Freelancer late payment

[LoTheFlatHillsOfMyHomeland]

I'm a writer and I wrote an article for a national uk organisation 2 months ago. After they accepted it for publication, they said I would be paid within 30 days (as is standard practice). It has now been 40 days, the woman who was supposed to pay me is on holiday and they won't deal with me for another 15 days!! What can I do?!

I'm really angry The sum is about £200 so not crazy high but still important obviously.

I'm happy to make the organisation if anyone wants

If it's a national organisation they will have an accounts department with more than one person working there. Ring the switchboard and ask for accounts payable.

Do you have a signed contract with them? Is it yours, or theirs?

If yours, what does it say that you'll do if it's late? Do you have late penalties detailed?

If theirs, does it mention a payment schedule in writing?

What have you put as terms of payment in your contract. Can you add interest after a certain period? That will motivate them.

Check any written contract (or other evidence, like emails) and write a polite reminder letter addressed to the accounts department.

My husband is a freelancer and it's a tricky one especially if you expect to work regularly for the organisation in question. DH's main client occasionally pays late, but as they are generally a quick payer he accepts this is just part of the risk of being self-employed. Generally, once he has chased the accounts department, overdue invoices do get paid on the next payment run.

Yes, there is a contract (theirs) and it informs me I should be paid within 30 days. I will be adding interest, I think generally accepted guidelines are £40. No late penalties detailed on contract. They don't have a number anywhere online but reception who I eventually made contact with were spectacularly unhelpful...

Thanks mistigri I wouldn't be so annoyed if someone at least bothered to let me know what was going on. Payment will be at least 2 months late when woman returns from hol. They haven't even taken my bank details so that the payment can be made

I'm waiting on @£5k of late payments atm. I'm a freelance too. It's very annoying but goes with the territory I'm afraid. When I do this month's invoices at the end of this week I will give them all a polite nudge. Then I'll republish the blog I wrote on the subject on all my social media platforms - I will also link the chasing email to the blog post .

Thanks everyone. Is this standard then? I have not been freelance for long!

I currently have £7K outstanding. It is always the same late payers who always needed to be reminded a handful of times before actually paying for the service they are receiving

You really haven't been freelancing long, have you - sorry, that sounds PA, but late payment is incredibly common. 10 days is nothing, I had an outstanding payment from a multi-national that was 6 months late! (They were still wrangling internally about who should pay the bill...)

Is your contract 30 days from date of invoice or publication, btw? One of my publishing jobs is 30 days from pub, which in a monthly magazine adds a couple of months. Most of my corporates are 30 days from date of invoice, but things still go wrong, invoices get lost, etc etc.

Why aren't your bank details on the invoice?

If you're a freelancer, it's really common - I think I'm paid late more often than I'm paid on time!

Clients that pay quickly always get preferential treatment - I want to keep them.

Late payers get nudged, and one very late payment got as far as a letter of intent to claim before they paid up (a reduced amount in the end, but it was that or take them to court)

Might be wrong but this kind of reads like you haven't actually invoiced them and are reliant on the contract between you.

That doesn't prevent you from raising an invoice as soon as the job is done and billable in future, id suggest you do that so that you at least have a date at which you can say the 30 day clock is ticking.

I'm pretty sure you can't charge interest unless it was already in your terms and conditions. Again, I may be wrong, but the only suppliers that have raised the threat of interest have it clearly marked in t and C's. I'd tread carefully over billing them that as it may just slow your main payment.

I don't freelance, but I do pay supplier invoices. 10 days isn't even considered "late" by most accountants responsible for making payments, so not unusual. Even in large businesses there will only be one or two payment runs per month (it's not practical to pay invoices every day) so if you just missed the last one sometimes there is quite a wait for the next one.

These large online media companies have a lot of presence online but probably have a pretty small accounts department.

It may not even be the accounts depts fault, they are likely waiting for the department that commissioned your work to say "ok to pay"

Above probably Doesn't really help you, but this does sound a fairly "normal delay".from your own planning perspective, I think it's best to get into the mindset that you would like to be paid in 30 days but to assume you will actually get paid in 45-60. Might be painful for a few months, but will save you a lot of stress in the long run.

There are means of pressuring it further, small claims court, debtor recovery letters, but imo they are only justified for 3 months or older debt, anything less is usual course of business.

In my experience the bad payers (i.e slow but they do always pay) are often the best customers in every other respect, so it's a rough with the smooth thing.

Presume you invoiced? Why aren't your bank details on the invoice?

Honestly 30 days is almost NEVER 30 days. Sometimes it's 30 days from the time that they "receive" your invoice i.e. when Accounts Payable process it into the system, which could be nearly 30 days after the date on your invoice. And then it depends on the frequency of their payment runs etc. Average time would be 2 months I reckon, so factor that into your cash-flow forecast.

Best not to get too riled about it early on if they are a new client, but try to establish what their process is and how you can make it go smoothly! If you can get a number or email for someone in Accounts that is usually best.

Small company rather than freelancer, but the same applies to us (and I'm sure the companies paying don't distinguish between who has invoiced them). Had one recently where we had to go through small claims - they paid before it got to court, but they had to pay the fees etc so I don't know why they pushed it so much.

That's why the directors when they set up ensured they always had a float so cashflow wasn't an issue. Yes it's not doing anything for them sat in a bank account but the amount of hassle it saves is worth it.

They'll laugh if you try to add interest - and never use you again. You just have to be polite but incredibly persistent.

Agree with Vernonon. - and with Lenny - bank details on invoice, no interest and plan for this.

It is annoying though. I am a freelancer and can wait ages for my money. If some people take too long to pay I stop working for them. The quick payers get my best service!

Your invoice should always include your bank details. Did you do that? Is it 30 days from receipt of invoice or from delivery signed off? Have they confirmed that they got your invoice? I work with a lot of freelancers and invoices do go missing sometimes, so call them with your invoice number and check that it is logged in their system

Yes sorry I did include my bank details with my invoice, and yes they did receive it (was emailed over).

It's 30 days from publication.

For various reasons I'm pretty sure I don't want to work for them again but point taken about adding interest

I find this a little but that is because I am owed the best part of £40k over the course of my career - money I doubt I will ever see. Oh, what I could do with that... I am usually paid months/years? after doing a job. 40 days would be brilliant!

Agree it's annoying but goes with the territory. I go by how much I want work from them again which is usually always! When I freelanced a lot I set aside an hour a week to chase up late payments. That way I just fumed once a week and didn't let it get to me the rest of the time.

Agree 40 days is not a lot, although I do harass on day 31, because I'm a sole freelancer. After 60 days (and several emails) I threaten small claims court and add a late fee of £40 (which is a late fee and NOT interest, interest is charged differently). That, coupled with them having to pay back the £30 that small claims court usually costs, usually means they pay up promptly.