Invoicing/contract questions

[RockinInAFreeWorld]

Hi all

A few questions from someone who has been out of the freelance game for a good while I would appreciate guidance on!

1. How frequent do you submit invoices for work carried out on an hourly rate? Weekly? I’ll be doing approx. 4 hours copywriting a week for 2-3 months.

1. When do you decide to draw up a contract, rather than just sent invoices in?

1. If you have a contract with a late payment clause what penalty/interest do you charge? The last time I did freelance work I just sent invoices in which were paid on time; lately I hear more and more horror stories of (copywriters especially!) having to chase and chase invoices

Many thanks.

Hi,

I invoice after I have completed. Or for this type of work i.e. 4 hours per week would invoice on a monthly basis.

I have only once in seven years tried to charge interest but in the end just was happy to get paid. I think that generally it would not work in my field, and indeed would make people choose not to hire me.

Best,

I do all my invoicing (sending out & paying suppliers) on the 1st of the month.

If it's one particular project, I invoice after the project is complete.

If I'm working for a client on an ongoing basis, I invoice them monthly for the hours I've done the previous month.

I only do a contract if the client asks for it. However I make sure there is an email which sets out my terms and conditions and which they agree to by email.

I have never charged for late payment; my terms are 30 days and until recently I had never been paid more than a couple of weeks' late. I usually wait until an invoice is 7 days' overdue before sending a chase up email, that normally does the trick. However i have a new client who is a v. bad payer & am thinking of introducing this for them.