That an invoice should be the same as a pay check...

[PlinkiePlonk]

I work for myself for a few clients so obviously send invoices. Sometimes they are pretty late to be paid and sometimes only after quite a lot of badgering (always extremely politely before anyone decides to take a side track about what my tone might be). But am I being unreasonable that it’s not fair people think they just pay invoices as and when, whilst you know that if it was their pay check that was late they would raise hell if it was late? And indeed the fact that you have to be polite and an element ‘accepting’ that things won’t just automatically be paid on time is also a bit absurd?

I think it's the way of the world.

Do you have in your T&Cs that invoices are payable within X days and if not will be subject to interest or something?

Depending on the work can you do payment on the day / in advance?

Just switched a client to pro for a as they’ve a crap record of paying within the agreed timescales.

Take payment up front where you can.

Or have a chat with each client and explain them at the payment terms are non negotiable.

I work for a medium sized business. We, for eg, pay January invoices in mid February etc, however, the business policy has always been that invoices from small businesses or individuals are paid on the day they’re received, as the money is needed to keep those business going, so no YANBU

I think it's the way of the world

And it needs to change. Businesses need to pay their invoices on time. I didn't realise how much of a problem this was until I worked for a very small organisation, then I was shocked at how much accounts teams drag their feet over paying bills, you'd think it was their own money! So many excuses, so many delaying tactics.

I've been working freelance for the past year and my clients are very good, I rarely have to chase. You usually have a bit more leverage if they want you to do more work for them because then you can say you need the first invoice paying before you proceed with anything else, and then it magically gets paid.

My payment terms are 14 days. Some freelancers insist on payment or part-payment in advance. I don't think it would work for the sort if work I do, but can certainly work if you set up a retainer and charge in advance for it.

Halfofyou that's amazing. One of my clients tends to pay the day they receive my invoice, at worst 2-3 days later. I am always so grateful for that!

I have clients 7 weeks to pay on my last set of invoices, as it was over Christmas wanted to give plenty of notice. When I stuck to my t and cs with someone and said no further work until she paid, I got an abusive email saying I was being unreasonable... er she was the one having free work effectively?!

*i gave

Yes exactly elles - you stick to t&c’s (which they signed) and can put the whole thing at risk if they decide to take the hump.

Teen - it’s rarely that simple. It’s not like building a house where at least you can say you will lay a certain amount of bricks on a day. It’s projects that run on.

We have a garage/petrol station where it is very much the norm people pay then and there. We still have those who want to call back later and pay for their cars, take a week or longer to pay for fuel if they forgot their wallet. For the later we often have to threaten police action and they don't see the fuss. It's our garage we're not a big chain so it is our money they're messing around with, we can't afford to risk stuff not being paid and being delayed the payment is just a piss take as we want to look after our customers to keep them coming back so it is annoying when some repay your efforts with delayed payment.

We are in the construction industry. It's shocking.

Week at least in hand. Often 2 weeks. Then paid in arrears. Sometime weekly, sometimes fortnightly, sometimes monthly. 5%+ retainer held back for 12 months+ plus until client pays our client. If there are any issues, even if it's not our work, it gets delayed and often just disappears.

Often not paid on time. Too many times not paid at all. Often paid short until the QS has verified the work we quite often put up 3 weeks ago because they are super busy and super important you see.

And to add insult to injury we are stopped 20% CIS tax at source which we then claim back annually from HMRC. So we pay all expenses plus our income tax like an employed person. But we are self employed so have all the risks of cash flow failing. But pay income tax up front and claim expenses back. We don't even get the luxury of the personal tax allowance until we claim in back so HMRC sits on at least 2k of every single self employed subcontractor in the construction industry until they claim it back.

And the government keep telling us how important the construction industry is to the economy. But contractors and hmrc quite literally screw us over on a daily basis.

I do a similar job and rely on people settling invoices to get paid. Luckily the clients I work for on a regular basis are very understanding and pay me within usually 2 to 3 days of me sending an invoice. If not, a polite email prompts them to pay.

I hate chasing for money. It's awkward and uncomfortable. Just pay me.

I work for a very large company. We pay our suppliers between 60 and 90 days from receipt of invoice. Cash flow has a huge impact financially.

Yanbu and I usually find it's the large organisations are the worst at doing this.

I work for a very large company. We pay our suppliers between 60 and 90 days from receipt of invoice. Cash flow has a huge impact financially

Completely outrageous for a large company to do this with smaller suppliers. 60 to 90 days when the late payment legislation says 30?

Yanbu but I work in finance and it's my job to pay all these invoices . unfortunately you will be 1 invoice of 100s to pay and it can be a variety of reasons not received invoice , goods not received , price query etc . The best thing to do email , phone be polite but firm never rude and insist that the invoice is paid within the week .

The worst one I ever saw was in the mid 00s when an overseas company's payment terms were 180 days from the end of the month in which they received the invoice.

Our prompt payers get a much better service and attitude to the work we do for them over the laggers. It's not intentional, but it is psychological. Obviously you want to work for people who pay you on time! And any jobs prompt payers have will be prioritised. I don't think they see that sadly but it is an unintentional bonus and I suspect the same in any other small business.

There is legislation against late payment - it doesn't get enforced very often, but it's very much in favour of the invoicer.

Welcome to the world of freelancing. Sadly this has become the norm in many industries. You can set out all the T&C you want, but you are essentially powerless against the big boys. Unless you are truly irreplaceable, which is rare.

My clients T&C routinely stated that invoices would be paid 3 months after x-th day of the month in which they were submitted. Meaning, if I missed x-date by a few days, I'd effectively be waiting 4 months. To get around this, I would invoice in stages for larger projects, i.e. at the start middle and on completion. Still sucks though.

Enforced is the wrong word - it doesn't get used very often is a better way of putting it. Refer to it in your ts and cs and reference it on invoices.

We are having building work done, and we always pay the invoice the day we get it. Some of their stories of late or non payment are shocking.

Bigger companies have to report every six months on their payment practices, i.e. how long on average it takes them to pay, so you can check as part of your DD before contract to do work for them.

Most companies do not care about the cash flow of their suppliers- The money, from their perspective, is better in their account than in yours.
Cash flow is a huge problem in most companies- profit does not equal cash flow. Most accounts payable departments will have a budget and the suppliers will be split into a hierarchy. Utilities and key suppliers first and downwards to the less critical at the bottom. Most likely whoever you speak to in the accounts department has no say in who gets paid or what their payment budget is for the period.
My first proper job was an accounts payable clerk for a construction company cica 2007/08- it was absolutely hellish being shouted at all day as we hadn't paid people. I had to take the abuse despite not knowing if I would be paid myself. I was made redundant, the company went bust- nobody got paid.

If it is causing you problems with your cash flow you can introduce incentives, like discount if paid in 7 days, or interest if paid late. Or if they are repeat offenders I would suggest switching to proforma.

The onus is on you as a supplier to credit check your customers before giving them payment terms too.

I worked for a multinational company and used to confidently send authorised invoices each week to the accounts payable. I discovered to my horror that regardless of the payment terms (7, 10, 28 days, whatever), nothing was paid until 60 days after they received it. In the end, I used to give the direct number of the accounts payable to creditors as there was nothing I could do myself to get things paid earlier (although it didnt stop some creditors ringing me back after drawing a blank with the payment team ). One creditor used to do work for our client but not us as he knew that he wouldn't be paid for ages. So embarrassing.

pedant- a lot of the big supermarkets are still like that i'm afraid. Especially with seasonal suppliers. I've dealt with 9month EOM before.
Standard for most places is 30-60DEOM