To think that if you get an invoice you dont NEED to pay it immediately?

[Hundredthmillionthdiet]

Context : used a new mechanic to repair car who issues invoices. Its taken 4 weeks to get the invoice and I've said to OH we can pay it when we get paid on Wednesday. OH wants to pay it now out savings , I'd rather not as more often than not the money doesn't get replaced (that's our issue not mechanics')

I'm not disputing paying it - of course not. Just opinions. Usually invoices will say pay withing x number of days which I've asked him to double check. Just wondering what's reasonable, as I'm sure there will be times cars need fixed etc and people to have the money immediately to hand.

The only reason I pay invoices immediately on receipt is that if I don't use forget 🤦‍♀️

As long as you're not late paying (which you won't be if you've literally only just received it) it's fine!

You should always pay invoices immediately, or as quickly as feasibly possible. Why on earth would you keep someone waiting for payment?

Wednesday is fine.

I’m amazed you managed to drive your car away without paying

Waiting until Wednesday is fine unless there's a due date on there that's sooner

If they were desperate, they'd have sent it before. Not 4 weeks later.

This. Though in this case I think a quick note to say Thankyou for the invoice, we will pay it next weds if that’s ok?

im a freelancer and it sucks how often I have to chase for invoices that are more than 30days past issue

Waiting till Wednesday is fine in those circumstances (the mechanic took a while to issue it etc) but generally I just pay them immediately, partly so I don't forget and partly because we had some really lean weeks as young children when people were slow to pay my dad's invoices

im a freelancer and it sucks how often I have to chase for invoices that are more than 30days past issue

This isn't 30 days though. It's the first day

You've had a month to set the money aside for it.

Normally we try to pay the same day so we don't forget but it might be the next day if we're busy that evening.

Unless the invoice says "pay within X days of receipt" where X is more than 7, I think waiting a week to pay it is out of order.

If you'd said pay it on Friday when you received it yesterday than that would have been fair enough, but a week is rude unless they've explicitly said it's ok.

Does it not say when it needs to be paid by on it?

Well presumably the mechanic can't be that desperate for payment or they wouldn't choose to use invoices and would require payment there and then - which all mechanics I've ever used have done.

If you want immediate payment you need to use an immediate payment system, i.e charge at point of service rather than delay charging.

Unless invoice says "pay within x days" and Wednesday is after that then payment isn't delayed. Exactly the same as with a credit card -if you receive your statement on the 1st and need to pay the balance by 14th then a payment made on the 13th isn't delayed.

Any mechanic I've used has always told us later how much it is with a text.

My OH was down last week to see how much it was and the mechanic said he had only sent out up to February's invoices.

You should always aim to pay off invoices as soon as possible. When it comes to money, I'm always very hot on timings anyway. Late payments lead to cashflow issues, so you don't want to keep them hanging. However, considering it took them 4 weeks to issue the bloody thing, I don't think cashflow is a concern for them.

We sit down and pay bills at most once a week. It’s really about every 10-12 days. It’s more just a matter of time management than cash flow.

im not going to rush to pay an invoice that didn’t arrive for a month. I’ll pay it when I process the next batch of bills.

Fair enough. A bit hard to budget when you don't know how much it is though.

If the invoice doesn't have payment terms on it, I would assume it needed paying as soon as possible. I'm surprised it wasn't pay on collection of your car anyway. Did you not ask for an estimate so you could budget for it? I also find that people who pay their bills more quickly get better service in future.

I have never used mechanic/garage who wait 4 weeks before issuing an invoice. I assume you knew the full cost of the repair, have driven the car around for a month and now cannot decide when to pay - in so much confusion that you need to ask a bunch of strangers as to what you should do.

I find it fascinating that people say "oh pay it instantly or you forget"..

...You all have smartphones?

Reminders apps, etc, with notification capabilities?

There's two things here.

Either you pay instantly using savings, then set a reminder to replenish savings on Wednesday when new money comes in

Or you pay Wednesday when the money becomes available, but you notify the mechanic and you ask them if that's ok.

Not paying until Wednesday, and not saying anything, is a bit of a poor option.

Why not just pay it now and then put the same amount into savings next Wed?

Pay by due date which is on invoice

And I find that bizarre, too. It's a licence for them to pull a number out of mid air.

Hardly. We did not know full cost of repair, and when we spoke to mechanic he said it would depend how long it was up on ramp and if there was other issues.

Its the week before pay day. I've never worked with a mechanic who uses invoices before. He's waited 4 weeks to ask for payment so I dont think it's unreasonable to wait till pay day surely (6 days) ?

Depends on the terms of the invoice. I have customers with accounts who have 30 days and I have occasional customers whose bills are payable on receipt. I'd be fine with Wednesday personally if you phoned and asked me but I would ask. Don't just leave it until he chases.