Subscribe via RSS
Follow me on Twitter
Add me on Facebook
This post originally started out as a comment that I was going to leave on this article over at FreelaceSwitch, but after a couple of paragraphs I decided that it was something that I cared enough about to turn into a full article. It’s a really great post about new year’s advice for freelancers, but there was one point in particular that I felt was really more of an unfinished thought rather than a piece of succinct advice.
The Story So Far
The original FreelaceSwitch article.
In the FreelanceSwitch article, the author lists the following conditions for an ‘ideal project profile’
- A web writing, speaking, consulting or UX design assignment at my current or higher fee
- The assignment takes less than 15 hours a week to produce and is completed within one month or less.
- The client is okay with a remote working arrangement – face-to-face meetings are not necessary.
- The client is okay with deliverables created in my choice of software.
- Almost all communication will take place via email, using my email account (no agency aliases). If conference calls are needed, they are a maximum of once a week and one hour or less in duration. No instant messenger required.
- Invoice is paid in full within 30 days.
All of these are really good, I very much enjoyed the post as a whole and there are some awesome rules of thumb to follow there, it was just the very last point that bugged me.
Why?
I’m so glad you asked!
My Take on 30 Day Payment Terms
Why 30 day payment terms? The author makes it sound like having an invoice paid within 30 days is a really good thing to work towards, but it’s really not! I see freelancers put “30 days” on all their invoices and I never understand why… it’s like some magical number that people just pluck out of the air because they’re used to hearing “30 day money back guarantee” and similar sales pitches and warranties on products.
As a freelancer (or a small business), 30 day payment terms are a nightmare, you constantly have to plan your cashflow a month in advance, and then if the payment is late you’re looking at some seriously overdue money coming into your account. Don’t even get me started on what it does to your tax returns! It’s pretty much a 1-way slippery slope to losing track of your cash flow and going under.
Don’t just slap “30 days” on all your invoices because that’s what you see other companies do. Banks started handing out unsecured loans just cause that’s what other banks were doing, and look where that got everyone. Yes that’s a generalisation and is slightly dramatic, but the principle is there. Just like my view on IE6 browser support, you need to do what’s right for you, not what’s right for “everyone”.
How I do it
My payment terms have always been 7 calendar days, and not only have I never had any client (including multibillion dollar corporates) complain about it, but I’ve also only ever had one late payment… and I still got paid in 10 days rather than 30… no biggie!
That’s just for the initial deposit by the way – for the final payment, the work doesn’t go live until the client has paid the final invoice. Simple.
My latest scheme is to set fixed payment dates from the get-go to circumvent clients stalling with a lot of revisions. It’s not cool when you agree to 50% up front and 50% when it’s done in a week’s time, then the client takes a month to give you access details to the server… so any client delays now affect the live-date, but not the final payment date.
I’ll say something like “The site will take us 4 weeks of actual work to complete, so we’ll be charging 50% up front, and 50% in 4 weeks time. The time it takes to actually launch the site and set it ‘live’ will depend on how many changes you request and how quickly you’re able to sign-off the completed work, but the payment timeline is fixed.”
Why is this good? Because instead of saying “in 4 weeks time I’ll send you an invoice, which is due in a further 30 days” – I’m saying “in 4 weeks time the final payment is due”.
So far so good – I haven’t had any clients complain at all, and I’ve had no payment problems at all. It’s also worth noting that all my clients at the moment are awesome, and it was only the FreelanceSwitch post that inspired me to write this up, I’m not in any way complaining :)
What About You?
I’d love to hear about your most effective (or ineffective) strategies for getting paid on time, maybe even some nightmare stories? Drop me a line in the comments below!
Post photo by cybrgrl
Did You Like This Post?
Interesting thought. I do have a 30 day term, but the way you put it, it doesn’t really make sense. Another wake-up call.. Thanks John! I’ll try something new :)
That’s a really good point that you have made John. I, like some other novices I imagine, would have assumed that 30 days was a good time frame – however you’ve really set out some brilliant time management and payment scheduling ideas that I’m sure many people will find useful. I know it certainly made an interesting read for me anyway :)
I think you made some good points John. Me personally, I always request 50% upfront, and work won’t start until I get that first payment. You’ll find that they do pay rather quickly when you tell them no work will start until I have my deposit. However, with that being said, I do think a deadline is needed. 7 days is perfect, 30 days is far to long.
After the work has been completed, I quire payment. Simple, you don’t get anything until I get paid.
Nice post as always!
Thanks for the kind comments so far guys :)
After I saw the headline I assumed this post was going to argue that stipulating a payment term would scare clients away (which I think we can all agree is a terrible perspective). Nice twist there and I personally agree with 7-day turnarounds after lodging an invoice. I have a wife and two children and when I was freelancing, 30 day payment terms would have prevented me from feeding and sheltering them.
I think it’s worth noting that the list the author presented was an example to demonstrate the point of the article, though, which is about defining what you want in a client.
Thanks Joel, and I 100% agree with your positive sentiments about the original article – I thought it was a great piece :)
Great post, John! A real eye-opener!
I’ve had clients in the past that took weeks to approve the site to go live. How do you deal with clients that fail to act on time and don’t pay the final 50% on time?
How is the book going? ;)
Thanks Paul! I still deal with them the same way, reminders / overdue notices, and then (I’ve never gotten to this point) legal action. But generally the site never goes live until the final 50% has already been paid, so it isn’t a problem!
Book is going well (but slow!) – might have some more news on that front very soon, watch this space :)
30 days is just long enough for your client to forget to pay you. And why would you be giving someone something they didn’t pay for yet? You’re not a credit company that allows your clients to carry a balance and pay 15% or higher interest rate on their monthly balance. It just doesn’t make sense. I must be a little crazy.
John, what are your terms for late payments? If that ever does happen, which I doubt it will.
Well – I use 30 days payment terms, but usually get paid within 3-5 days (due to BACS/CHAPS crap).
I use 30 days because sometimes i’m working with small businesses and they’re restricted to the payment terms of THEIR clients – sometimes their cashflow is crappy.
However! That worries me, and has on more than one occassion resulted in me being hit with delayed payments. In the back of my mind is always “will they be able to pay me”,which sucks creativity and passion right out of you let me tell you!
I’ve been considering this a lot lately, but I think my situation will only change when i’m working for bigger clients (IMO and experience, small clients bring other nightmares not just limited to payment but that’s a whoooole new blog entry I think!).
Good article as usual! Now I shall go back to my 7p tesco noodles (bloody invoice hasn’t been paid yet!) ;)
Don’t think that bigger clients are better payers. They are often worse.
I totally agrees with John’s point of view. and this applies to all kind of small businesses and not only to designers which are depending on big ones. in France, a lot of payment terms are on 60 days !! and worse if you are working for public sector up to 90 days !!
I agree, bigger companies are often worse. The problem is that they work to their own rules and what has become known as industry standard payment milestones. To pay a supplier 30 days after an invoice has been issued is considered normal, and many will just pay you when their system generate the required paperwork, regardless of what your own terms are.
A little business school lesson for you:
30 Day Terms work best for companies on an accrual based accounting system and normally have a large reserve of cash. These companies will also offer a discount off the invoice provided its paid within 7 or 10 days. This discount is usually enough incentive to get the payment in that early part of the month. I’ve worked for large corporations that require payment on delivery or 10 day terms for certain customers because these businesses have a history of late (over 30 days) payments.
On a cash in cash out basis (covers most if not all freelancers), there usually isn’t enough cash on hand for 30 day terms. 7 or 10 days is reasonable because even the larger businesses want their payments in the same amount of time. Overall a company that doesn’t respect you enough to accept 10 day terms is not a client worth having.
Thanks Brian, though I was well aware of all those facts prior to writing up the article :)
I agree with you John, if our client pay our services after 30 days, as start up it will make big problems for our business cash flow. I think, the most important in business is how to manage cash flow it self. 7 days is good for us neither to our clients. Great way for us is after we completed the job, we get paid!
Nice Post John
I have been in the business for 14 years and I to agree with the way you work.I do limit the 50 / 50 pay for anything $12,00 or lower. I do expect the finial payment within 7 working days or I use the back door I created and pull the stylesheetand a few php includes.
Thanks for the article, but I have to disagree. Some businesses need 30 days out; it’s just a fact of doing business. You might not hear complaints from your current customers, but some buyers won’t even consider you if you can’t/won’t work with them.
Mike, it’s not a fact of doing business at all! I’ve yet to have a single client who won’t work with me cause of my payment terms, and quite frankly if they want to work with me badly enough then they’ll figure out a way of adhering to my payment terms. If they don’t want to do that, then they’re not someone who I want to work with anyway ;)
I like you (generally) require staged payments – either 50/50 or 1/3rds. However, with most large corporations (Fortune 500s) that usually doesn’t work and with them, I’ll proceed once I either have a contract or purchase order. I’ve never found terms like 30 days to have much affect with the large companies, some pay earlier, some pay later but they always pay if you have a contract or purchase order.
If a large company is a regular client and the people have been reliable I will loosen the rules a little.
I’m glad other charge more frequently. All of my invoices are payable within 10 days of the notice. To prevent feature creep and extended revisions I always set payment dates or at least milestones, and stick with my contract. Want more? Sure, but we can discuss that separately.
Exactly – well said! :)
During the last year I have started requesting payments in advance and final payment before the delivery. As this is how I work when I sub contract design or copyrighting, this is the way to go.
I may have lost some business, but it means that I am now working with clients who are willing to pay on time. Trying to chase payments from abroad can be very time consuming.
Really good advice John. I’ve recently had a couple of problems with clients paying later than usual and telling me that they always work on 28 day invoices which, in my opinion, isn’t my problem – it’s theirs.
At the moment I have twenty-one days at the bottom of my invoice but most clients pay immediately. After reading this, I’m going to change it to something a little more appropriate:
Hopefully that should iron out the problems I have with a few of my clients.
Great job Luke, really nicely worded too
I think you have a good approach to this and it seems more ‘ruthless’ than the approach that I take at the moment. I must ‘toughen up’! Just interested to know how you deail with companies/clients who have their own payment terms. For example, I have a client whose terms are 45 days from invoice date. I took the work because it fitted with what I can do but I am wondering now if I should have turned this down? How would you deail with this?
I hope you don’t mind me replying to you, but like I said in the comment above – it’s not really your problem.
If a company like UPS approached them and said ‘invoice due in fourteen days’, then they would adhere to the fourteen days. They should treat you exactly the same. Tell them your invoice terms and if they don’t understand then tell them that you cannot release any files until the day of payment, so they’ll have to wait a month and a half.
Are you worried whether they’ll pay at all?
If not, then just go with it, that’s just how some companies operate. If you want, just figure out what the interest would be in that time period, and work that into the initial quote. If you have credit card debt you’d pay off with the money at 20%, add your regular hourly rate multiplied by 20% * days/365.
ie, $100/hour + $100/hour * 20% * 45 / 365 = $102.47/hour. So a 2.5% bump in your regular rates/price would cover the late payment. Voila, everyone’s happy.
This is simply how some businesses operate, it’d be silly to turn down the work just because you’ll get paid later than you’re used to.
I’ve never had to turn down work – but if the client didn’t want to meet my payment terms, then that’s just an obvious red flag that they’re going to be problematic further down the line anyway. No point bending over backwards for people who are going to screw you either way :)
The best clients are the ones who want to work with you because they want YOUR work, not cause you’re ‘local’ or ‘convenient’.
Good points here. In reply to Daniel, no I am not worried that they will not pay but I will rethink how I approach this type of client in future. The idea of increasing my charges so that I factor in 45 days payment terms is a good one.
John, for further explanation, the work for this client was maintenance/improvements on their current website, not a redesign. I do a lot of this type of work and many clients have come to me because I am local/convenient/small company (they say). I may be in different position to you perhaps.
Up to now, I very rarely turned this work down if offered it. I usually live with the payment terms. However, I am rethinking this and judging each client on a case-by-case basis (and payment terms is one criterion I will use).
Really glad someone else has thought about this too. I have had a few companies (mostly within the transport industry) who are so used to payment after 30 days that they have been argumentative with me over my staggered payment plans. I generally quote in 3′s and get signed off after each section, which covers me if I ever do have to take it to court (never happened yet). I take a 3rd of the quoted price at the start of the project as a deposit, a 3rd when the design is agreed on and the final 3rd just before I put the site live. I give out an estimated timescale for the payments, I take the deposit on the day if I can, then its usually one week for 2nd payment and depending on the size of the site 1-3 weeks for final payment. So far its kept me out of trouble.
Thanks for commenting Kat, I do something almost identical for bigger project with long timelines :)
Hi All…
I have the following in all proposals I send to potential client… with no issues to date.
o Orders under £1500 – 100% upfront.
o Orders over £1500 – 50% of the total cost prior to the project start date. 25% at a determined development approval/agreed date and the remaining & final 25% will be invoiced on completion.
o If the client is unable to support either test or completion activities within the agreed timescales, we will invoice for this payment milestone after at the agreed or after a reasonable time has elapsed without a response from the client.
o All invoices are payable upon receipt.
Works for me ;-)
cheers
Phil
Very nice Phil – I like this a lot
Just to add to my above comment…
I work on the principle that these are ‘my’ terms of business. My clients have their own, but they adhere to mine as they want to trade with me!
Yes, I agree, this is the way it should be. Many clients stick to their own terms of business which is completely wrong if they hired you — it should be your terms that take precedence, not theirs.
I really like your bulleted explanation, I might try that. I do currently have a 100% deposit specified for low value projects, but it’s *very* low, I definitely need to increase it! :-)
Excellent advice, although I stipulate a 10 day payment period. The final payment is taken before the site goes live, although I sometimes bend this rule depending on how well I know the client.
That’s not the case up here where 30 days is standard across the board. I deal mainly with corporate businesses and agencies, if your terms are anything but 30 days they’ll go elsewhere, get you to change them or in some cases outright ignore them and use their own payment terms. Sometimes you can get away with 14 days with smaller clients and a certain % down payment of the total is accepted but it’s not always easy.
Most of these businesses know the business game and have lawyers that freelancers simply can’t compete with.
And then there’s the whole getting clients to actually pay on time you have to enforce. Funny how they’re so demanding on deadlines for your work but when it comes to payment many are not so concerned.
Ryan, I’ve used these payment terms with some of the biggest corporates in the world – they wanted to work with me, so they found a way of paying me. If they were going to decide that they weren’t interested in working with me just cause I wanted to be paid within 7 days… then I wouldn’t have wanted to work with them anyway!
Like I said though, no problems so far :)
The oil/energy industry is quite brutal, while i have some pretty kick ass clients I love working with a good portion of the others are absolute bastards. It can be quite depressing.
However my main problem isn’t really with 30 day payment terms, I can handle that fine. It’s clients constantly missing the payment date that gets me. Most are good and meet it or pay up once I’ve reminded them, but others (who I’m pretty much cutting off for good) are entirely incapable of meeting any payment date whether it’s right away or months down the line. I’m sure people are taught at business school to ignore invoices for as long as possible.
Hi Ryan
With corporates (who can be a pain sometimes) I have an ‘Acceptance of Proposal’ on the last page of my proposal document that I get them to sign & post back to me.
If my terms are in my proposal (as stated/commented above), they have to adhere to ‘my’ terms in ‘my’ proposal… full stop.
cheers
Phil
One way they can get around this is to send a PO with their own payment terms *after* approving the proposal. If you don’t dispute it and risk losing business you’ve agreed to their terms. This is just one of the methods I’ve seen used.
Most freelancer contracts and agreements can be pulled to bits by a half decent lawyer anyway so it’s not even worth going there unless you have serious money to pay for water tight documents.
I agree with this. John’s article is great in that it shows why it’s important to stick to your payment terms. The reality however is that it can be very difficult to work with a client who’ll wilfully disregard this — and unless you’re stacked with cash and a good lawyer, it’s generally not worth fighting.
I think John’s been very lucky so far. I have very similar payment terms as him, but can give you some great horror stories about clients who didn’t give a toss and took months to pay. Of course, they were assholes, but sometimes you don’t learn this until it’s too late.
Great article John. Wherever possible I’ll try to ensure that invoices get paid way before 30 days – instantly is obviously preferable – and I’ve found that when working with small businesses that this is quite easy to achieve but as soon as you start to work for larger organisations and/or digital agencies your chances of you being able to dictate the payment terms diminish.
I’ve worked for companies where the payment terms are 60 days (which in reality means 60-65 days) and it’s a real pain. I do believe that you should always try and negotiate the payment terms down – and definitely discuss all money matters like this at the earliest opportunity to avoid any issues with the client once the project starts.
As a freelancer you have to cover yourself and the only way to do that is as said above.
Never give the client the final deliverables until FULL payment has been made, make this clear from the start. I personally require 50% upfront and the remainder upon completion but I make it clear I won’t even start on the project without being in receipt of the deposit.
It might seem harsh but it’s really not; if someone wants you to work to different terms then I would question why and stay well clear. I too have only once had a client who has given me issues with late payments and since implementing this method I’ve had no problems whatsoever.
Cashflow is very important; you can enforce yours and if you get a client who has issues with theirs it’s probably best to steer clear to reduce the stress and time it takes to get paid as it will impact you in terms of creativity as much as stress.
I found that plenty of people are willing to work with me on 7 day payment terms, they understand I’m a small business, and they chose me over a large business for the personal touch.
Got told before that they didn’t like the terms, but they’d pay by them because the pro’s of doing business with me vs others was a lot. And that was their only con.
If people appreciate your work, they’ll pay by your terms.
Could not agree with you more. Switching to fixed and short payment dates has worked out great for me to.
I sometimes do design work for a University and because of their slow administrative/ budget system they pay up the full sum up-front. They wouldn’t have done that if I had a 30 days payment term.
Really good comments.
Couple of further thoughts:
1) We are effectively exchanging service(work) for money so why should the client get the benefit of using our service for 30 days for free.
2) Did anyone experiment with following: yes, you can pay in up to 30 days from completion but I’ll charge you interest of xx% because the bank / credit provider charges me interest.
My invoices must be paid within 10 days. I find this gives the client time to move any money around if they need to and it also allows time for post to arrive if they are sending a cheque. I wouldn’t personally do it any quicker, I don’t want the client to feel rushed.
30 days is nonsense for the reasons stated above. I have never come across a client that has needed 30 days to pay. I often hear freelancers complaining about squeezing money from their clients. I think that the 30 day payment date is part of the reason. If I had 30 days I would be in no rush to pay. I would probably forget. People would then get paid within 3 days of being reminded to pay.
As for late payments, I have only had one and that was due two local banks struggling to recognise each other in an international money transfer.
Nice article John, thanks for sharing your experience.
I’m with you on this one. Personally I operate with a 14 day payment term, but find most of my clients pay very quickly. I have one client who insists on a 30 day term and I signed a contract agreeing to such so can’t complain. But when they say 30 days, they mean 30 days and literally make sure payment reaches me precisely on the 30th day. Better than being a late payment but it does make budgeting a bit more awkward than I’d like it to be.
I would echo some of the other comments though, that some organisations – especially large public sector organisations – have set payment terms for all their contracts and you haven’t got a nats chance in hell of negotiating with their procurement division.
As a rule of thumb, my 14 day terms apply to all, but I’m not going to turn down work with a potential client if the only sticking point is whether I can wait a month for my money.
I must sound like a bit of a pain to deal with… but my technique (above) works.
I also have a system that I raise my invoices in & email as a PDF automatically. If the BAC’s payment is not with me in a certain time period, my system sends an auto ‘late payment’ email/reminder and then again every day thereafter until paid.
Cashflow is everything to my business & I want the interest in my bank!!! why the hell not!!!
Some good stuff in here John (and in the comments, great that we all share). I tend to ask for:
* 25% deposit will be required before work commences.
* 25% deposit after Page design signed off.
* 25% deposit after XHTML/CSS layout templates signed off.
* Remainder will be required upon completion and before site goes live.
Additionally my Invoices are payable NOW. When I invoice its because something is finished so I have no idea why I need to wait for someone to pay. Of course I don’t expect payment there and then (although some clients using the new Fast Bank Transfer pay within hours of an invoice which is brilliant) but most pay within the week.
If you put 30 days on an invoice (and I have heard this from a client of mine). They ignore it till that date then think about paying it.
Great article John,
I already adopt something very similar and have found it works perfectly. 50% before any work is undertaken and 50% when the website is finished to the agreed level. I don’t set it to a go live date as go live dates get pushed back for any number of reasons.
I also work it to the ‘agreed level’ not when the client thinks it should be ready. Often I find that even though the structure and design has been agreed and signed off, there are always things clients want to change. This is no problem at all but there will be additional charges for that as the website has been completed to the agreed brief. I also add in deadlines for when copy is to be supplied that way if the website is complete but missing copy the invoice is still due.
Admittedly, I am only just starting out down the freelance route but so far, none of my clients have had any problem with my terms at all. As long as they are clear from the beginning most clients are happy to work to them. Ironically the only projects I’ve had problems being paid for are ones I’ve done as favours for friends but I guess there is a lesson in there somewhere! ~ grin!
I have seen far too many businesses fail because customers don’t pay within a “proper” time.
I have no idea where “30 days” came from but it is very old. I guess it’s something to do with needing time to manually process paper, write cheques, etc coupled with manufacturers needing time to convert raw materials into saleable goods.
Whatever the reason it’s irrelevant. Forget it and negotiate your own terms.
This may seem blunt but if all businesses had to pay immediately it would sort the wheat from the chaff.
BTW Mike why do “Some businesses need 30 days out”?
Just because you’re a freelancer doesn’t mean you have to accept crappy terms dictated to you by clients.
If they want you to do the work then they have to bow to your demands not the other way round and you’ll find that the vast majority will without question and the others will realise that it’s worth using you even if it means hassle their end with the accounts dept.
Any client that can’t get the payment sorted for you on your terms either isn’t trying very hard or they have money issues, I find not releasing sites/design work before full payment works well; as long as you dictate it up front so its not a surprise to them.
Excellent advice (as usual). Thank you
Great article and great comments too. I truly wish I could do somethine even remotly similar to this.
I honestly wonder in which continent something like this can possibly happend, because where I live (Italy) this sounds really impossible. For anyone, no matter.
I’ve always worked for medium design firms that were often involved with many different clients of varius sizes, from small company to corporates.
Here 30 days payment are not the rule: they are the very best you can ask for!
60 days is the rule, and recently a client send us his new payments method for 2010: 90 days payments. Which is considered quite popular for bigger companies.
Considering I’m planning to start freelancing full time soon, something in this discussion really makes me think.
You made your point when explaining “I’ve used these payment terms with some of the biggest corporates in the world – they wanted to work with me, so they found a way of paying me.” This is really the core of everything.
It makes me wonder… with several hundreds of agencies in Milan, just not to mention foreign competition, how good I need do get to set my own payment standards?
Awesome article dude! Did this follow on from our phone call at all? I’m adopting fixed payment dates method almost exclusively now – it’s a great idea.
Had this one in my drafts for a while – but our phonecall reminded me! :)
25-50% deposit upfront. 14 days terms. No work started until payment. If final settlement not received, site goes down.
Great article John. Keep it up
In some states, if you want to work with government or state-funded entities you must adhere to Net-30 billing terms. There is no way around it. It is due to laws or regulations that enable the bureaucratic nightmare.
Yep great article, 28 days is mine (again going by the norm), and late payments are the bane of my business. You do everything in your power to meet clients deadlines and yet they still fail to pay when due….grrrr!
I agree with your upfront percentage which is ideal for large projects like websites. For smaller ones I think it would get complicated to apply. Hourly rate jobs for me are just that and initial quotes are based on the hours the job will take to complete, with an added extra of stating that additional hours will be charged at XYZ (as the old update and correction times can be a bit of a “how long is a piece of string” scenario. This generally means I invoice on completion with the 28 days to pay (which few seem to meet).
My only concern with shortening it, is that some of my clients, when I’ve chased payments, have come back to me saying “we pay invoices 28 days from the end of the month”, which blatantly disregards MY terms of payment. Their terms mean that if I miss getting my invoice in by the 1st of the next month, they wait till the end of the following month before their 28 days apply, so it is in fact that I get paid 2 months later…..which yes is completely unfair and stupid and to be honest I haven’t a clue why they do it?!….I had the excuse that it’s the only time they open their accounts at the end of the month?!
I know it’s MY terms they should adhere to, but where is the fine line between demanding your terms (even with a contract which still to some means nothing), demanding payment, applying late fees and threatening legal action and putting yourself at risk of losing their business (even if it’s their fault they’re not paying for supplied work).
Sure some are bound to say, get your money and run, but A. I for one can’t afford to lose business and B. it’s a good mix of late payers from the small one off business to the perhaps larger ones that you’d think were reputable payers.
Just my two pence worth there, think I can only wish to have clients like yours though. :)
Thanks for taking the time to share all that Andy :) and don’t worry I’ve had some nightmare clients too! When clients sign my contract for the project they’re also agreeing to MY payment terms – so that’s what I would fall back on if it ever came to that!
Even though I’ve been a freelance developer since 2003, every day I learn something new. I’m still waiting for the payment of a BIG agency. I’m waiting since December 1st. and my invoice had “payment due within 10 days”. This agency is Young & Rubicam Argentina and they have an awful treatment towards providers. I have to call every Thursday to check if my payment is ready to pick up. Aparently, I was told they seem to pay providers only when their clients pay them, what is obviously awful.
Worst thing is that I can do nothing because this is a project that their client cancelled and they agreed to pay me anyway. So there’s no deliverable to negotiate here.
Big companies have always been the most difficult for paying.
I agree. I actually require 50% ip front before I’ll even schedule you in. Then I require the last 50% once I have final sign off on the site and they want to launch. I NEVER hand over files until final payment, unless I’m working directly on their server which isn’t often. Had a client once who fought me on this for a 30 day invoice, which I refused to do. I did talk him down to 14 days but I’ll probably never do that again. It simple doesn’t make sense to me. If I go to the mall and spend $500 on clothes, they expect me to pay before I get the merchandise, not 30 days after. Why would the web be ant different? This method also reduces non paying clients and if they refuse to adhere to your payment terms, they probably weren’t going to pay anyways.
Fair point, but you have no way of knowing they won’t adhere to your terms until you invoice them after completing the work….which is obviously a bit late then. It’s impossible to not hand over final work (in printed format or for them to have printed anyway) until payment is received, web work is a little easier to hold back I guess
Sorry to be picky but technically you can walk out of a store with $500 worth of clothes, aside from stealing them, the store can offer credit terms with their store cards. 28 days or so to pay off the $500 with or without interest applied, then bigger interest applied after the 28 days or so on the remaining balance.
Businesses with 28 day, 30 day, 7 day or whatever payment terms are all regardless of the length of term, offering a form of client credit and I can’t see why a client would or should treat a 7 day term or a 30 day term different, who’s to say they wont miss the the 7 day deadline?!
I think it pretty much all boils down to the type of client you have, some are early, some on time, some generally forget and need reminders, some perhaps are deliberate in missing your payment deadlines, just to see how far they can push putting off paying before the court order lands on their doormat.
Our services arn’t exactly ready off the shelf like clothes are, so clients arn’t going to be willing to pay until they have exactly what they want, signed, sealed and delivered…even for 7 day terms or more.
Andy,
I disagree. Stores only give you credit if you have credit, not to just anyone who walks in the store. It’s one thing for a client of 1+ years to ask for an extension, it’s another to some client who just emailed me once.
As for print and web, yes you can withhold files until payment. I did it on both my print and web work. For print, after you’ve shown the sample to the client and approve, send them the invoice and don’t send it to the printers or release the final files until they’ve paid.
Doing what I said above, I’ve never had a client not pay, pay late, or walk away from a project (knock on wood) while it won’t stop every bad person from taking advantage of you, it’s certainly more protection than a 30 day payment term.
Also, credit cards are offered by banks, even the store ones. So the store still gets paid immediately even if you use credit, you just owe the bank, not the store. Sorry to get picky about it but it’s a good analogy.
Maybe for the US then, but UK wise if I walk into a store, go to pay, I’ll get asked if I want a storecard to spread the payments (they encourage it regardless of your credit rating cause of the high interest they can earn from it…if you don’t meet their payment deadlines, their interest gets higher, just like credit cards). Not sure where we would stand in our business with charging variable rates of interest for late payers, perhaps we should, still think some won’t pay on time.
As for the print side, 9 times out of 10 the clients ask for the work to be done because they have a print deadline, if they say they want that leaflet doing by monday cause it’s going to print Monday afternoon, I can’t say Monday morning, “here’s the final job, now cough up some dosh NOW or else you’re not having the hires PDF!”….the result would be missed print deadline, unhappy client, loss of future business…..they simply expect some kind of payment term.
Guess everyone works in different ways that wont always work for others, I still think if you’re lucky to have good payers then thats brilliant….I have 1 who pays way in advance of their due date! (Im doing well after 5 years trading! hehe!)
Amber, you are so right with this!! “If I go to the mall and spend $500 on clothes, they expect me to pay before I get the merchandise, not 30 days after.”
Serious food for thought here… Thanks for the great article. Nothing better than a new year to raise rates AND adjust payment terms! :)
My current situation….i ask for 50% up front and i do a phase 2 and Phase 3 for jobs. With each phase describing what work is involved under each phase. Once that phase is finished and customers signs off on it payment is due….Sounds simple, well my current or dormant client payed 50% down and i supplied wire frames and site maps, we meet and discuss ideas and she mentioned the designs have inspired new ideas and she wants to look it over. Well a week later i get a email from her assistant ” We will call you when we are ready to move forward”. I could have site well int0 to the third phase by now. This is just one small draw back i see in my current billing.
At moment i am still ahead in regards to payment versus time invested. But i would also like to have projects moving forward. I have completed several other projects while this one is in limbo. Will see how i can incorp your suggestions into my current billing policy…
[edit by John: Charles, thanks for your contribution, but 'name' does in fact mean 'name' and not 'company name link-spam'... and 'comment' does in fact mean 'comment' not 'comment followed by self-promotional link-spam'.]
I’ve always done 7 days within the invoice for payment, but there’s one mistake I made early on.
“It’s not cool when you agree to 50% up front and 50% when it’s done in a week’s time, then the client takes a month to give you access details to the server… so any client delays now affect the live-date, but not the final payment date.”
I had a Client once who stalled with revisions for a 4 month project for an additional 3 months and then cancelled the contract, and claimed that there would be no final invoice payment since we never reached the final live date.
The matter was resolved, but it was frustrating none-the-less
Since then I tend to follow your policy. Live and learn.
You make some good points here, and I pretty much take care of things the same way. A 40-50% deposit up front, depending on the overall project total, with either a final payment at the end or two more smaller payments in the case of a 40% deposit spread out over the project timeline.
I have a 7 day payment plan as well and have never had any major problems… In my experience, if a client has a problem with paying within 7 days, then you most likely will have a problem getting the money period, even within the 30 days!
It’s a good idea to do whatever you can to ensure prompt payment. That said, being paid within 30 days shouldn’t “kill your business”. If it does, perhaps freelancing isn’t the right business for you. Or perhaps the title of the article is a bit too extreme (though it did its job, since it got me to read it).
The fact is, some clients, particularly larger clients, will treat freelancers as vendors. For instance, Best Buy would routinely pay between 30 – 60 days, treating monies owed to me in the same manner as monies owed to suppliers like Sony. They already have the money in an account, but by holding off for at least 1 month, they can earn interest on it. Sure, they wouldn’t earn as much interest from the $5000 they owed me compared to the $5,000,000 owed to Sony, but it’s their standard procedure — and it didn’t kill my business. I got into the habit of sending them a weekly invoice, and after a 30 day delay I began receiving weekly payments.
Freelancers should put money away for slow periods, or times when clients either pay late or not at all. Figure out the minimum you need to survive for 3 months, and keep it in a savings account. Business saved!
Marc, that’s all very good – and it would be lovely if life were that simple, but it isn’t ;)
As mentioned in the article, I’ve worked with multibillion dollar clients, and none of them have had a problem with what I discussed in this post.
Go into Best Buy and get a DVD Recorder, LCD TV and then tell them at the checkout you want 60 day payment terms.
You: “Sorry but it’s my standard procedure”.
BestBuy Manager: “Ahuh, and its our standard procedure not to let products out the door without payment”.
If it works that way for all retail business why should it be different for non-retail?
I don’t release the final product until payment is made. Payment is made when the customer (who gets to see the final product, but his users cant) agrees I’ve done what is required. So he’s sure he’s got what he asked for, and I’m sure I’m going to get paid for it.
Great article John. I have a 20% deposit – payment on invoice, then 14 days on the final invoice / balance when the site is live. I’ve only had one delayed payment – which was a bit of a nightmare, apart from that most payments arrive within a couple of days.
Interesting that you get payment before the work goes live / is handed over. I’ve never thought of doing this before and can see how it keeps the ball in your court.
John – quick question that would probably do well to be said on Twitter, but also works here (so I shall post it, to drum up more discussion).
Do you (or any of your readers) act how you like to be treated when you hire a supplier?
I.e. although you may be waiting on payment from the client, if you’ve outsourced the design or development, do you instantly pay your supplier for the work they have completed?
What if the amount owed to the supplier is greater than your available business capital (i.e. working for a massive client on a huge project) and you can only afford to pay the supplier once the client has paid you?
What would you do if the supplier decided to hold their files until they were paid? In which case your client would not want to pay until the see the designs etc…
Steve,
Yes this is how I act towards other businesses. When I outsource work to a programmer or a designer they get 50% up front like I do. The programmer gets paid the other 50% exactly when the site launches or is ready to launch like I do. The client pays me, which then I in turn pay the outsourcer from that. I never give money out of my own pocket perse.
Absolutely – whenever I comission work I try to treat the person/company in the way which I like my clients to treat me.
I also make a point of not working with negative equity. I don’t subcontract unless I can afford to pay them regardless of whether or not the client pays me. (made a hash of this early on and learned my lesson)
Surely it matters less what the actual terms are, but rather that they’re agreed to at the start by both parties.
I run several small businesses with lots of suppliers – if they all had 7 (or whatever) day terms then we’d be dealing with payments every day of the week. I don’t have time for that and don’t have an accounts department to deal with it – we pay almost everything once a month with exceptional items once a week. I don’t want to drop what I’m doing on a daily basis to immediately deal with an invoice that just happens to have arrived today.
We also don’t have funds lying around in current accounts to meet any invoice that comes in by return…
For one-off “unusual” projects I’d agree to your terms. For regular work I’d try to negotiate something else or pass. If we can’t agree mutually acceptable terms then I’m fine if you want to pass.
Worst case is saying nothing up front and then expecting payment by return.
If you have more work/clients than you can cope with then of course you get to dictate the terms :-)
Just the view of someone who deals with lots of suppliers in a small business.
John, I’m guessing from your reply that you don’t work in web design – which is what this article is really relevant to
Worth noting that web development is a service, not a product. You can’t get your toilet plunged for Net-30 terms, and you shouldn’t expect someone to put in 40+ hours and then get paid a month or two later.
And sometimes we get screwed out of payment entirely when not dealing with partial up-front payment.
I love finding people who don’t have a clue about what they are talking about…and then ripping them apart.
You however have brought some great insights that I personally never even considered. I never heard of you nor have I been to this site, but you seem to have hit a sensitive spot concerning pay issues.
When it comes to money, people get very emotional. I have never demanded or stated that a client should pay within 7 days, but I think I might just give it a go.
Also, before a start a project, I usually have the client pay 1/3 of the project’s value up front…just sayin :)
Hi Brett, I have to be honest – you scared me with that first sentence! :) Thanks for the kind words
This is an excellent post. In a perfect world this wouldn’t be an issue. With my projects I require a 50% deposit, 25% at design approval, and 25% at completion. The pay structure keeps both sides motivated with regards to deliverables and it helps keep the cash flow going. I’d rather spend my time focusing on the work I am doing for my clients and not hunting down money.
I have been Freelancing for a while and I have only had problems, when I billed at the end of the project, which I learned quickly that it just doesn’t work, but I do term my project on a project to project bases!!! I do set payments at phases, but the set date advice is good. I like that and think I am going to add that to my Project plan!!! I do know that changes to hold the project off!! But I do completely stop working on a project if the payment is on hold!! LOL!!!
Great Post !!! I have been down this road of 30 days an it was horrible…Changed our policy in 2010 to fixed timeline…
Nice post and very effective way to handle things. The major take-away for me is that it’s about managing expectations – when people know what to expect upfront, everyone wins.
Hi John,
.. that was a nice read, thank you! From the beginning I have a 10 working-days-term (what’s the same as two weeks, but it sounds shorter ;-P). When I get to do a bigger project, I ask to pay 40-50% in advance.
To be totally honest with you, I just did it this way, I never thought about a 30 day term? But thanks to your article I’ll never consider a 30 day term!
Cheer & Ciao …
My terms used to be due on receipt, but I ran into struggles getting the client to notice there was an invoice that needed approving. What good is ‘due on receipt’ when it takes two weeks for the client to review an invoice? Or approve the budget? (this is a client of almost eight years – otherwise I’d do things differently with him.)
Then I made a discovery: For $30/month, Paypal’s Virtual Terminal service lets me take credit cards from anyone (aka small businesses).
So I changed things with all other small companies – anyone too small to have standard terms for all their suppliers, or who have one person who makes the decisions about approving invoices and cutting checks. Namely, they don’t get to cut checks anymore – they get their credit card run.
They want to pay cash? Fine. I’ll take their debit card.
Terms, depending on their size and cash flow, can vary from 50% upfront and the rest at milestones – if it’s a smallish project – to 50% upfront and the rest divided into a set number of monthly payments, or even the whole thing divided into a year’s worth of payments.
Now, suddenly, they can afford a program that’s worth more than they ever would have spent in cash – and I’m not the bank. MasterCard and Visa are the bank – and, yes, I’m paying 3% for the privilege. but that’s a lot better than late money, or no money.
Excellent blog post. I discovered these same epiphanies a while back when cash flow my company was un- predictable. Now we require 50% up front before starting (no 7 day net) and the other 50% net 30 from the contract signing. We too got burned a few times on paying “when it’s done” because they clients can take months to supply content when they say they already have it. So many lessons learned on this one.
The new terms have been very agreeable with all of our clients and everyone is very happy. Another thing to remember, the only thing you have to give away is your profit!
@Mary Baum, I would dump PP for $30 a month. That’s VERY expensive for a virtual terminal. I can get you a real merchant account for free with VT and the money auto deposits into your account. ;-)
That’s only about $9 a month without any credit card transactions and when you get above a $100 a month, the 9$ goes away and the per transaction fees are WAY lower.
Great article John. You make your point really well. I’ve been doing something similar for a couple of months now, and I also offer a discount for upfront payment as well, which helps with cashflow a lot as well.
I’ve just done a post based on it here (http://www.6figurefreelancing.com/2010/01/4-lines-you-can-add-to-a-proposal-that-will-get-you-paid-in-lightning-speed/) where I talk about implementing it into your proposal and also about a discount for upfront payment as well.
Great article, I’ve always had a 30 day standard but will be switching to 7. I’ve found that clients see it as “Pay in 30 days” rather than “Pay within 30 days”
A question though, if you invoiced a client on a Monday would that mean they need to pay by Sunday or Tuesday?
I’m guilty of using 30 day payment, don’t even know why I decided on it
The 50% upfront and 50% on completion is what i have been, working, i agree with you how a client can delay the final payment, because of ftp details, or just plain stall by saying well its still not complete and then make little changes to make the project time longer, quite annoying. This article has really opened my eyes as to why I keep getting in a financial pickle.
At now i know to rethink my strategy for payment, how do you handle the client wanting to see the finished version of the website uploaded before payment, do you have your owner little place where you upload it just for the client to see, and then move it later to their real domain?
Hi Geoffrey,
Yep I usually put it on clientname.lyricalmedia.com to show to them
Hi Geoffrey, my advice, don’t get burned like we did. Get the first 50% up front and the rest x weeks later. Present this to your client as a payment plan and they will be more receptive. I let our prospect know they can get a x% discount for paying in full up front or they can choose the split payments.
You would be surprised how many go for the full payment up front for the discount especially when sites are in the 2-5k range.
I got a 30-days payment term, too. But you just convinced me. I’ll definitely change that one.
John, very good advice. I flit between 14 days and 30 days, just because I thought this was the case. The last agency i worked for, they sometimes had 60 days!
Would this model work for print designers asking 50% upfront? Any thoughts much appreciated.
Gaz
Hi Gaz, I don’t see why not? It’s worth a try :)
If I had to wait 30 days to get paid I would be standing on the street holding a sign that said “will design for food” (Of course it would have the perfect font and great readability).
I keep the payment issue real simple. 50% or smaller for a big project up front and final payment due before launch. With good or repeat customers I just send them an invoice after launch that says due on receipt.
I just sent a firm but polite email to a client whose invoice was due on 5th December. Their reply was that…
“Our accountant pays everyone ‘net monthly’ which means she logs all the invoices at the end of the month and then counts 35 days before she pays.
If you invoice us on say the 7th. She will enter it on the 30th and then start counting.
This means that at your end it looks like we are heading for 60 days but not at our end.”
This clearly means they ignore individual payment terms to every company they owe money to, not just me, and I think other companies implicate this policy too…..maybe just in UK perhaps?! (the reason I think they do it is possibly based on the idea that the longer they hold the money they owe in their accounts, the more interest they can earn on it).
I have a client like that. Regardless of what date in a month I invoice, it is left until the end of the month and then paid 30 days after, e.g. invoicing on 1 January or 31 January makes no difference to them, it will not be paid until end February, or into March!
I have kind of accepted this now and make sure that things like hosting costs are invoiced for super advance, i.e. using their rules to my advantage, e.g. something due on 1 December was invoiced for in September. And they paid end October! Shows how much they pay attention / care! I got my money a month early.
Additionally, if they ask for work, I ask for 50% upfront, amazingly it doesn’t take them 6+ weeks to pay that, does it!
Excellent comment Griffin
“Worth noting that web development is a service, not a product. You can’t get your toilet plunged for Net-30 terms, and you shouldn’t expect someone to put in 40+ hours and then get paid a month or two later.”
I have just sacked a restaurant client who took 90 days to pay. Never seen three months credit advertised on a menu!
Good point John. So true that everyone seems to have that magical number 30 in mind for payment. Although, I do have some of my clients on that 30-day term, I have my steady clients on retainer. Having clients on retainer gets me paid before doing the work. I’ve had my long-time client on retainer all of last year, who have agreed to retain my services for another year, under contract. Another client that I was having seriuos overdue issues with was remedied after I requested to be paid via direct deposit. Now I receive payment between 7-10 business days. Much more acceptable. But it is so true, as some other readers have commented, the larger companies seem to be worse at paying in a timely manner. Unfortunate, but true.
Love the concept of the 7 day payment!! And I have encountered the same issue with the “Hurry Up and Wait” syndrome that clients pull over and over. I just pulled off a site plan/design/build in a two week time frame over the winter holiday season because the client was on a deadline. Only reason I took the job is because it was a quick turn/cash job. Turns out, over a month later, I am still waiting for the client to populate content. They increased the budget, and still haven’t completed billing because the job is still “open” technically.
I find that the terms of setting hard date/milestones for payment is the best idea I have heard in a long time. Most times, if you are the designer you know you are, “Kick-A$$, Super Hero, Rockstar”, you will always hit your deadline. And so, why not be rewarded for your efforts. Just never thought about it this way. Here’s to getting paid in 2010… and BEEEEEEYOND!
I put 30 Days but I always get paid prior to 30 days.
I put 14 days and have to chase people up like crazy, (which I feel guilty about!) This month alone I’ve been told by at least two clients “We have a one month turn around” – in reality they mean they will wait 6-8 weeks. I don’t understand why large companies (for me it has never been individuals) believe they can decide when they pay.
A friend has a very different business to mine, a number of clients charged around £50. If he has a non or slow payer then he can live with it. When you have only a small number of clients being charged larger amounts, a single non or slow payer can throw everything upside down, (especially with a young business that has yet to build up a ‘buffer’ in the bank account.
(This is in regard to ongoing contract work. Limited term projects are different, that’s 50% upfront, 25% on go-live and 25% after two weeks from go live)
Don’t offer terms to anybody if you can avoid it. It helps when they whine about the price, but watch out – the whiners might just NOT pay you.
30 day terms.. I try not to offer them to anybody, but some people like them, and yeah, big companies are often worst. A strategy back a few years ago was for developers to ask for terms from design-build contractors on their buildings, where jobs would be easily $80,000. The developers would then drag out payment long enough to put the design-build firm out of business, and voila! They didn’t have to pay for the work. The smart guys would call their lawyers IMMEDIATELY, and even the threat of a mechanics lien would get the check moving, but that’s a pain in the ass when a lawyer costs $500 and the whole job was only $2000, for example.
My first policy was 50/50 – That is 50% up front, 50% on delivery. For small jobs, that’s still what I do. Other guys cover materials and consumables for a deposit, then the balance on delivery.
Now I’ve moved to a credit limit system. I give them… say $3600, and 30 days on labor and services. Materials are up front almost always. If they go out past 30 days on any invoice, ALL work halts on everything, and if they’re up to their credit limit, then new work has to be paid on a cash basis. That’s the thing. Terms are a pain in the neck, and unless you have REALLY steady work, it will screw with your cash flow for sure.
I try to put due upon receipt on my invoices and normally don’t have any issues with payments. If you want to offer terms try a shorter period, the 7-10 days as mentioned is good. As small business owners we all need to maintain a good cash flow.
Great article John. Great comments too.
I’ve never done a 30 day payment structure for anything. I generally do a 30/30/40 structure seeing as the clients I have always take their good old time getting me their content and input.
I totally agree that 30 day payments are not the way to go. I always get something upfront.
Great topic John!
I use FreshBooks for all of my billing, and as it stands my invoices are marked “Please remit payment within 15 days of the invoice date”. If no payment is received within that time, my clients are sent a reminder at the 15-day mark, again at the 30-day mark (if necessary), then once again at 45 days (God forbid). After that I send thugs who don’t speak English anyway, so all the begging and pleading in the world won’t save their asses!
After reading your article, I’m considering going with a 10-day expectation, with subsequent reminders at the 20 and 30-day marks.
As far as establishing a contract is concerned, lately I’ve had some favourable feedback and success with a structure of 50% up front, then the remaining 50% spread over 11 monthly payments. This type of setup affords opportunities to do two things:
1) Gently market some value-added services to my existing clients with on a monthly basis
2) An automatic reminder to take them to lunch in celebration of our 1-year anniversary, and revisit their current services after one full year of data can be scrutinized
As a freelancer, I don’t just try to touch every aspect of every project, but I also try to connect often with every client. This “monthly payment” program helps me do that, as well as create steady reliable cash flow to help out during the lean times.
I hope you charge them at least the same amount of interest on those payment plans as they would get from a bank ;)
It really depends on your clients. I ran a small business for about 4 years. Initially I did 30 day payments. Instead of making a late fee for past 30 days, I gave a discount for early payments. This worked well with my small clients. But when dealing with companies like Cisco or AT&T they really expect to have 90 days, and a generally incapable of processing payments in any less time. They also, always expect a discount. So knowing they wouldn’t receive the discount because they couldn’t meet the prompt payment requirement nearly cost me some contracts, until I figured out that was the main stumbling block…
Bill
Hi Bill – I don’t think you should have to discount your services to get paid on time. I mean you don’t go into a grocery store and demand a 10% discount cause you’re paying at the till, right? I think offering discounts for early payments is effectively rewarding bad behaviour… that sounds juvenile but I think it describes it pretty accurately.
With regards to major corps – if they really want to work with you they’ll find a way of paying you. As I mentioned – I’ve worked with severel very large corporations and none of them have given me any trouble with my payment terms.
Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences!
Pretty cool post – raises some interesting points for debate. I just stumbled upon your blog this morning and wanted to say that I have really liked browsing some of the posts. Anyways, I’m subscribed to your feed and I hope to read more very soon!
I really like some of the ideas in the article and in the comments—they definitely make me stop and seriously think about how we (my husband and I) charge clients. One we’re definitely going to pick up is scheduling payment dates around project milestones, then sticking to those dates regardless of project status.
For us, the trickiest part is that we’re still building up our company, and I’m also only at it part-time (I have a full-time development job elsewhere), so projects take a long time to complete. A $1500 website can end up spanning three months, because the workload isn’t predictable yet and we have a hard time keeping things structured between multiple clients.
We have made one huge improvement recently. We just started doing all our invoicing in Harvest, and its automatic billing feature is GREAT for monthly hosting charges to our clients. Before Harvest, we charged hosting by the year, and would subsequently forget to bill clients for the second (or third, or fourth) year. Now the invoice gets sent out automatically. Also, the ability for clients to pay online through PayPal has brought our average wait for payments from 15 days down to two or three.
Of course, I just surfed a little further through your site and found FreeAgent… I might have to kiss Harvest goodbye!
A business with not enough cash in the bank to fulfill its debts within 30 days is a business you DO NOT want to be working with! When that company goes under (which is only a matter of time, cashflow is king), you’ll be the last in line for your payment.
this article is so, so true – I used payment due in 30 days for about a week, because Quickbooks had it on there automatically, and then realized it just makes no sense. I LOVE your solution for projects that take forever – with the final payment due in 4 weeks rather than when the layouts are done, but for me, I almost always require that full payment is due before the project starts. I only create an alternate 50/50 plan if the client asks for it, because unfortunately, I’ve been left holding the bag once or twice – and if you’re at 4 weeks in or worse, completed the project, it’s already too late because you’ve completed the work.
Being new to the web design freelance industry I thought about future due dates giving the client time to pay early and then having a late payment fee and percentages, but a thought crossed my mind,
“Why make it hard on yourself?!”
So, I’ve never used “30 day” payment due. I always set dates when payment are due in the agreement and a client has never complained or been late.
Great article and I entirely agree!
Excellent post. I’ve always wondered why a lot of designers request money such a long time after project completion. To me, it didn’t make much sense! Glad to know I wasn’t just missing something. :)