Guide · 6 min read

How to handle customer IOUs without losing money (or friends)

Published July 2026 · by the makers of StashQ

"Can I pay you Friday?" If you sell at markets, in DMs, or to people you'll see again — at church, at school pickup, at the next fair — you've heard it. And you've probably done the math later: the note that said sarah?? $35 — 2 candles + soap, written on your hand, gone by dinner. This guide is how working sellers take IOUs without financing their whole town interest-free.

First: an IOU is a sale, not a favor

The sellers who get burned treat IOUs as embarrassing exceptions — so they don't write them down, don't follow up, and quietly eat the loss. Flip the frame: an IOU is a sale with delayed payment, extended to someone you trust enough to see again. Businesses have a word for this — credit — and businesses that extend credit write it down. Every time. That's the whole secret.

The four rules

• 1. Record it in the moment, in front of them. Name, amount, what they took, the date they said. Writing it down while they watch isn't awkward — it's the opposite. It signals this is a real transaction, and it does 90% of the collection work for you, because people pay debts they watched get recorded.
• 2. Get a date from them, not from you. "When works for you — Friday?" beats "whenever's fine." A date they chose is a promise they made; a date you imposed is a nag waiting to happen. Vague debts age worst.
• 3. Follow up once, kindly, the day after the date. Not before — that reads as distrust. One light message the day after (scripts below) collects the majority of honest IOUs. Most people didn't decide not to pay; they forgot, exactly like you would have.
• 4. Cap what any one person can owe. Pick a number that wouldn't ruin your week — $50, $100, whatever fits your margins — and when someone hits it, the answer to the next IOU is "once we square up the last one!" Cheerful, firm, done.

Scripts for the awkward part

Word-for-word, tested by sellers who hate confrontation:

• The day-after nudge: "Hey! Hope you're loving the candles 🕯️ Just keeping my books straight — you're down for $35, any way that's easy to send is great."
• The second (and last) nudge, a week later: "Friendly bookkeeping ping! Still showing $35 open for the market haul — want me to resend my payment link?"
• The graceful decline: "I've got a rule — one tab at a time! Square up the last one and it's yours." (Blame the rule. Rules can't have their feelings hurt.)

Notice what none of these do: apologize, over-explain, or mention trust. It's bookkeeping, not a friendship referendum.

When to say no

Strangers, first-time customers, and anyone you have no way to contact again — no IOUs, full stop, and you don't need an excuse beyond "card, cash, or app!" IOUs are for people inside your orbit. That's not harsh; it's what makes yes possible for everyone else.

When to let it go

Two kind nudges and silence? Stop. Write it off, remember the lesson, and lower that person's cap to zero. Chasing $28 for six weeks costs more — in energy and in how you feel about your own business — than the money. The ledger isn't just for collecting; it's for knowing who gets a tab next time.

The system, minus the memory

Everything above works with a notebook and discipline. The failure point is never the rules — it's the remembering: who owes what, which date they picked, whether you nudged. That's the exact job we built StashQ for: record a sale as partly paid or unpaid, and it tracks the balance per customer, shows the total money owed to you on your dashboard, and reminds you when a follow-up is due — so the kind nudge actually happens.