How to assure client has funding for contract extension?

[uk contractor]

More fool them for not managing the risk properly. It's why MrMarkyMark, myself and others always try and get invoices paid weekly when working at banks, through agencies or directly. We've been stung or heard of friends/colleagues being stung and it's not easy to write off 10k or more.

+ 1 I totally agree from bitter experience. Some of these upper management characters will wriggle out of anything if you let them! Invoice paid on time as well everytime or do not expect to see me onsite until the agency has sorted it out (they panic & then pay you directly when you threaten to walk offsite usually!).

[LondonManc]

No guarantees in contracting life at all! To me its always a big red flag when you smell funding issues. I was owed tens of thousands by several investment banks for work done onsite which the managers were underhand about when I presented the invoice (s) the so they backed away from paying me and I let it go rather than spend the same in a protracted legal fight as I would have struggled to prove they verbally asked me to work extended unsociable hours.

I have encountered several other banking contractors over the years who are relaxed about when they get paid for invoices. One of these was owed over 10K & the agency went bust (dodgy director took all the VAT money with him to Spain!) so he lost all of that. Another lost well over 6 months invoices as the bank pulled the plug on the project & sacked the director in charge so he had no way to easily recover those funds as the bank claimed the director did not have the authority to agree to the 7 figure project cost over run!

Just because you have a piece of paper legally you still have to fight your corner and the bigger the organisation the harder its going to be to get what's legally yours if the project has been canned especially.

More fool them for not managing the risk properly. It's why MrMarkyMark, myself and others always try and get invoices paid weekly when working at banks, through agencies or directly. We've been stung or heard of friends/colleagues being stung and it's not easy to write off 10k or more.

[uk contractor]

No guarantees in contracting life at all! To me its always a big red flag when you smell funding issues. I was owed tens of thousands by several investment banks for work done onsite which the managers were underhand about when I presented the invoice (s) the so they backed away from paying me and I let it go rather than spend the same in a protracted legal fight as I would have struggled to prove they verbally asked me to work extended unsociable hours.

I have encountered several other banking contractors over the years who are relaxed about when they get paid for invoices. One of these was owed over 10K & the agency went bust (dodgy director took all the VAT money with him to Spain!) so he lost all of that. Another lost well over 6 months invoices as the bank pulled the plug on the project & sacked the director in charge so he had no way to easily recover those funds as the bank claimed the director did not have the authority to agree to the 7 figure project cost over run!

Just because you have a piece of paper legally you still have to fight your corner and the bigger the organisation the harder its going to be to get what's legally yours if the project has been canned especially.

[LondonManc]

You can't be sure. Nobody can be.

I've been on site where 35 consultants from a major consultancy were marched off site with immediate effect because Barclays pulled the plug on the multi-million £ project. I've seen individual contractors terminated because of budget. I've done the "we're just waiting for sign off" once or twice and left (and they never got the sign off).

You make hay while the sun shines and you buld the warchest up. That's all you can do.

+1 for the above.

Multi-billion pound companies can suddenly pull a project because of a strategic about-face, lower than expected profits or something else outside of your hiring manager's control. Or your contract initially came from the wrong pot and the politics involved mean it would take too long to shift it to the correct pot see you offsite.

If they're paying regularly, keep working, keep invoicing.

[twickenkam]

Thanks for the responses.

I dont work directly, there is an agency between me and the company i provide my services to.

[Zigenare]

Hello,

I am on a rolling 3mth contract that has been extended 3 times already. All is going well, client is really happy with what i do and they declare the will to continue the cooperation. Problem is over the course of the contract it has been tougher and tougher for them to assure internal funding for the extensions. At this point I cant trust that apart from their wishes and declarations they will raise the money for the next extension. We reached some level of 'stability' in the project progress where i guess they might want to try to move things forward on their own, at least for a bit. Since this is a contract it has a very short notice period (<10days). So even if they extended the next 3m chunk it feels they could cut it off just after the beginning of the extension for whatever reason, such as shortage of funds. Is there any wording/clause I could insist on that would assure that they actually have the money for whole of the new extension and they wont cut me off? Because of this instability I am looking for new roles now. I know I agreed for the 3m chunks/extensions approach in first place, but being on the inside gave me extra insight to the dynamics of this place and raised my awareness/alertness especially recently.

Regards

Are you contracting directly with the end client?

[DeludedKitten]

You can't be sure. Nobody can be.

I've been on site where 35 consultants from a major consultancy were marched off site with immediate effect because Barclays pulled the plug on the multi-million £ project. I've seen individual contractors terminated because of budget. I've done the "we're just waiting for sign off" once or twice and left (and they never got the sign off).

You make hay while the sun shines and you buld the warchest up. That's all you can do.

[twickenkam]

Hello,

I am on a rolling 3mth contract that has been extended 3 times already. All is going well, client is really happy with what i do and they declare the will to continue the cooperation. Problem is over the course of the contract it has been tougher and tougher for them to assure internal funding for the extensions. At this point I cant trust that apart from their wishes and declarations they will raise the money for the next extension. We reached some level of 'stability' in the project progress where i guess they might want to try to move things forward on their own, at least for a bit. Since this is a contract it has a very short notice period (<10days). So even if they extended the next 3m chunk it feels they could cut it off just after the beginning of the extension for whatever reason, such as shortage of funds. Is there any wording/clause I could insist on that would assure that they actually have the money for whole of the new extension and they wont cut me off? Because of this instability I am looking for new roles now. I know I agreed for the 3m chunks/extensions approach in first place, but being on the inside gave me extra insight to the dynamics of this place and raised my awareness/alertness especially recently.

Regards