Should I jump through hoops to be paid for a job completed

[orangesnapples]

Hi.
I don't know if I'm being unreasonable.
I'm self employed and was booked by a local establishment.
Invoice was sent a week before the job,
Work was completed and received fantastic feedback.
After week or so AFTER the job I inquired about the clearing of the invoice and was told I would have to complete their in house system.
Which took me several hours and 2 calls to the help line just to get on to the system.
Was told it would be 6 days from then. That was the first week of August and I still haven't received pay.
I have messaged the client who booked me twice since asking for the invoice to be cleared.
Today I asked that the balance be cleared by end of the day.
I received a reply that I need to redo their system AGAIN.
I have refused and explained that my fee has not taken into account all of this extra admin work as I was not aware of this system until after the job had been completed.
I have been in this business for 12 years and have never had to go through this process, and iv worked for some pretty big corporations.
This is a local establishment.
Am I being unreasonable in refusing to start this process again.

small claims court?

You send them an invoice for late payment and "if not paid within 7 days legal action will be taken" and go online and do a small claims court process.

Did they sign a contract with you, with your Ts&Cs in it?

how much are we talking here?
and is this a material amount to you?

Invoice was sent a week before the job,

but no payment taken? and you did the job anyway?

They are stalling, possibly they have cash flow issues. I agree with pp. Resend the invoice Tracked, marked as a copy, with a letter saying 7 days or you take legal action. And mean it.

Yes contract signed.
Yes I did the job, without payment as I used to this not being a problem for businesses.
I have had a response saying that this is normal and in order for me to be paid o need to complete their system.
Iv replied that it only normal for them and I was not aware of this system until after the job was completed and was not included in the qoute.
It's not a small amount.

They can’t do they. You’re self employed so you give them your terms and payment method. You sent them the invoice with is instructions for how to pay, and they accepted that when they agreed and said they wanted you. They have to pay you according to your invoice instructions. You’re not an employee so they can’t tell you what to do with this.

Send them a letter before action by email. Just get a template online and email it today, and include the extra detail about their system and the hours it takes which have not been included in your fee. Send it to the person who contracted you and the payroll people you’ve spoken to and whoever else could get this moving.

odd to invoice before you start work

do you usually do that?

Although the extra admin work is a pain, I think I'd do it once. But if they have somehow screwed it up so you need to do it a second time then that's on them and you should definitely tell them that. I agree with giving a deadline and then proceeding to small claims.

A lot of contractors do that. Have you never used childcare? (As an example)

If you've got proof that you complied with their system the first time, i.e. email confirmation, or a screen print of the completion confirmation, or similar, then tell them to swivel and start debt collection procedure.

Otherwise, you're on shakier ground as you've no proof you did it.

These days, with more an more automated accounting, lots of firms, even smaller ones, are using online systems requiring invoices to be uploaded to portals etc along with "proof" the work has been done, etc etc. A couple of years ago, they were pretty rare and only for bigger organisations, but now most businesses, even the smallest, are using online semi automated accounting, this is becoming pretty normal.

You could easily end up with legal disputes because whilst the customer didn't include in their order acceptance, their T&Cs saying the invoice processing procedure (I presume they didnt), I presume your own T&Cs don't say that you'll expect payment x days after sending them a paper invoice either (I presume they don't). So there's ambiguity as to payment procedure from both sides, I'd expect!

Can you ask to speak to someone who doesn't have to abide by the "computer" or "rules"

This.

Businesses like the one you're dealing with only seem to respond to the threat of legal action if they haven't already coughed up.

Hi, I work in accounts payable - believe me it’s entirely likely your customer jus has ludicrous over-engineered process to get paid.

You should find it pretty easy to find the email address of the UK CEO or finance director . I would politely forward your latest communication with the accounts team and say:
”Final Notice:
with ref my invoice no. Xxx for £x.xx : your payment is now seriously overdue. Please provide your remittance advice today to avoid further costs and legal action. I provide all requested information to your accounts payable/procurement department already and I will be obliged to bill you for the administrative time-cost of reperforming these actions if your company requires it.“

Send them a Letter before Action, make them aware they are also liable for your additional costs incurred to secure payment. If they still don't pay, follow through. Some firms don't pay until threatened. My ex-h ran his business in this way. It's absolutely disgraceful and there is no need for it.

may depend on the date the invoice was issued. Many companies don’t pay until the end of the following month i.e invoice August pay end of September.

This is a disgrace agree with above: email finance director giving 7 days to pay or small claims court, which is easy enough. I must’ve done this at least 20 times and have never lost a case

even if they have an overengineered payment system it's on them to use it.
not you.

What are your payment terms? This happens all the time where I work, and it is quite frankly embarrassing that a company of 9000 employees can't figure out how to pay subbies on time. The ones I work with are usually one man bands and are reliant on that income I mean everyone is but you know what I mean.

I hope you get it sorted.

unless you are the it contractor who has set up that invoicing system yanbu

Clearly you don't work in any kind of job that involves modern payment systems

I sit in an open plan office and hear conversations about this regularly. If you want to get paid you have to jump through the hoops.

Obviously they should be simple to navigate and fair to the person who has done the work but in practice I know that isn't always the case. There's no point in trying to beat the system, it's not how it works if they use a payment process like that

Yes. I had to set up a account and then download a authentication app, then upload my passport etc. for it to refuse to authenticate, so was trying to figure that out before I called them and spent around 30 - 40 minutes on the phone while they helped.
They said on the phone that this system is lengthy and should have been set up before the job and certainly I should have been made aware.

Thank you for all your great advice and time. I appreciate you all.

This.
Stop messing around and go legal.