I hate doing it. I hate approaching clients with their final notice and I hate reminding them of outstanding invoices. Yet if I don’t, these things would never get settled. So Friday afternoon I flipped through the Current Invoices folder – three are overdue. One seriously. Out went my reminders.
What’s frustrating is that I performed these tasks on time. I met the deadlines and in some cases, dropped everything to get the work to them quickly. In one case, the invoice is just barely late – it will be by Thursday – but I’m not worried about them so much as they’ve paid on time every time so far. I’m certainly not concerned about the long-time client who simply forgot to pay. It happens. But I’m really concerned about the one that’s 3 months overdue and shows no signs of being paid. And naturally, that’s the one I’m owed the most money on.
How do you handle lateness? I’m all for giving the benefit of the doubt after the first 30 days – we all misplace things or just plain forget. At 60 days due, we’re now getting somewhat insistent, though still maintaining our cool and being cordial. At 90 days, we’re insisting strongly to avoid litigation. And I do it with all clients – you can’t forego the process for anyone no matter how much you like them. It’s business. Handle all your business processes equally for all clients lest you have to defend your actions in court. If you can show a clear pattern of collection attempts that extends to all your clients, you stand a much better chance of securing judgment in your favor.
And isn’t it just Murphy’s Law that the ones who owe the least amount of money are the first ones to pay?
I’ve found that smaller companies and individuals pay more quickly than large corporations.
If a company is big enough to have an accounts payable department, obviously that adds another layer of bureaucracy… but such a department also has an incentive to capture the float by letting payables “mature.”
Then again they have to actually receive the invoice in order for them to pay it…. That’s where the most overdue one stands right now – between my contact and the AP/AR department.
Their “float” is about to sink. Litigation notice went out with this one. Oy.
Most smaller companies are good about paying, as far as business clients; but often, the magazines who pay the least have the attitude of “you should be glad we’re paying anything” and take forever, whereas the magazines who pay more also pay more promptly.
The very worst aspect of freelancing.
Clients see freelancers as a valuable, less expensive alternative to hiring staff, but then don’t seem to realize those same contract workers also have bills to pay. Ug!
You’re much more patient than I am! I send my first reminder a week past the due date. Not getting paid weighs so heavily on me that I become a Royal Pest rather quickly. I’m glad you’re pursuing these payments!
Ugh, I’m right there with you, Lori. Aside from that icky client I blogged about several weeks ago, I have three other clients in various stages of delinquency.
Maybe I should be more uniform, but my approach often depends on the relationship. For instance, if there’s someone else at the company I can CC on an email, that often gets their attention (after I’ve tried the regular methods, of course).
I’m curious if you have actually taken a client to small claims court because I may be getting close to that on some of these. How does that work if you’re in different states?
I never have, Susan. The mere threat of it has always resulted in the payment – minus the late fees, of course. It’s clients like that who make me back away completely. If you’re late as hell and you don’t pay the late fees because you feel you need to “win” something, so long. It’s been real.