How Long Do You Have to Collect an Unpaid Invoice? The State-by-State Answer

A guide from the Late-Payment Interest Calculator.

The clock on an unpaid invoice starts the day payment was due, not the day you sent it, and it runs for exactly as long as your state's statute of limitations allows. How long do you have to collect an unpaid invoice? For written contracts the answer runs from 3 years to 10 years depending on the state, and oral agreements usually get a shorter window. Here is the table, the rules that restart the clock, and the one mistake that kills old invoices.

Most freelancer and contractor invoices are breach-of-contract claims. If you have a signed contract, proposal, or terms sheet, the written-contract period applies. If the work was agreed over email or a handshake, you are often stuck with the oral-contract period, which is shorter everywhere it differs. That distinction alone is why a one-page signed agreement matters more than any interest clause.

Ohio is the one to double-check if you are reading old blog posts: the state cut its written-contract period from 8 years to 6 in 2021 under Senate Bill 13. Half the internet still says 8. State legislatures change these numbers, so verify against your current statute before relying on any table, including this one.

How long do you have to collect an unpaid invoice before three things restart the clock?

The headline period is only half the story. Three things revive or extend the deadline in most states. A partial payment restarts the clock from the payment date. A written acknowledgment of the debt, an email saying "I know I owe the $8,000," does the same. And if you get a judgment, most states give you a fresh period, often longer, to collect on it.

The restart rule cuts both ways. A client who sends you $500 on a $12,400 invoice in year four just bought you another full period in many states. But it also means your own sloppy records can lose you the claim: if the debtor argues the limitations defense, you carry the burden of proving the last payment date fell inside the window. Keep a payment log with dates, not just balances.

Invoices for goods play by different rules than invoices for services. Sales of goods fall under the Uniform Commercial Code, which sets a 4-year period in most states regardless of what the state's general contract statute says. So a supplier's unpaid product invoice and a consultant's unpaid hours invoice can have different deadlines in the same state. North Carolina suppliers have run into exactly that split.

One more thing the statute never does: it never erases the debt. The limitations period is a defense the debtor raises in court. It does not make the invoice vanish, and you can still ask for payment after it expires. But in most states, the day the period ends is the day the client holds the winning card. Know your state's number. Count from the due date, not the invoice date. And do not let a $12,400 invoice die quietly in year five.

Frequently asked questions

Related: Late Payment Interest: The Invoice Wording That Actually Gets Paid · Can You Charge Late Payment Interest Without a Contract Clause? · How to Write a Late Payment Interest Clause in a Contract That Holds Up · How Long Can You Collect Interest on an Unpaid Invoice?

One freelancing note a month: subscribe to the newsletter.