Overdue invoices and uncooperative agencies

[Boo]

What days did you work? If you worked for 8 days, and invoiced for 10 then I wouldn't be paying the invoice either. You should invoice for what you worked - nothing more, nothing less.

No. If you actually trouble to read the OP you will see that his contract entitles him to bill for two weeks work.

Boo

[northernladuk]

No. If you actually trouble to read the OP you will see that his contract entitles him to bill for two weeks work.

Boo

Why do you think it entitles him to bill for two weeks? I see the following..

Submitted an invoice for the 2 weeks worked (technically 1 week 3 days but in accordance with 1 week notice in the contract I rounded up to 2),

Just because he has a notice period it does not mean he is entitled to bill it. He bills for what he works which is 8 days, not 10 as pointed out by TF

[NDawg]

Service desk environment you say? I can sort of see why the guy got a bit off.

I worked a contract once where I had to go in 7am some days to cover off the SLAs. If a pri 1 call came in, it was 10 mins to call them back or risk huge financial penalties (for the client).

They would have been peed off too if contractors had started eating into that 10mins (e.g. if a call came in at 7am on the dot - it did once or twice). One day 1 mins late, next day, 5, then all of sudden a target gets missed but 'its only 10 mins'.

Understandable and agreed. This wasn't a contract where a strict SLA like that existed otherwise I would have been in far earlier than 9. Was assured that there was a relative degree of flexibility on the contract. That obviously wasn't the case.

Sidenote, the agency wasn't too happy with the legal e-mail I sent them earlier (recorded letter should be arriving shortly). Got the below back.

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Out: Good afternoon,

This e-mail is in regards to payment of an invoice that I (on behalf of MY COMPANY) submitted to yourselves on DATE for services provided to CLIENTCO between DATES.

Please note, this invoice is now 10 days overdue
As per the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act, you have now been charged a late payment fee of £74.75. An amended invoice has been attached.

Additionally, as part of my contract with AGENCY, note that I did not opt out of the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Business Regulations 2003. As such, payment must be made by yourselves regardless of whether you have received payment from the client as part of PART II, Prohibition on employment businesses withholding payment to work-seekers on certain grounds, which has been included below.

12. An employment business shall not, in respect of a work-seeker whom it supplies to a hirer, withhold or threaten to withhold from the work-seeker (whether by means of the inclusion of a term in a contract with the work-seeker or otherwise) the whole or any part of any payment in respect of any work done by the work-seeker on any of the following grounds—

(a)non-receipt of payment from the hirer in respect of the supply of any service provided by the employment business to the hirer;

(b)the work-seeker’s failure to produce documentary evidence authenticated by the hirer of the fact that the work-seeker has worked during a particular period of time, provided that this provision shall not prevent the employment business from satisfying itself by other means that the work-seeker worked for the particular period in question;

Further, as part of the contract between yourselves and MY COMPANY, you have been invoiced for the full second week, as termination by either party is subject to the 1 week notice period stipulated on page 6. The contract has been attached for your reference.

Please render payment IMMEDIATELY to avoid further action.

Sincerely,

NDawg

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Reply: Hi NDawg,

As discussed we are hoping to get confirmation today from the client. Just for the record we are not withholding any money from you just waiting for the client to verbally or written wise confirm the times worked by your company. We will not pay you any late fee as we are not withholding money. As discussed on Friday we should get confirmation today of the times worked. If it is correct we will happily pay you monies owed for the original invoice.

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Reply 2: Thinking about it the only other alternative is to invoice us for the days worked which we know you worked and invoice us separately for the notice period which we are awaiting confirmation for.

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Reply 3: Just out of interest at what point did you decide that we were late payers and how did you work out the late payment amount? Also please explain how we are meant to pay you when we have no idea how many days that you should be invoicing us for?

I am very concerned that you are quoting legal jargon to us when we have done everything in our efforts to try and assist you in this matter. You have been calling us non-stop and taking up our consultants time as well as coming to our offices without making an appointment which we found extremely threatening. You also went to the client site unannounced and refused to leave. Please bare with us in this matter and hopefully it will all be resolved today as we want to get this sorted out just as much as you do.

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Looks like the legal route's lit a fire under the agency. Went over Mr Micromanger's head to his boss, who requested micromanager auth the timesheet. Got a lovely snarky reply back from him which further backs my case that he's intentionally obstructing this.

Hopefully things get resolved today, though I don't anticipate any progress from the agency. They've been relatively useless so far in following this up.

[NDawg]

Why do you think it entitles him to bill for two weeks? I see the following..



Just because he has a notice period it does not mean he is entitled to bill it. He bills for what he works which is 8 days, not 10 as pointed out by TF

NLUK, TBH I'm pushing my luck with the additional 2 days. The contract I have with the agency is pretty much in my favor with regards to termination and notice periods. I was notified on the Tuesday of the week that the contract would be coming to a close on that Friday as agreed between the agency and clientco, which I was happy to work out as a professional courtesy. Had the service desk manager not decided to take things into his own hands and cut me on Wednesday instead of waiting till Friday, the 2 days would be a non-issue.

I don't need them, but I'm billing for them out of principle.

Remember they are your customers now, not work colleagues......

Agreed. Still wiping out those last small traces of permie mentality over here.

[psychocandy]

Why are they moaning that they dont know the amount? You have invoiced them...

Did you really show up at client site and kick off? LOL. And also at agency?

Nope. Sounds like they aint happy with you.

[NDawg]

Why are they moaning that they dont know the amount? You have invoiced them have you?

Did you really show up at client site and kick off? LOL. And also at agency?

Nope. Sounds like they aint happy with you.

I don't mess about when it comes to money. Told them they had 45 minutes to phone clientco and get confirmation to release payment else I'd go down there personally and get confirmation myself. They didn't get confirm in time. I went down to speak with SDM who conveniently was in meetings for the rest of the day. It didn't achieve anything but at least illustrated a point. I figured Dunning would take a little too long.

They're moaning probably because they want to keep clientco in their good books or something. I dunno.

[TheFaQQer]

Reply 3: Just out of interest at what point did you decide that we were late payers

The moment that you were late paying the invoice was the point at which I decided you were late payers. The invoice date was XX-APR-2013 with terms of XX days, meaning that payment was due on XX-APR-2013. When that date passed without payment, you became late payers.

and how did you work out the late payment amount?

By calculating the legal penalty and interest rate as per the relevant legislation. This provides for a £40, £70 or £100 fee for late payment depending on the size of the debt, plus interest at an APR of 8.5%.

Also please explain how we are meant to pay you

BACS transfer, please.

when we have no idea how many days that you should be invoicing us for?

The invoice is for the period worked.

Please bare with us in this matter and hopefully it will all be resolved today as we want to get this sorted out just as much as you do.

bear

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Ignoring the two days issue, you are in the right here and they are in the wrong. They are late paying the invoice, and you are perfectly within your rights to demand the late payment fee - you may have been better off getting the invoice paid first and then invoicing for late payment, though.

[NDawg]

BACS transfer, please.

I sent them this back:

As stipulated on the contract between myself and AGENCY and as verbally agreed with PIMP, invoices are paid every 2 weeks when submitted for time worked. AGENCY became late payers the day after the invoice was due as payment had not been received. You have been charged the statutory minimum of £70.00 due to the size of the unpaid debt in addition to £4.75 at the standard interest rate of 8.5%. This is in line with the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act. That sum is now due and will only be waived if the original invoice submitted is paid in full today. Failure to comply will render the late payment amount enforceable and AGENCY will be subject to further fees as time goes on.

CLIENTCO keeps records of users on-site at the IS Service Desk through the Avaya phone operator system. This will confirm the days that I was on-site with CLIENTCO and the information is easily obtained through reporting.

As a professional contractor, I expect invoices are paid when due. A 1-2 day delay as a result of payroll processing issues is understandable. 10 is not.

I have given AGENCY multiple chances to follow this up with the client, going so far as to provide you with e-mail evidence that CLIENTCO and MICROMANAGER in particular have been obstructive with regards to finalization of the contract. Your failure to adequately do so is why we have reached this point.

Again, please render payment immediately to avoid further action.

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So far, no response

[NDawg]

Got a response from the agency. One word.

Paid

Checked my account. Full amount for original invoice (including those 2 days) is banked, minus the late payment fees (which I didn't care about).

Thank you all VERY MUCH!

[d000hg]

Nice.