To think this is unprofessional?

I don’t work on spec—I get paid the day of service. I don’t see why I would wait for two to four weeks?

DH and I have both been freelance for over 10 years. No company in either of our professions (which are totally different) would ever agree a contract which stated that they would pay within 5 days – you just wouldn't get the work on those terms.

That said, @PigeonEgg if he did agree it and you have that in writing, he should abide by the terms of the contract. It may just be his style of communicating, so I wouldn't jump to a red flag, but I would definitely remind him of the terms of your invoice. How stroppily you do this probably depends on how much you want/need to work for him again!

I read it differently, that he wasn’t going to log into his internet bank account until he had notification that other people had paid him. Then he would pay you, and check the other payments had gone in. I thought he meant he was going to do all his financial admin at the same time.

28 days is usual terms for all the free lancers in my business too.

I read it as he meant he was waiting for some more invoices to come in and he’d pay them all together. I’m probably totally wrong though!

I've never heard of payment within 5 days - I think it's unrealistic, so maybe he's panicking. I put 14 days and then start sending reminders until charging interest after 30 days.

I'm not sure legally you can start charging interest until it's over 30 days, can you?

If you were an employee you would be paid monthly. Why would you be at financial risk as a freelance being paid at the end of the month?

It might be industry specific but for all the PLCs I’ve worked for getting an invoice paid outside our normal terms required sign off by the CFO and was such an enormous issue that no one ever used a freelance with those terms more than once!

@PigeonEgg I've just started a small business and cash is low on the ground, there's no way I'd be hiring someone not knowing when and if I could pay them. Is he not anxious and embarrassed?

For freelancers, this is not an unusual payment term. Large companies often insist on payment terms of 30 days, but individuals shouldn't have to carry such a financial risk. I have a payment term of 7 days, but almost all other freelancers I know require payment upon receipt of invoice.

I'd have read that sentence (obviously without the context of the rest of the message whihc might change it) as he's waiting for other bills to come in and he'll pay them all together. I work for a very small business and try to do that as its just easier to do all in one go.

As long as he does pay within the 5 days then just ignore it. It could just be conversational, they could have a casual way of speaking which sounds a little unprofessional.
Is there anything else to suggest the guys business is failing? Does his company make a profit?
If he is late do you have a plan or policy in place?
I'd say until he is actually late you should probably give him the benefit of the doubt.

YANBU, we run our own business and this is what we hear all the time.

We do give 30 days though.

Always amazes me that seemingly huge companies have zero cash flow, its worrying.

YANBU - as you say, he should have enough funds in reserve for payments like that. If he doesn't, he shouldn't be taking on freelancers.

5 days is very short although I'd usually pay an invoice within that time. I find 14 or 28 days to be more usual. I did recently have a tradesman who did some work in our house. As he left he said "I'll send you your invoice this afternoon and I'd like to be paid today to avoid having to have any awkward conversations about chasing payment" 😐 Put me right off using him again.

But I digress. I don't think you are unreasonable to see this as unprofessional. The bit about waiting for other payments was totally unnecessary.

I’ve never worked anywhere where freelancers got paid within 5 days of an invoice being sent (media). You must only work for tiny organisations or one man bands if you have been able to enforce that. Everywhere I’ve worked has 2 payment runs per month and you get paid on the first payment run 28 days after your invoice has been sent.

That’s really normal accounting practice for big companies. I’m surprised you haven’t encountered this before.

If not being paid within 5 days doesn’t work for you however, I think you may just have to decline further work from this client. That assumes that you will have other work to fill that time however and that it’s economically better for you not to have the work at all than be paid on a normal schedule.

Make sure you bill small and regular if you keep working for him. At first sign of non payment, I'd pause the work until payment was received.

Depends - is the invoice due immediately or is there a 7-14 day payment window? If the latter, then I think it’s professional to acknowledge receipt and that it’ll be paid shortly.

Some people are just unnecessarily chatty, I wouldn't read too much into it. However, as a freelancer, I allow 28 days for payment. 5 days is too short for a lot of people especially if they are larger companies that need to clear it with their finance department.

Pay it no mind. You have payment terms, so as long as he sticks to those, don’t worry yourself. I agree with pp that five days is quite short though most contracts we deal with are also 28 days, but I work for a large company so that might be why.

I agree that 5 days is completely unrealistic. It is more usual to have a payment period of 28 or 30 days. I was a freelancer for a long time, and part of that is accepting that payments aren't reliable and come in "as and when".