Unpaid invoices

[pickupthismess]

How long do you give someone to pay when they don't meet your invoice day? I have had a client miss the date and then sent a reminder but 7 days later no reply. This is a v difficult client and it has been a painful job but we have delivered and I expect to be paid.

give them a call

it is a complete pain but this has happened to me many times with huge companies that should know better

find out whether it is an accounting blip first before you get too cross - some companies leave invoices til the last date as a policy then they sit in an intray and you finally get a payment 2-4 weeks late aggghhhh

ring and speak to soemone in accounts/finance department - one of my clients has a whole host of late payers,a nd u=quite often it turns out that the invoice hasn't made it to accounts. Or so they claim. We've dealt t=with that by gettign a contact name and email address for accounts for each firm, and copy them in with the initial invoice, then they can't claim not to have it.

This isn't a big company but a very small one. If I ring I will have to speak to the person that has caused so much difficulty. I am cocnerned about getting caught into a wider conversation about their perceived issues with what I have done for them.

There is something called late payment legislation, if you google it - this entitles you to add interest for days overdue I believe. I'm not an expert on this, it will need some research, but in my experience a gentle nudge with this mentioned in a letter can work wonders

I've noticed that it's a good thing to add something to quotations/invoices mentioning that you are able to exercise this sort of thing in the event of late payment.

HTH

link to late payment legislation gubbins

Thanks v much this could be the answer.

When was it dated and when did you expect for it to be paid?

I would normally expect to be paying any invoices dated March in the next couple of days/week. No matter what it says on the persons invoice. Unless I had specific instructions from top boss to pay early.

One of my clients won't be paying March for another 2 weeks.

I'd give them a phone and jolly them along. They'll just ignore any written reminders I'll bet.

Well unfortunately I have just been told they are not paying and so I am going to have to take them to court. At the very last minute (shortly before the project was delivered) they asked for something outside scope. They are not happy that this would be charged for (although they agreed to pay) and now they will not pay that bill, or the original one. I am VERY upset as we did an exceptional piece of work and they used it so how dare they not pay.

Such a shame when people treat you this way - this is your living. We also had a non payer (it was an agency) and also took them to court and won the case. I would advise that you send them a 7 day letter as the courts look for this. Also if you win the case and they still don't pay any further action costs you additional monies (baliff fees etc), I hope the 7 day letter will be enough to make them pay what is due - good luck

if you have done the work and there is evidence to support this they dont have a leg to stand on

call citizen's advice - you can then send them a standard letter which may resolve things faster than taking to court

I have a friend who is a Freelance writer for various magazines, trade journals, book publishers and national newspapers.

He told me years ago that 'late payment' ad 'not getting paid' is norious in the publishing industry. He has a very strict procedure and starts by phoning, then wrting and then dragging them to court on a small claim.

It works every time he says and once he has the money he never works for them again. He says he has now weeded out the bad apples.

Ok so is this 7 day letter a standard one or do I just say they have 7 days to pay? This one is obviously going to end up in court. Anyone got any advice about this. What kind of stuff do I need to think about?

Surreylady I have another Q. I have read that you can ask for the monies owed and costs (as you have to pay a fee don't you) and interest. Was this your experience?

Sorry missed this - yes we asked for and got costs and you can also ask for interest in some cirumstnaces (i.e if there were payemnt T&C's that have been exceeded)- same rules apply in terms of extracting the monies unfortunately.