Separate the fact from the emotion
An angry message almost always mixes two things: a concrete problem (a missed deadline, an invoice error, a broken promise) and an emotional judgement about you as a person. A reply becomes calm the moment you respond only to the first part. Write down what actually happened in plain facts: the date, the amount, the agreement, the consequence. Everything else — the tone, the blame, sweeping phrases like "you always" — can be deliberately left unanswered. The neutralizer does exactly that: it keeps the substance and strips the emotional layer that fuels the conflict.
