IT Contractors - monthly payment?

[DodgyAgent]

Very few agencies get paid within 30 days of invoice, so where you people think that agents are getting "interest" from intrigues me. We do not get paid for any of our contractors before we pay them.

[jLawrence]

My first posting so I feel excempt from coming up with anything witty or clever

Currently I am on fortnightly. My Previous contract was monthly, the one before that was weekly. The problem I had with the monthly pay contract was that I was working through an umbrella that paid monthly, and the days clashed, so it took 2 months to get paid, which was a pain when it came to checking money against time etc. Really I think weekly is fair, because with smaller companies you cant always guarantee getting your timesheets signed on time (currently I am three weeks behind on timesheets, if I wasnt a contractor I would be broke) because you may not see anyone with the authority to do this. And you have to deal with any third parties that your money may pass through before hitting your account.

[cojak]

Run a Ltd and the money's in your account as soon as the agent pays it in.

HTH.

(No a 1st post doesn't exempt you...)

[NewBoy]

My last contract I invoiced quarterly...and my current one I'm invoicing monthly...to be honest, really not bothered..

On a short contract (i.e. 3 months) I would probably just invoice at the end as this is how I think a business should run...

If you are being completely IR35 friendly then you will be being paid for a piece of work rather than going in every day...when I have dealt with the 'big 5' I have agreed milestones/checkpoints on which payment would be made on long contracts [this is when I have been the customer rather than the supplier)...therefore this model is liekly to be liked by Gordo and his henchmen.

This is how I think I will structure future contracts...and there is nothing to stop you manufacturing the checkpoints to be delivered roughly 30 days apart

[oraclesmith]

When going direct I tend to invoice weekly at first and then every few weeks or whenever I want. This is because the client's are large corporates and they almost always take a leisurely 6 weeks to actually make the payment. If I didn't send invoices into the payment pipeline weekly and went monthly instead, then I would have maybe 10-12 weeks between starting work and receiving anything in the way of fees.

If it's a small client, then I only ever invoice when I've finished the job.

Currently I'm working through an EB and they have a monthly system.

[135R]

People,

Thanks for your comments and opinions on this matter. Very interesting and some very unexpected.

I agree completely with DodgyAgent and point out that at both my current and previous company we were never paid by the client before paying the contractor's invoices. The debtor days of some clients can run easily into three figures, and most pay on at least 30 days, so even on a monthly payment cycle there is no way we (and I would guess most other recruitment agencies) will benefit from interest payments.

Again, thanks for your input folks

135R

[Epiphone]

On a short contract (i.e. 3 months) I would probably just invoice at the end as this is how I think a business should run...

How many companies do you know that'll give you a free 90 day credit period, epecially if you've not dealt with them before?

No way would I give an agency a 90 day loan gratis. What if they go bust?

[jamie]

Never been paid weekly, never wanted to be. Far too much hassle.

Weekly payment is like hourly rates: for tape changers and low-rate help desk bods. Proper contractors bill daily and invoice monthly.

What tripe.

I don't think you can generalise like that - I get paid weekly some of the time, depends what the work is and who through. I have been contracting since 2000 and would consider myself to be very well reimbursed for my troubles. So weekly for tape changers and low-rate help desk bods...i think not.

IMHO

AJ