To invoice a year after doing the work

The problem with lying is that the invoice number would be numerically out of sync.

It really is quite common for things to come out in audits, thats why we do audits.

It is easier to just send the invoice than make up reasons.

I’d invoice it, maybe you could send it saying “just checking my email records and I think this invoice somehow got stuck in my drafts emails folder and it never actually reached you.”

(Our emails at work are always getting stuck in drafts and not going where they need to, so this is entirely believable imho).

Where I work we still send (and pay) invoices up to 4 years after goods have moved. As long as we know we were expecting it at some point.
Deffo invoice them

I own/operate a small business and personally think it’s very bad form to invoice after such a long time lapse. It’s all well and good if it’s within a legal timeframe but professionally I wouldn’t invoice a client after such a long time. I appreciate it might be industry specific.

That's not a thing ie your fault so not paying. I work in accounts. It happens all the time that people miss an invoice. I'm not going to chase it but when it comes in, I need to pay it. I get hounded too if its not paid immediately. Nothing to be embarrassed about

It’s as much on them that they had work done and didn’t notice they hadn’t paid for it.

This is what I was coming to say.

Why would they not expect to pay, even if you are late invoicing them? They've had the work/service. They pay.

I'd reconsider working for people who you think would be so willing to screw you out of a living.

"£1500k" do you mean £1500 or £1,500,000?

Bit of difference hopefully it is £1500, if the people know they ordered and have had the work done they should have budgeted for it , unless they had planned to scam you. Invoice it and keep better tracking in future.

You know on your tax return you can opt to pay tax on when the money comes into your account, not the year you did the work. I always do this as in the past I had some late paying clients and I found it hard to pay tax on money that hadn't yet arrived in my account. If you tick this option, until you are paid, you don't legally owe the tax, so you can still come in under the threshold.

Just send them an invoice and say you've just done your annual accounts and have no record of payment for this job. Not sure if you missed the original invoice or they did but here it is and you would appreciate prompt payment on this, as the work was completed last tax year.

It's not a problem,

Invoice them, part of my job is paying suppliers. This has happened with small supplier and even big ones. Last small one was a lady who does design, I had no idea she did work for the MD so didn't look for an invoice, MD doesn't have anything to do with my side so didn't know she hadn't invoiced. She forgot to send it in and like you realised when doing taxes, told me, I paid her that day.

I also recently got one from a large supplier for over 100k that according to them should have been paid 6 months ago. Only they never sent the invoice. I have told them, we will pay but we will take their full credit terms from the date the invoice was received.

Please invoice. Our plumber hasn't invoiced for work 3 years ago. He did three weeks work at my next door neighbour. We've chased and chased and he keeps promising to tell us what we owe. I stopped chasing last year as did my neighbour but certainly have paid and will still will if he tell us how much we owe and how I pay.

Of course you invoice, you don't work for free!
If the company is still operational, they need to pay you.

Of course you should invoice. They likely know it's still to be invoiced. If its a small company, they'll have (or should have!) it on their system. When I was a FM for a small company in similar circumstances, I'd enquire with the supplier as to when I can expect their invoice. Integrity....

You did the work, they should pay it. Unless you had a contractual clause which stated that the invoice must be sent in a certain timeframe, you are absolutely in the right to send it.

Invoice it - i work for a small company and if someone invoiced a year later that had forgot we would pay it no problem.

This is bad advice.

Whether it affects this year or last year's tax return depends on if your accounts are using the accruals basis or the cash basis. Default is accruals basis, based on work done in the period. Cash is irrelevant if this is what you're on. You have to elect to use the cash basis on your tax return so it's entirely possible that whether it's been paid (or invoiced actually) or not doesn't matter.

Why are you trying to stay under the tax limit. Are you not offsetting overheads?

If they don’t pay take them to court

You did the work, they should pay you. I often have to chase people to send their invoices - I think it's relatively common to forget when you have a lot on.

Unless it was in the contract that sums invoiced after X date were not due, then they have to pay regardless of timeliness.

Invoice them. They knew they hadn't paid. I know plenty of small businesses who don't invoice smaller jobs until year end.