invoicing client direct

[TheFaQQer]

Invoicing directing will be a total ball ache, unless you are happy to chase payments when the clientco is deliberately hold back from paying.
Don't do it.

Guess it depends on the client - I've been invoicing direct for the past few years with only a couple of hiccoughs.

First invoice was late by a few days because they struggled to get everything approved for the first one (needed extra approval). One was late because it disappeared in the scanning system (didn't go through for some reason) - when I chased it they did an extra payment run for me. One was rejected because they gave me the wrong PO number to put on it - corrected within the deadline to pay though.

If it means that there is one less company to disappear with the money then I'm in favour of it.

[VectraMan]

WTS. I did a small 4-week gig and still had to get a solicitors letter to get them to pay up. I also did a direct gig where the client went bust leaving me a month's money out of pocket. But recently I spent over a year working direct and never had any issues; in fact to start with even though they had 30 days they used to pay within 3 or 4 days until presumably somebody spotted it.

It can depend who you in the organisation you deal with. I think in the latter case it was the lady that operated the employee's payroll also paid the contractors, and that's why it was done promptly. If you're dealing with a purchasing department whose job it is to try to avoid paying for things, then it may get more tricky.

[SueEllen]

WTS. I did a small 4-week gig and still had to get a solicitors letter to get them to pay up. I also did a direct gig where the client went bust leaving me a month's money out of pocket. But recently I spent over a year working direct and never had any issues; in fact to start with even though they had 30 days they used to pay within 3 or 4 days until presumably somebody spotted it.

It can depend who you in the organisation you deal with. I think in the latter case it was the lady that operated the employee's payroll also paid the contractors, and that's why it was done promptly. If you're dealing with a purchasing department whose job it is to try to avoid paying for things, then it may get more tricky.

Mimics my experience some what.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Been invoicing direct with clients since started (only one small agency job in 8 years) and at worst have had a few invoices a few late and a few I've had to chase up a bit more, but 90% of my invoices get paid on time or early.

Most clients tend to either be the sort who pay on receipt of the invoice or those who wait to the exact due date (bigger companies usually). I've had one that insisted on paying my invoices as part of their monthly pay run, which meant technically some of them were late (I was billing fortnightly) but I couldn't be bothered arguing, they still paid each month.

[VillageContractor]

Been invoicing directly for for 15 months, all paid. Some slightly late and some bad book keeping from their end. But it's mainly their incompetence rather than a desire not to pay so I've been quite happy.

I guess it all depends like others have said.