settlements, you must immediately inform him in writing, warn him of a possible failure of the overall design time (if, under the terms of the contract, the start of work is tied to an advance payment);
  • if for some reason the project cannot provide for the solution requested by the customer (for example, due to a violation of the norms) - it is necessary to notify him of this in writing, with a competent justification;
  • the impossibility of investing within the terms specified in the contract must be correctly justified in a letter accompanying supplementary agreement to reschedule;
  • as a rule, additional work appears in the design process. These may be new conditions or wishes of the customer, requiring minor adjustments or significant alterations to the documentation; there may be new works, the need for which at the stage of concluding the contract could not be determined; there may be other cases. The customer must be notified of this in writing, receiving from him confirmation of the need to perform additional work and its willingness to conclude an additional agreement;
  • if an error is found in the project, it is necessary, in addition to actually correcting it, to correctly and clearly justify in a letter the reasons for which it was made;
  • the customer may require the use of certain brands of equipment and building materials in the project. Often the client decides to use cheaper analogues, in comparison with those provided by the designer. O possible consequences such a replacement must be reasonably reported to the customer.

The letter is drawn up on a form, in accordance with the basic rules of office work: the customer enterprise, position, surname and initials of the person authorized to conduct business correspondence are indicated as the addressee. This - official document(which, among other things, may be considered by the court), therefore, it must have a date, a number and be certified by the signature of an authorized person (director, chief engineer, chief project engineer, etc.) does not require printing. The letter must contain the subject: “On the progress of design”, “On payment”, and so on.

You should start the letter with a standard appeal, for example - “Dear Igor Petrovich!” Addressing the customer by name and patronymic is important. If you are preparing a response to a letter, and do not have the data of the person to whom you are addressing, you need to find out (call the reception or the direct executor of the letter).

The letter indicates the name of the organization and the person to whom the letter is addressed. The addressee should be addressed by first name and patronymic.

At the end of the letter, under the signature, the performer and his contact details must be indicated. For example, if the material of the letter signed by the GUI or the chief engineer is prepared by the design engineer, the customer representative should be able to contact him directly to clarify the technical details.

Below the signature, it is necessary to indicate the contacts of the performer for the possibility of clarifying technical details

Pictures and tables should not be inserted into the body of the letter: such materials are made out as attachments with their own number and name. At the end of the letter there is a list of all attachments, indicating their serial number, title, number of pages and number of copies.

Modern spell checkers (including those built into MS Word) allow you to prepare absolutely literate documents. Any spelling, punctuation and stylistic errors in business correspondence are not allowed.

A few points that a designer should pay attention to in order to correctly write a letter to the customer

Even Yamamoto Tsunetomo in the 17th century, in his collection of samurai codes of conduct, said that you need to write a letter in such a way that the addressee wants to hang it on the wall like a work of art. Even if the text is mostly technical, saturated with numbers and data, it will be read by a living person.

No one, and especially the customer, will not like it if the letter begins with the words “We inform you ...”, “Once again we notify ...”, even if the purpose of the letter is to inform or remind. Such phrases should, if possible, be softened and transferred to the second or third paragraphs.

An example of the location of semantic blocks

You can start a letter, depending on its content, with the following introductory phrases:

  • Thank you for the invitation to cooperate...
  • We present our respect to you...
  • Continuing the phone conversation...
  • According to the agreement, I inform you ...
  • Thank you for your timely response to our letter no.

The main body of the letter, containing questions, a description of problems, your vision of their solution, should be stated in a clear and concise form, without unnecessary information. It is desirable that the entire letter fits on one page (this is not always the case).

At the end of the letter, you need to sum up and clearly indicate what you expect from the customer, pay attention to the urgency, the primacy of certain tasks.

The last phrase before the signature should also be a manifestation of respect: "with respect ...", "with the hope of mutual understanding", "with the hope of further cooperation ...", etc.

The end of the letter must be respectful

This official letter, which refers to the approach or expiration of the deadline for the implementation of certain tasks, obligations, activities

The reminder must certainly be friendly, unobtrusive: in no case should you blame the addressee, since the reason for the delay in payment or non-payment, for example, can be a very difficult financial situation in which he finds himself.

The content of the reminder letter primarily depends on whether for the first time, the second or third time you remind the partner of the fulfillment of his obligations, non-compliance with the deadline for paying bills tosho. If the client does not respond to your reminders, then, of course, you will be forced to inform him of your intention to go to court and terminate the contract. However, even in this case, the writing style should be polite, restrained.

For instance:

. Dear!

. Let me take this opportunity to remind you. You, what is the due date for payment of bills. Your order no.(date) expired

. We will. You are grateful if(date). You will send a translation. your debt in the amount

apologies for having to disturb. you about this

. Remain with respect

. Dear Sir!

. going. To meet you, we continue the payment term until(date) / execute at the same time. your new orders. If you do not pay the debt by (date) and do not send a check that shows payment, we will be forced to temporarily suspend the execution of all. Your deputy broadcaster.

. We wait. Your answer

. Sincerely

. Dear Sirs!

. Sorry to disturb you again. You, but, unfortunately, we have not received any response to our previous reminders distressed that. Your company treated our requests so casually, although we, for our part, always strictly adhered to the terms of the contract and fulfilled all your orders with high quality.

. Despite repeated reminders and Taken measures,. Your debt not only remains outstanding, but also continues to grow, so we consider it necessary to report. You about your intention to terminate and contract.

. It's a pity, but we see no other way out of this unfortunate situation.

. Dear Sirs!

. I'm sorry, but we have to remind you again. Wali about the large debt to our firm, which continues to grow. We have always tried to understand. Your financial difficulties, but this time the debt exceeds all the previous ones, and the due date is long past.

. We hope. You understand that we can no longer neglect the interests of the company, and therefore are forced to file a lawsuit in court

. It is unfortunate that our cooperation turned out to be unsuccessful.

TYPICAL turnover

First mention

1 will allow. remind you of

2. Taking this opportunity, let me remind you that. you are in debt

3. Please. turn you Special attention to what u. You have a debt in the amount

4. Would like to remind you. you about

5. We remind you. You that the deadline for submitting reports has expired on (date)

6. We consider it necessary to remind. You that according to the contract, the commission must be paid before (date)

7. Forced to remind. You that the deadline for payment of bills for printing ordered. Your printing products pass (date)

8. Q. By the way, we remind you. You that the shipment. You were out of stock on (date)

9. It would be appropriate to recall that

10. We believe that this non-payment is only an omission, and we hope that. You will eliminate it within

11. To. You were able to quickly navigate the situation, send. You will receive copies of invoices that have already expired

12. Our accounting department reported that. You failed to pay several bills on time

13. We hope that this non-payment is just an unfortunate mistake that will be corrected?? in the near future

14. Sorry (we are offended) that we have to disturb. you about this

Repeated reminders

1. We are very uncomfortable that we are forced to remind you again. you about

2. Unfortunately, we have to remind you again. You that still have not received from. you paid bills

3 we are very sorry that we have to remind you again about the presence of several bills that have not yet been paid

4. Delay. Your payment is contrary to our previous agreements on the terms of trade. We reserve the right to take further action

5. Your failure to strictly adhere to the terms of payment is a violation of the terms of the contract

6. Sorry, but we have to inform you. You about the changes in the system of payment for orders, which are caused by the fact that. You did not pay the previous

7. We would never bother. You such reminders, if. You met your payment obligations on time

8. We remind you. You that. You agreed to pay in the term determined by us. Payment delay causes us to charge monthly. Your account % unpaid

9. Sorry, but we have to remind you once again. You that the debt is very large (significant)

10 consider it their duty (we consider it necessary) to remind once again. You about a debt that has expired on (date)

11 stretch recent weeks. You have been sent three official reminders of our company's significant debt. Unfortunately, we have not received from. you no answer

12. It is unpleasant for us to contact you again. On this occasion, however, all our reminders of the need to ship goods to our company have so far remained unanswered.

13. We just continue. You have a due date for invoice payment

14. Please pay the debt within days

15. We have been waiting for our bills to be paid for months. Please transfer the appropriate amount to our bank account by the end of this week

16. Our cooperation was quite fruitful, and its continuation will be possible only if the debt is repaid by (date)

17 we have written to you several times (multiple times) asking you to explain why. You will not pay bills, but, unfortunately, you have not received a response

18. You are already months late in submitting your annual report, so we have to

19. Your neglect of our requests harms our cooperation, which was once fruitful

Last reminder and warning about the next legal steps

In the event that delicate reminders and demands do not give the desired results, you will be forced to go to court or terminate the contract. You should inform the addressee about this, but do everything possible so that the tone and style of the letter finally convince him that this is extremely unpleasant for you, but the only possible way out of the situation ї 34:

1. Your late payment of bills is a serious breach of contract, so we are forced to refer this case to our legal department

2. Because. You did not respond to our repeated reminders, we referred the case to our lawyer

3 we are very sorry to report that due to a large debt. Your loan is temporarily closed

4. Unfortunately, a long non-payment. Your bills made us refer this case to a lawyer

5. Due to the fact that. You, despite our urgent request to repay the debt, have not yet sent a check certifying the payment, we are forced to suspend the execution of all. your orders

63 given the situation forced to take drastic measures

7. Your debt has exceeded all previous ones and is still due for payment on (date). We can no longer neglect the interests of the company and are forced to file a lawsuit

8. Considering the situation prevailing on this moment, are forced to announce their intention to terminate with. By you contract

9. Delay. You paying bills made us go to court. We got upset. Your careless attitude to our requests

10. We can no longer wait for payment. By the end of the week you have to ask our legal department to arrange debt repayment

11. Due to systematic and long delays in the delivery of goods, we are forced to terminate with. By you contract

12. Warning. You about your intention to terminate the contract

13. All our requests for repayment. Your debts were in vain, so we are forced to file a lawsuit. Believe me, we are very sorry, but now we see no other way out of this situation.

14. It's a pity that our cooperation turned out to be unsuccessful