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Original poster

To be pissed off that clients haven't paid me and it's Christmas :(

52 replies

Simplecountrygirl · 21/12/2016 16:57

As title. Just a rant really as I need to vent.

I'm self employed. Sent 3 invoices out last week, none of them have been paid (payment terms are 48 hours as these are regular customers that get invoiced fortnightly) Sent another 4 out yesterday (with the same terms) and I'm yet to receive a penny there either.

When it's just the odd one or two fine but that's 6 people that I have a feeling I won't be getting money from (some of them are regular late payers!) and that adds up to a lot Sad I'm really struggling this month anyway and I could really do without the hassle Angry I don't want to chase, I HATE having to chase and even if I do I don't know if I'll get paid but it pisses me off that people put my in this position in the first place.

Argh!!

OP posts:
topcat2014 · 21/12/2016 18:01

tbh I pay invoices between 30 & 60 days and we are a well run business. If you are wanting weekly payments you might want to look at accepting credit cards or something. 48 hour payments wouldn't work in my line of work

Crisscrosscranky · 21/12/2016 18:02

48 hours is tight - most invoices we receive at work are 14 days which works well for us as we run payments every fortnight.

I would extend the payment term and add in late payment charges from next year.

alltouchedout · 21/12/2016 18:03

Don't you start charging some sort of interest/ fees when they are a certain amount of time late paying? (Someone will have to tell me how legal that is because I don't actually know).
I sympathise, when DH was self employed people not paying him for aaaaaages was awful. It showed us both that we really should not be trying to run a business, too, as we were both crap at chasing payments.

topcat2014 · 21/12/2016 18:07

Late payment interest would generally only be chargeable after 60 days plus

Jaxhog · 21/12/2016 18:15

You can try charging interest, but many will just ignore it. I find the bigger the organisation, the later they pay. I've stopped working for large companies because I got fed up waiting months and months to get paid.
Small businesses are usually great, because they understand what it means.

GreekGod · 21/12/2016 18:16

I also have my own business but I very rarely issue invoices the last two weeks of December unless someone asks me too. Experience has shown me over the years that mid-December to mid-January is an awful time when it comes to getting paid.

TrashPanda · 21/12/2016 18:22

I don't really understand the argument that 48 hours in too short a time frame. Surely when you want to contract someone self employed to do something for you, you are told price/expected time frame and payment terms as part of the quote for the service. If you go ahead and continue at that point and the self employed person carries out whatever service they do you then pay them acording to the terms you agreed when you told them to do the job. If you don't agree to those terms then why let them do the job, either negotiate different terms or find someone else. Don't just pay whenever you fancy.

mollyblack · 21/12/2016 18:28

I have sympathy for you OP. I have my own business and spend a lot of time trying to diplomatically chase payment. It's all very well people saying "set your own payment terms" but clients pay when they pay and often can't be rushed. Some of my best clients are terrible payers. I know I will get the monety but it can be 60+ days which is awful for cashflow. I have been checking the bank all day today to see if any outstanding payments have been made so I can make all my 1st Jan financial commitments (at home and work) as well as tax bill, its so stressful. On paper it's great, in reality it is a massive juggling job.

For this very reason I paid my freelancers today, there was no way I'd leave that with them not having the money for Christmas, but bigger companies don't differentiate and you have to just work with their system sigh

Original poster
Simplecountrygirl · 21/12/2016 19:05

I know 48 hours isn't a lot of time, and in fairness I give people 7 days normally BEFORE chasing them, but this week I REALLY need people to pay within the 48 hours stated on the invoice.

No I'm not a childminder but you're not too far off.

I'm a reasonable person and if someone came to me and said 'look I'm really sorry but cash flow is a major issue right now, it'll be a couple of weeks late/ January' or whatever then I would be fine with that (I'd just have to suck it up) but it's when you send an invoice and then....nothing. Meanwhile, I am still undertaking the service for them Angry

I'm going to do a chase tomorrow I think. It's just awkward and I hate it.

Luckily I do also have some amazing customers who either have standing orders set up or pay within a few hours of the invoice being sent out (especially since I am all set up on their internet/ mobile banking etc)

Lesson learnt for next year, invoice in advance!

OP posts:
mimishimmi · 21/12/2016 19:15

We require a 50% deposit just to take the booking and payment in full on the morning before we start any work. Could be quite tricky if a bride can't pay on the day but NOT our problem! It doesn't work otherwise... you just spend forever chasing people.

YouTheCat · 21/12/2016 19:16

Invoice in advance with a 'payment by this date' and then tell them that you will be charging a set amount for late payments in future. Then stick to that. If they are routinely late paying you don't provide the service for them any more.

Lynnm63 · 21/12/2016 19:19

PoliticalBiscuit they did once the summons made it to their legal department. We still refused to go back and work for them. Once you factored the time chasing payment and the worry they weren't going to pay it wasn't worth the effort.

Amateurish · 21/12/2016 19:20

48 hours is very very short. 30 / 15 days is the norm for most suppliers. I would consider anything less than 2 weeks to be pushing it. You are setting yourself up for a lot of stress. In my business, we moved almost all clients (private individuals) to a pay up front model. As long as they know the score from the outset, it's generally not a problem. The few clients who have objected are politely told to take their business elsewhere.

JaniceBattersby · 21/12/2016 19:20

My husband runs a small business. One firm he works for (run by a pair of millionaires) has owed him £7k for two months. They are notoriously late-payers. He chased them last week for the millionth time and they said they couldn't possibly pay him before Christmas as they were all on a fucking yacht in the Seychelles and wouldn't be back before new year. The fucking fucking bastards. They know we have three kids, another due in Jan and Christmas to pay for.

BoneyBackJefferson · 21/12/2016 19:38

I give clients 30 days (waits for posters to say you have a full time job etc.) any that mess me around I don't work for again.

MiddlingMum · 21/12/2016 20:10

What annoys me is when people say they haven't paid because of cash flow issues, then in the next sentence tell you all about their new sofa or holiday they've just booked Angry

VeryBitchyRestingFace · 21/12/2016 20:17

Refusetobeaaheep - what about people like the OP?
Relying on that money to live?!
Surely you should pay a bill within a reasonable/agreed timeframe? I would be extremely unimpressed if I was made to wait a month to be paid for a job because the customer thought it 'inefficient' shock

I'm self employed. My payment terms are one month. Like Refusetobeasheep says, a lot of businesses may only run payments once a month. Your T&Cs will not be adhered to if businesses is not set up to issue payments more frequently.

I would be thrilled to be paid within the month. It rarely happens, regardless of my clearly stated T&Cs. I have to chase and chase and chase.

Getting paid within 48 hours sounds like a dream. But I suspect OP and I must be in very different industries.

harderandharder2breathe · 21/12/2016 20:18

Those querying the short timescale, those are the terms that the OPs clients have agreed to, so it really doesn't matter what other companies do.

RandomDent · 21/12/2016 20:22

My husband is self employed. We find that it's the big companies including international banks who are the worst at paying.

VeryBitchyRestingFace · 21/12/2016 20:24

My husband is self employed. We find that it's the big companies including international banks who are the worst at paying.

That's my experience.

Often it's the little companies, who have no dedicated admin function, let alone a finance department, who are the most prompt at paying.

DanglyEarOrnaments · 21/12/2016 20:31

Our terms are to be paid on the day of service, which is a norm within our industry but some don't do it, most of those ones do tend to pay within a week of the service though which is all we need.

We have an admin person who chases in late payments and also offer a direct debit payment facility in order to help clients make their payments on time.

But having said all that we are personally lucky to be trading in an industry where demand for good service is higher than supply of such a service therefore we can change out clients if the prove to be detrimental to cashflow. We have got rid of a couple over the years who persisted in causing us cashflow issues, margins are tight and we simply couldn't afford to offer credit terms when other paying clients were waiting for our services.

I do feel for you OP, I wish we could change the system so that small business can survive and make it. Until then you need to stand firm behind your terms and conditions. Consider paying someone to chase the money in, it may prove worth it in the long run.

trilbydoll · 21/12/2016 20:31

Big companies have lots of layers of hierachy, lots of sign off limits, and lots of invoices to process. That's why they're slow, they also won't notice that your invoice is missing. DH reviewed a 77 page payment run the other week, it had about 3,000 suppliers on it.

A tiny company who knows that Simon the plumber was in last week will be looking out for the invoice and will pay it in about 10 minutes.

Definitely chase op, they can't be too huffy when it's them in the wrong.

Love51 · 21/12/2016 20:42

If its something like tutoring, do the surcharge thing. It focuses the mind. Perhaps give terms that allow a longer time period than 48hours, a week seems reasonable.

haveacupoftea · 21/12/2016 21:12

OP obviously isn't invoicing other businesses, but individual clients for a service like cleaning or whatever. 30 days is the norm for businesses to process their invoices as they are done at the end of the month, but you don't pay your babysitter, mechanic or cleaner after 30 days, you just pay when the job is done.

Sorry to hear you haven't been paid OP, obviously your clients are dodging you before Christmas. Most monthly salaries will probably be paid before the end of this week so you might get a couple more payments in if you send a reminder.

Bipbopbee · 03/01/2017 17:24

Hope you have now been paid op. I am still waiting payment from a client for a job done on the day ( always paid on the day itself usually )