how long to get paid?

[inferno]

..

[northernladuk]

Are agency and agent not the same entity? Also what do your terms say?

[Wanderer]

what do your terms say?

WHS. You need to read your contract and see what the payment terms are.

At renewal time, you could try and negotiate for shorter payment times. Agencies will squeal like a stuck pig when you do this but it's always worth a go.

[Scrag Meister]

Too many stations on the line.

Mine is Clientco-Agency-MyLtd, invoice first Tuesday in the month paid on the following Friday.

[configman]

I've been in a contract for 5 weeks and not been paid. The way the money is coming in is the reason for the delay: clientco->agency->agent->umbrella->me. is this a normal occurance in contracting or should i insist on a 4 week payment terms when the extention comes through? apparently the delay is due to the fact my money is going through: agency->agent->umbrella. thoughts?

If an agent is involved I ensure any contract I sign has payment terms that take the client out of the equation. An agent must be able to pay my company regardless of whether the client has paid them, that is why they earn their commission. If they cannot do that then I do not do business with them as it is a sign of a business running on little funds and liable to fail at short notice. The max credit terms I accept in todays climate are payment within 7 days of month end - I do not accept contracts with anything more than that.

[Support Monkey]

I had the same issue, me going through agency who then had to go through clients prefered agency. they origionally wanted to work a system called pay upon payment, in laymans terms this meant my agency invoice client agency, who invoice client, client pays in 30 days back to their agency who pay in 30 days back to my agency who pay me, this basically meant we could be looking at 2 months for the money to get to the my agency then in theory it could be another 30 days for them to pay me.

My argument with this was i could be finished the 3 month contract before seeing any money.

you need to check the contract and its wording and if required you will need to renegotiate, (which considering your 5 weeks in could be an issue), obviously you need to negotiate the terms with your agency any agreements further up the chain are not your issue, its the point your agency pay that you need to check and get changed if your not happy, as someone previously said you need to make sure "An agent is able to pay my company regardless of whether the client has paid them"

[xchaotic]

Learn to negotiate these things then.
My very first contract was like that - I had to wait 6 weeks to get the money - it was really tight.
With the current contract the agency would not budge on the rate so they offered me other things instead - they will pay on average within a week of my submitting timesheets and regardless of whether they got the money from the client yet, so today happens to be the last day of the month and I expect the money before the end of the week

[The Agents View]

What the above posters have said is all right.

Why is the Agent per-se, involved? This should be a back office function.

Also - the agent should be paying the umbrella regardless of their payment - their contract to pay is with you - the clients is with the agency - everyone is covered, and that's part of WHY you use an agency! The agency world should NOT be operating a pay on payment policy.

[rd409]

I've been in a contract for 5 weeks and not been paid. The way the money is coming in is the reason for the delay: clientco->agency->agent->umbrella->me. is this a normal occurance in contracting or should i insist on a 4 week payment terms when the extention comes through? apparently the delay is due to the fact my money is going through: agency->agent->umbrella. thoughts?

Why do you have to wait till the umbrella gets paid? The main reason for working with umbrella, is ease of payment. I would expect to be paid next week for the work I do this week with umbrella. The only advantage umbrella has over ltd company is that you dont have to worry about cashflow, and you get paid regularly and straight away.

If you have to wait for say 5 weeks, why pay fees to umbrella? Even if you are in IR35, still you will save the fees (£30 pw = £ 390 for 3 months), and can claim most of the VAT from your expenses, and will have to deal with 1 less person.

Think about it!

[The Agents View]

Why do you have to wait till the umbrella gets paid? The main reason for working with umbrella, is ease of payment. I would expect to be paid next week for the work I do this week with umbrella. The only advantage umbrella has over ltd company is that you dont have to worry about cashflow, and you get paid regularly and straight away.

If you have to wait for say 5 weeks, why pay fees to umbrella? Even if you are in IR35, still you will save the fees (£30 pw = £ 390 for 3 months), and can claim most of the VAT from your expenses, and will have to deal with 1 less person.

Think about it!

Errr....Umbrellas don't pay until they are paid in my experience. Agencies however, should be.