OVERDUE INVOICES
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- HomeCreative
We seem to have lots of clients with very deep pockets, but really f**** short arms, who take ages to pay for jobs (i'm talking 3 months here)
Anybody know of a standard legal UK Terms & Conditions I can put on the back of our invoices so we can charge the buggers interest?
Cheers
- forcetwelve0
pay up or we smash your knee with a bat?
- jamble0
Might be worth factoring invoices for clients you know to slow at paying?
In terms of t&c's I don't see why you don't just put it in your contract that invoices not paid within your terms are subject to £xx additional late penalty.
I have this in my contracts:
"Final payment of the balance must be made within 30 days of agreed completion of this project. Any additional delay in payment will result in charges of £30 per month being levied in late payment fees."
Make up whatever you want in terms of charges etc.
- Bluejam0
slap 'em with a Statutory Demand in which you can bankrupt them if they don't pay
- johnjohnston0
Yeah, but not sure there's really anything you can do. Not sure about UK but here in Oz, you have to take them to court in the end. Big companies often do that, because they can, and because it is just their strategy to hold on to their cash for as long as possible. It's taking the piss, but they know they can do it :(
- emecks0
bill them in parts that are small enough to pursue through the small claims, £2000 in England I think, only £750 in Scotland.. that way you do a small claim for each part they don't pay. Small claims are free too :)
- mimeartist0
Just got to put up with it really... one idea though is to offer them a 10% discount if they pay early / or up front... worked with us a few times
- HomeCreative0
Nice I like the sound of your suggestion forcetwelve. Haha
Seriously though, they do always pay. eventually. As they put a lot of work through us the last time we had to sorry "Sorry but we cant do any more work, until the balance was settled" That seemed to work fine.
I shall have a look into the invoice factoring option that sounds like a good way forward.
Other option is to get them on a retainer, paid upfront.
Cheers
- letters20
There are threads on here about this very topic, if you have a look around.
always get paid in installments that correlate to the work being down and its phases.
and also, have late payment fees on your contracts.
overall, 3 months is not that bad. Out here, 60 days is the standard, and 1 month late is not too drastic.
. . .
as for this comment below:
"Final payment of the balance must be made within 30 days of agreed completion of this project. Any additional delay in payment will result in charges of £30 per month being levied in late payment fees."
Make up whatever you want in terms of charges etc.
jamble
(Apr 5 07, 02:27)30 a month for a late fee?! are you kidding me... it should absolutely be a percentage of the total (I use a 2% overall increase for each month late, rolling).
- manaboutmoney0
Payment terms:
Payment to be received no later than 7 days from invoice.
We understand and will exercise our statutory right
to interest under The Late Payment Of Commercial
Debts (Interest) Act 1998 if we are not paid
according to agreed credit terms.
- aanderton0
I'm going to pretend that this thread didn't make me chuckle to myself thinking of somebody with incredibly short arms trying to reach into their pockets.
- babaganush0
http://www.compactlaw.co.uk/free…
If this is a recurring thing from wealthy clients - just point this out as a bad practice management on their part. You could suggest you are informingthem that sloppy accounting leaves them easily exposed to interest from ANY contractor. If these are recurring clients you should inform them or you have no real reason to complain.
Good luck
- maikel0
just state on you bill that any funds in arrears will be subject to a (let's say) 5% over the outstanding debt plus a late payment charge of £XX for re-issuing/updating the bill.
if by some reason they refuse to pay take them to court.
make sure that your interests are higher than what your bank will charge you for borrowing the money until the debt is settled and everybody win.
- The above link is legislation in the UK. No need.babaganush
- d_rek0
Been going through the ringer with a client who is almost 90 days out from their invoice date for a paltry $250 bill. Claims they 'simply forgot' to pay it - horse shit.
Here are some quick tips that can help you collect payment on overdue accounts:
-determine how a job will be paid for BEFORE it goes to production
-collect all relevant payment information from a client beforehand, like CC#'s (and all related info), client full name, address and phone
-have client pre-pay for any work
-don't ship any work until payment has been made
-If a client is skipping out on paying a vendor make sure you collect their CC information before hand so that you can feed that to your vendor - last thing you want to do is be held accountable for your vendor not getting paid
-be dilligent and firm when invoicing. Make sure the terms of the invoice are clear upfront
-follow-up on any late payments as frequently as you need to until you get paid.