Payment terms - what's reasonable in this situation?

[Platypus]

Payment due on presentation of invoice are my standard terms. If I actually get paid in less than 30 days it's a bonus, although current agency pays within a week, which is nice.

EDIT: because I'm a consultant, not a bank

[aoxomoxoa]

My two most recent contracts through consulting firms have both been with payment on 30 days from invoice date. And in practice they've always paid me a few days earlier than they needed to.

These were both fairly small firms (less than 10 f/t employees), as opposed to the Accidentures or Crapgeminis of this world.

[craig1]

Going direct to a consulting firm usually sees 30+ days on invoices and more than a few get huffy about more than monthly invoicing if you're going to be submitting timed ones rather than fixed point ones. The thing to remember though is that it's all up for negotiation, if anyone tells you a contract is written in stone then they're either trying it on or are too junior to be able to do more than make the tea for the real decision makers.

Most non-agency companies with subbies, as you realistically are, want their money in before they pay any out on a bit of work. It's not ideal business best practice if your average AP days are lower than your average AR days when you're a large company as that essentially means you're paying your suppliers money you don't have. Unfortunately 45 days payment terms to a small company is really nothing unusual these days.

The trick for this sort of work is to get a senior decision maker to commit to paying you, much like a typical contractor getting a timesheet signed off. It's an acknowledgement that you've completed the contracted work that you can present to a court if they do mess you about.

[SueEllen]

All the direct contracts I've done have had 30 day terms.

The smaller businesses tend to pay within those 30 days so I've often received the money earlier.

The larger businesses have either paid exactly on time, or screwed me around until I went up higher in the chain and asked for my money. I've downed tools once then they paid me a late payment amount.