30 days invoice

[sandall]

2 hours ago, kalmatthew said:

 later on in the document it says terms and conditions printed on invoices are unlikely to form part of the contract and the wider section implies the invoice won't help as it would be after the service was provided.

Noted. Might be worth getting your invoice in ahead of the job.

[kalmatthew]

On 9/8/2023 at 4:02 PM, sandall said:

Noted. Might be worth getting your invoice in ahead of the job.

This has its own issues where I work Accounts Receivable would reject this before it got to someone who could approve an invoice for payment. Agreement in advance is probably the only real protection becuase I suspect in reality without that the big company with the in house legal team will genrally suffer less even if they don't actually win the "battle of the forms" 

[sunray]

My own experience of this is the company paying the invoice will have their own arrangements and attempting to shorten or otherwise alter that will result in delays.

Most of the 'bigger' companies I've invoiced tend to do a payment run on the last day of the month and will be paying invoices dated and received in the previous month.

in other words automatically a minimum of the whole month + 1day and a maximum of 2 months.

I have known 60-90 days too.

However one company required a copy of their PO with the invoice, the secretary would process it, pass it to the boss to authorise which made the transfer. If they were both in the office payment could be virtually instant

 

[xllx]

I have given up trying to enforce my payment terms on other (generally bigger) companies. What I do do without fail is ask what the payment terms are before accepting the booking, which means I can make a descision if I accept those terms, or bump up my quote to allow for a particulalrly long payment period.

This year for instance, I have encountered the following.

30 days from receipt of invoice. Been working for these guys for years, and it is always exactly 30 days without fail.
Invoice by 15th of month, paid on last working day of month. It does mean jobs in the last couple of weeks of a month go over 30 days, but I can live with it.
Payment on last day of month following month of invoice. Can mean an almost 60 day wait, but they are charged a small premium!
Payment on receipt of invoice. I like this customer! Earlier this year, I was phoned while on a train back from a gig and asked why my invoice wasn't in yet.
75% 60 days in advance, 25% day after load out. American client, apparently it's what they do with all suppliers.
 

So it does vary, I just make sure I am happy with their terms. I did turn down a job last year because their terms were 90 days and they quibbled about every penny.

 

[Jivemaster]

Being in business is actually wanting to check all the details before accepting the job. ALSO you must consider whether a supplier is worth a multi month payment period, and whether you want to afford it.

I do remember a set of terms (outside the ents industry) that said payment 30 days after order completion BUT they would add lines to the order for months, so basically the payment period for the first line on the order was probably six months - tended to be agencies who were paid on completion.

[GR1]

All the advice above is relevant. I'm pretty much looking at retirement having been freelance/self employed for over 40 years. During that time I have come across just about every invoice payment scenario I could have thought up plus a few. If you have not already done so build up some financial reserves for emergencies and unforseen circumstances because they will arise. Your policy to whether you allow some clients more flexibilty in when they pay you will depend on your relationship with them and how valuable you think they will be to you.