We have one family that on average, pays late every 2 months (we charge in arrears monthly).
As my wife & I care for so many different children, we had a situation last November where 4 parents had not paid nearly 30 days after their invoices had to be sent to them, accounting for around 40% of our monthly income.
Lesson learnt, & an e-mail sent out informing all of them that with immediate effect, fees not paid in full within 10 days of the date on their invoice, results in a late fee for each day that it remains outstanding.
Those parents that had never paid late, wholeheartedly agreed with what we were doing. The others pulled rank & have never paid late since.
All except for one family, who every couple of months (& sometimes, consecutive months) end up receiving a text AND an e-mail informing them that their bill has not been paid in full by the given time, & to avoid any unnecessary late fees, that they need to settle it immediately.
Of course, this family wishes to pay some of their bill with Childcare vouchers....which as most of you know take a number of days to go through the system (as opposed to most bank transfers which now take less than a day to land in your account, thanks to 'faster payment').
This results in their following month's invoice having the previous month's late fees added to it.
The way I see it, parents that have their children cared for should be viewing us CMs in the same way that they have to account for bills they HAVE to pay monthly (utility, gym, mortgage, etc). Quite how they 'forget' mystifies me.
I prefer it when invoices are settled in full promptly because then neither my wife or I have to go through the awkward reminder process. But I'm sure any parent that frustrates a CM by paying late, would kick up a fuss if they were paid late by their own employer...