Small agency and payment terms

[edison]

That's an excellent tip about the credit report. I was working for an agency who were fairly small, they seemed to only have two or three employees. As I was working for a large PS company I didn't really check out the agency as they were paying on time as agreed (monthly billing with 30 day payment terms). But as soon as Covid hit we weren't paid, which with those terms leaves you approx 45 days down. A week later we all got an email saying the business was no longer trading.

This.

Many years ago my brother lost £20k when an agency he used to sub-contract for (non-IT) informed him they were about to go into administration.

The warning signs had been there with regular excuses that he couldn't be paid until the client paid, indicating severe cash flow problems. More and more invoices got paid later and later and the loss was equivalent to about 60 days worth of work.

All his work had come through this one agency for years and he trusted them - there wasn't even a contract!

So, better to be safe than sorry.

[courtg9000]

This.

Many years ago my brother lost £20k when an agency he used to sub-contract for (non-IT) informed him they were about to go into administration.

The warning signs had been there with regular excuses that he couldn't be paid until the client paid, indicating severe cash flow problems. More and more invoices got paid later and later and the loss was equivalent to about 60 days worth of work.

All his work had come through this one agency for years and he trusted them - there wasn't even a contract!

So, better to be safe than sorry.

I keep saying this, all agencies work to very, very tight cashflow and there are too many agencies for the business that exists. Agencies are the biggest risk in our chain.