What I’m reading: House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski
What’s on the iPod: Sore Thumb by We Were Promised Jetpacks
Finally — I made some progress on the pile of projects. My third article is waiting for some key quotes, but it’s finished a week ahead of schedule. The next one has a source lined up and some research links already sorted. I’ll be digging into that today. I have another project that must be started today, and I’m still waiting word on a project I thought was sorted, but now may not be. Not sure what’s going on, but I’ve no time to keep asking, so onward. And there’s the matter of the fourth article, which has yet to garner any interest from the industry experts. I’ll do a little more research and then reframe the query.
I’m about to levy a late fee to one client who hasn’t gotten back to me on a project that was delivered a month ago. We’ve talked since then, but there’s been no finalization despite our best intentions. Time to punctuate the point.
It’s been a while since I’ve had to deal with a delinquent invoice. I put in place an invoicing/collection process that so far, has worked perfectly. Here’s what I do. Feel free to adapt it to fit your own style:
Set a follow-up date. While I have my calendar up, I mark on it a date two weeks from my deadline. That’s when I will get in touch with the client if I’ve not already heard back.
Send the first invoice. If it’s a project waiting for feedback, the invoice will go out with that follow-up note. If not, it goes out with the project. I’ve often attached it to the project email, but I’ve been known to send it separately in cases where it’s say a blog post that’s written a month out and may not be opened right away.
Send a warning shot. If there’s a lack of communication, I’ll make sure to send a note explaining that within the next week the late fee is coming. I usually word it like this: “I just wanted to let you know that we’re coming quite close to the point where I attach late fees to the outstanding invoice.” And then some personal note about getting things sorted so that doesn’t happen.
Attach the first late fee. They get two chances from me. The first one is thirty-one days out. That’s when the first late fee is added. I make sure to bold the change and alert them to it in the note.
Change the pattern of communication. If I’ve had issues all along with the client being slow to respond to emails (perhaps they travel a lot), I’ll call. Or vice versa. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt, especially where late fees are concerned. But don’t take that to mean I’m going to forget about getting paid.
Send the last invoice. It is the last, for on it are the words “Please pay within 10 days to avoid litigation.” Recently, I’ve changed up when this goes out. To me ninety days is entirely too long to wait for payment. If they don’t pay within 60 days, they’re not intending to pay without being pushed. I now send out the last invoice ten days after the second one is sent, and I let them know on the second invoice that they have just ten days before they incur another (final) late fee.
Stuff happens. Even clients with the best intentions forget to send the invoice along to accounting or lose it entirely in email. That’s what follow-up notes help cure. I’ve been known to send them out just before sending a second invoice. For you, do what feels comfortable and what fits with the client situation. Keep it consistent with each client, but know that there are times when you may want to make an exception. Just don’t make it your practice to do so every time there’s a payment problem.
How do you handle late payments? Do you charge late fees? If so, how do you secure them? Or are you content with collecting the original invoiced amount? What was the longest you ever chased an invoice?
11 responses to “Getting Paid on Time”
I do not have a late fee. Knock on wood, you can count on less than one hand the number of times someone has passed 30 days in payment. I've played with contract language of both payment due within 10 business days and payable immediately.
What gets me is how contract terms are completely ignored and set to the schedule of the client. They may not pass 30 days, but they are kicking at its heels – no matter what the contract says.
Through another writer who works for the Late Payer I learned about his interpretations of his payment terms. Remember, it's a trade magazine, so I agreed to his terms knowing I'd have to wait longer than normal to be paid, but I assumed he would stick to his own terms. Silly me.
His terms state payment will be made 30 days after publication. Ridiculous, sure, but as long as I know when to expect payment I can budget around it. So when they ran one of my articles in November I counted 30 days out, then added one week to allow for the check being mailed. When the check didn't arrive by the first week of December, I stopped putting up my Christmas tree long enough to send a past due notice saying he'd be assessed a 10% late fee if the invoice was not paid by a specific date, December 15, I think it was. Nope. I sent a final notice assuming he'd want to clear the books by year's end. Nope, but he did reply that he was out of the office and would address it when he returned. The check finally arrived in 2012 – with the late fee.
My friend encountered the same problem and discovered while we start counting those 30 days on the first of the month an issue is published, Late Payer starts counting at the END of that month…and even then he manages to pay late.
The longest it took me to chase down a payment? Thirteen months. And it was only $180 or something – a short piece for a "leading" trade mag for a niche industry. They kept making excuses, yet still managed to throw a big event and contest with a $10K grand prize. They only paid when I sent a late notice with a note saying I'd be happy to set up a three part payment plan if they couldn't afford the entire $180 at once. Got the check the next week.
Next was the 11 months it took a bimonthly trade to pay for an article they'd accepted and pushed back two issues. Even as a pays-on-pub they were a good 6 months past due. That was in the early days before I dared add a late fee.
There's definitely something in the water. I'm dealing with two late paying clients right now.
@ Cathy: Sometimes I wonder why I even bother with providing contract terms if they're just going to be ignored.
@Paula: I love the way you sweetly offered to split the $180 your client owed into 3 separate payments for their convenience.
I so know what you mean, Kimberly 🙂
Hello again.
As I mentioned a few days ago, I've been having trouble with slow feedback (and I don't like to invoice unless I'm sure the work was on target) and slow payment, and I have no idea why it's growing.
Anyway, since I wrote that, two of the three people who'd not gotten back to me did, and I sent off the invoices. Still waiting on a third payment that's way overdue, though.
I see your point about late payments, Lori, and I do have a provision in my contract allowing me late fees if payments aren't made within 30 days of invoicing.
However, these stallers are long-term typically timely payers. So I don't want to ding good relationships by adding a late fee. It's a judgment call, but I'm fine foregoing those fees.
That said, is there something in the water? I swear, people, just pay your bills!
P.S. Thanks for your suggestion a few days ago about how to handle the client not returning emails for feedback. I was about to implement it, and the client called. Finally! But good idea!
I've got the promise of a signed contract and payment… but the date has been pushed back… we'll see. Meantime, I'm not turning down any work in anticipation, even tho' it's a big project – a book which will, if we do it, sop up a ton of my bandwidth. No check/contract, no deal.
Make no mistake, Kimberly, my offer to set up a payment plan isn't so sweet. It's intended to humiliate them into paying. Personally, I'm happy if I'm given a chance to use a payment plan for big bills, but I don't view myself or try to position myself as a big-time publisher…I've used this strategy a few other times and they almost always pay in full within a few days. Egos can be a wonderful thing…
I thought you might be interested to hear that I have published my first novel! I've put up a post on To Love, Honor, and Dismay with a description. Hope all is well with you :o)
Cathy, I have a late fee, and sadly I have had to resort to it a few times. I will say now that the rates are much higher, the instances of that happening are rare. What I can't seem to do is get them to pay that late fee. Honestly, I figure once the original amount is paid, I'm not chasing a few hundred. It's not worth my time.
Paula, that's the most ridiculous schedule! I'd ask if he's serious, but clearly he is. Good grief!
Kim, maybe it's the heat. It's causing some of them to lose their freakin' minds!
Gabriella, I get the same feeling sometimes. I just let a client go 29 days without paying because they'd paid up to that point on time. I think it's okay to give them a break once, and maybe twice (but not if it's twice in a row), but after that it may be good to assume some universal shift in their reliability.
Anne, very wise decision. I took on the annual Huge Project in April. I'm still waiting for the bulk of it. If it comes in today I'm totally screwed (or they are because my time is booked), but I suspect it will come in the first week of August.
Andrew, great hearing from you! Congratulations on the book — about time! I love your blog.
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