Reply to: Late Payment of Invoices

[tino]

Quote from your quote:

Eye Fang Queue

Sorry - I should pay more attention

[TheFaQQer]

I take it you are working directly for the client and not through an agency?

Quote from your quote:

I invoiced my client for the first time about 25 days ago. My contract is directly with the client, and states that invoices will be paid within 30 days.

[tino]

I invoiced my client for the first time about 25 days ago. My contract is directly with the client, and states that invoices will be paid within 30 days. It also states:

"The Consultant may charge interest (at 3% above HSBC Bank plc base rate) and/or suspend the performance of the Project Services where payments are received late."

The company I'm working for is one the largest multi-nationals out there. The admin here is quite a mess, and I do believe that they won't make the payment.

On the 31st day from my Invoice date, should I send them a new invoice, or should I contact my boss, and give him a chance to rectify. The reason I ask is that I'm on a 6 month contract, and I know there's a lot more work after that, so I don't want to sour the relationship, especially early on.

What should I do?

I take it you are working directly for the client and not through an agency?

[oraclesmith]

Whatever you do, don't send them a new invoice.

Like most companies, you could initiate a reminder process - in writing. Send a couple of reminders about a couple of weeks apart giving them strong but polite direction to pay. You then have a paper trail to take down the legal route if necessary.

You'll find that most large companies have creditors systems which automatically delay sending payment until the full term is up and then they will take several days (maybe 1-2 weeks) to actually process the payment, depending on the frequency of their creditors BACS runs. The admin who run these systems won't be able to do much about speeding up payment unless it's really important.

So, don't get up tight about it. If you agreed to 30 days, this means about 6 weeks in reality.

[TheFaQQer]

If you don't need the money, then I'd be inclined to let the first one be a little late - when it hits 30 days, talk to the finance team nicely and ask where the money is.

If they are really late, or this happens again, then issue a new invoice for the late payment fees. It's nothing to do with souring the relationship, really - you are a business, and should act as one - you never know, invoicing for late payment may help an IR35 enquiry...

[timh]

You could send a 'reminder' invoice today, and talk to your client contact ("boss") to nudge them in the right direction.

[marc9477]

Late Payment

I invoiced my client for the first time about 25 days ago. My contract is directly with the client, and states that invoices will be paid within 30 days. It also states:

"The Consultant may charge interest (at 3% above HSBC Bank plc base rate) and/or suspend the performance of the Project Services where payments are received late."

The company I'm working for is one the largest multi-nationals out there. The admin here is quite a mess, and I do believe that they won't make the payment.

On the 31st day from my Invoice date, should I send them a new invoice, or should I contact my boss, and give him a chance to rectify. The reason I ask is that I'm on a 6 month contract, and I know there's a lot more work after that, so I don't want to sour the relationship, especially early on.

What should I do?

[absoft]

Thanks for the replies. It can't make much difference to a company with £20m in the bank whether I get paid after 2 weeks or a month.
Guess I can live with it; just doesn't do anything for goodwill does it. Now I'll have to make sure I always wash up my mug in company time heh, heh !

[Bluebird]

on the presnt gig it was with an agency I hadn't heard of before, so I asked them to change it to 14 days which they did.

As it happens they pay ok.

[Ardesco]

Expect 30 days, anything sooner is a bonus. You could always pay your bank to run a factoring service for you but they will want something silly like 5-10% of the invoice. (My bank tried to sell me this "service" and my account manager seemed quite upset when I started laughing at her, and was then quite indignant when I came back with "What, you're serious???")

How long do companies usually take to pay an Invoice?
I submit an invoice to the company I contract for on the first of the month for work done during the preceeding month. I was expecting this to get paid within a few days, however I have been told that the company intends to pay it 'as late as possible' which basically means I don't see any money until a month or more after I have submitted an invoice. I have been arguing about this with their finance department but would like to know if their attitude seems reasonable or not and what is normal in the IT industry?. Its true my contract says payment within 30 days but I understood this was contingency and not an excuse to pay as late as possible on a reguilar basis.
Any views?

Same condition here for me too on my current first gig through AMS!!!...

[oraclesmith]

It's completely normal. Thousands of small businesses go under because of cash flow situations caused by late paying bigger firms, so get used to it. At least you don't have to borrow money to buy stock to keep trading....

[timh]

Expect 30 days as normal, and up to a few months sometimes.. That's my experience.

Keep lots of spare money as a buffer.

[malvolio]

The longer they have the money the more interest they earn, so any company will pay bills as late as possible. As long as they don't breach any contractual agreement on payment terms, they are perfectly at liberty to do so.

[EqualOpportunities]

How long do companies usually take to pay an Invoice?
I submit an invoice to the company I contract for on the first of the month for work done during the preceeding month. I was expecting this to get paid within a few days, however I have been told that the company intends to pay it 'as late as possible' which basically means I don't see any money until a month or more after I have submitted an invoice. I have been arguing about this with their finance department but would like to know if their attitude seems reasonable or not and what is normal in the IT industry?. Its true my contract says payment within 30 days but I understood this was contingency and not an excuse to pay as late as possible on a reguilar basis.
Any views?

As your contract says 30 days, 30 days it is... Whatever they said, if it says 30 days then that's exactly what it'll be...

Hard lines mate.