"Invoice will be paid by" payment term in contract

[Not So Wise]

Is it "ok" (i.e. is it done, standard etc etc) for contractors to enforce a "pay within x days" clause in their contracts? If so how many days? In an ideal world if I am invoicing weekly and an agency tells me verbally "We normally honour your weekly invoice by friday next", i.e. 10 days, then I'd like to see that go into my contract.

Yes it ok. My normal demands are:
Invoice weekly: Pay within 30 days or less
Invoice monthly: Pay within 7 or 14 days or less (depends on how good/solvent agency is)

Basically keep my exposure down to 5-6 week's or less

Never accept payment dependant on 3rd party (client) paying anywhere in contract

Never accept the verbal/email "we normally pay in .." stuff, if agent is not willing to put it in the contract i don't accept contract.

Only takes one agency/client folding in your career to make you very forceful/adamant on such things

[theroyale]

by default it's 30 days unless otherwise stated. The agency will know this full well....

Ah, the b******s!

Thanks for all the replies; will make sure I get a payment clause into my contract from now on...

[mavster07]

Your best position to argue is to show a pattern of payment over the life of the contract. So if you were there for six months and all invoices (bar the last one) were paid within XX days of invoicing, then you can argue that this was 'accepted' by both sides as an implied term of the contract. As such, you could legally enforce that term in court. I would provide the agency with a reminder of this pattern and that you wish to affirm that payment approach and that they honour it.

And unless there is a term in the contract that clearly states payment to yourself is dependent upon payment from the client - most usually are tied to the provision of a signed timesheet - the agency cannot withhold payment.

In cases where the agency doesn't pay, and are adamant about not paying, then I typically inform them I will contact the client within XX days and serve the invoice upon them, and withhold intellectual property rights until payment is made, meaning the client cannot use your work products until they have paid for them. Works brilliantly.

[Spacecadet]

If you're a public sector permie, maybe...

So you work for the fun of it then?

The point of running a business is to generate profit. Providing a service to a client is merely a means to that end.

[d000hg]

So you work for the fun of it then?

The point of running a business is to generate profit. Providing a service to a client is merely a means to that end.

It's highly unprofessional to say getting the money is more important than doing the work. That suggests if you can cut corners and do shoddy work without the client noticing, you should since it's a better profit/time reward.
A craftsman should take pride in their work.

[Spacecadet]

It's highly unprofessional to say getting the money is more important than doing the work. That suggests if you can cut corners and do shoddy work without the client noticing, you should since it's a better profit/time reward.
A craftsman should take pride in their work.

Providing shoddy work to the end client risks profit so for that reason cutting corners is a no-no