how many days do you give the client to pay?

[lethal0r]

I currently give my clients 30 days to pay after I have sent them an invoice.

I only chose this figure because it seems the standard period for most businesses. But for a small business like mine the wait feels too long, and im considering reducing it to 14 days.

what do you all do?

 

[fozfoz is verified member.]

And I bet they still take a liberty (don't pay) at 30 days.

If you make it 7 or 14 you actually might get paid within 30 days

 

[lethal0r]

I was hoping that goodwill from the client would mean most would be happy to pay almost straight away.

But in these tough times, or perhaps regardless of that, I wonder if most people will just pay as late as they can.

 

[Blossom]

Had one or two problems with people paying recently. The worst is when they say they'll pay 'this week' or 'on X day' and then they never do :/

If they pay when they say they will I'm happy with that. It's hard for my partner though as he's not been freelancing very long and needs the cash he's been repeatedly promised...

I think 14 days is reasonable, if they can't pay but get in touch to say that then I think that's fine.

 

[chippyb]

Why not put something on your invoice at the bottom to say, needs to be paid in 30 days otherwise 5% gets charged every day/week/month whatever you want its overdue?

 

[lethal0r]

im moving to 14, having thought about it overnight theres no way I can afford to wait 30 days often.

 

[AlienAlien is verified member.]

Had one or two problems with people paying recently. The worst is when they say they'll pay 'this week' or 'on X day' and then they never do :/

If they pay when they say they will I'm happy with that. It's hard for my partner though as he's not been freelancing very long and needs the cash he's been repeatedly promised...

I think 14 days is reasonable, if they can't pay but get in touch to say that then I think that's fine.

It's always tricky when people do this and for small businesses it has a massive knock on effect for everything else.

Tough times for all currently!

I think 7 days tops is reasonable, 3 days is better, immediately is most desirable and better for all concerned. Absolutely no way more than 14 days max unless there is a specific reason or agreement, etc.

Perhaps standard interest charges should be added to late invoices over 14 days lethal0r?

 

[Blossom]

Why not put something on your invoice at the bottom to say, needs to be paid in 30 days otherwise 5% gets charged every day/week/month whatever you want its overdue?

It's definitely something we're going to be doing in future.

It's always tricky when people do this and for small businesses it has a massive knock on effect for everything else.

Tough times for all currently! :smile:

The longest I've waited is about 7 months, but it doesn't bother me because I still have a regular salary. I can see how it starts a spiral of cashflow problems for a lot of people (including the other half) though. He's been waiting at least 2-3 months, maybe 4, for a payment.

 

[nick-harper]

I have it set to 7 days as it usually means it gets paid within 14-30 days max. If I put it to 30 days they will take the mick and it will become 2 months.

I don't think there is much wrong with 7 days, after all you are giving them credit.

I do agree about late payment charges and also claiming interest if it does go on for too long, just to scare people into paying on time.

 

[scooter]

He's been waiting at least 2-3 months, maybe 4, for a payment.

Not acceptable. Send a "final invoice" (titled so) and on it state if full payment is not made within 7 days you wll start legal proceedings.

I send my final invoice (recorded delivery) and when the 7 days are up, I spend £3 for a threatening letter from the company below and it has never failed. I always get paid

http://www.debtscotland.com/debtrecovery.cfm



I'm in Scotland but I'm sure there will be plenty of equivalent companies down south.




.

 

[robertsone]

I have more than one business so I take a different approach depending on whether or not its a service or actual goods being sold.

If sending physical goods, I always expect payment before dispatch unless its a reputable business and they ask for 30 days in return for an official Purchase Order. Either way, for the first order I send a pro-forma for payment up front. For future orders, I might give them 30 days.

For services - design or anything bespoke - 50% up front, 50% on completion seems the norm. If its a reputable business, then 30 days is acceptable as long as they supply a Purchase Order or as a minimum an email agreeing to the costs, terms etc.

For late payers - remind them twice, then either shut down their services, or deactivate (as applicable) etc.

For persistent non-payers -
1. Final notice with a warning that you will charge 8.5% interest and £70 collection fee if not paid within 14 days as per the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (interest) Act 1998.

See this page: https://payontime.co.uk/late-payment-legislation-interest-calculators

2. If you still don't see the colour of their money then next stop is:
http://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk

Make sure you have signed terms / contract or at least have emails showing they placed the order and agreed to pay the price etc as you will need these as evidence for the Small Claims Court.

 

[lethal0r]

Why not put something on your invoice at the bottom to say, needs to be paid in 30 days otherwise 5% gets charged every day/week/month whatever you want its overdue?

Perhaps standard interest charges should be added to late invoices over 14 days lethal0r?

For persistent non-payers -
1. Final notice with a warning that you will charge 8.5% interest and £70 collection fee if not paid within 14 days as per the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (interest) Act 1998.

See this page: https://payontime.co.uk/late-payment-legislation-interest-calculators

2. If you still don't see the colour of their money then next stop is:
http://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk

great tips thank you all. time for me to make a professional looking pdf for invoices now, instead of knocking up a word document quickly.

 

[Blossom]

great tips thank you all. time for me to make a professional looking pdf for invoices now, instead of knocking up a word document quickly.

Try Simple Invoices - http://www.simpleinvoices.org

It's very good and completely free Some hosts have a 1 click install.

 

[billyrichards]

I was hoping that goodwill from the client would mean most would be happy to pay almost straight away.

But in these tough times, or perhaps regardless of that, I wonder if most people will just pay as late as they can.

If your invoice gets passed along to the Finance department of a company, good will is instantly replaced with protocol. Sad to see but there are lots of quite big firms out there who will only pay after being chased, a lot......... I've even heard some Finance Directors say (in private conversations) that it would be "foolish" of them to pay any invoices promptly.

I'm with another poster who says that getting paid immediately or soon after is best. Trouble is, most of us won't ask for if it. But if you incentivise this process, you might be surprised at just what you can get!

 

[fresh79]

7 , then i start asking them after the 8th day

 

[jj1]

I've been stung slightly in the past so nowadays I'll give people a free meeting to discuss things and then charge:

1 Design deposit - £80 - £100 before I start doing designs
2 Coding deposit - 50% of remainder before I start coding (I state that significant or multiple changes to design must be paid for - although I try to be helpful I've been caught in the past by clients chopping and changing their minds after I've finished coding)

I then put website onto temporary location so client can see it and I make the changes (hopefully minor) they request.

I then ping them an email with the final invoice and ask them to send me an email once the final cheque (and standing order for hosting) is in the post. I'll upload the site as soon as I get their email (rather than waiting for the cheque to arrive) but find that this does concentrate their minds on payment.

 

[dexterity]

Before the site goes live, either transferring the site to their domain hosting, but always take atleast 30% upfront.

 

[Aegean]

Generally I take 50% up front, the other 50% upon completion +7 days, although I usually wait a maximum of 30 days. Generally I don't have many problems, the worst are the small sites for hotels, B&B's etc. I try not to do too many of these, and I've completely stopped doing all 'friend of a friend' sites.

I have to say the worst payer I ever had was the Highland Council, the local authority in the north of Scotland. After doing 2 months of web and print work for them a few years ago it took me 9 MONTHS to actually get paid. Never again. Strange as most Gov't departments I've dealt with are usually pretty good as they have an assigned budget.