Get Paid: What to Do When The Check is Late
Credit: meddygarnet on Flickr
You work hard on your assignment, turn it in, and do the required (ugh) revisions. You happily send in your invoice — and wait…and wait…and wait.
Your check is late! You have a mortgage to pay and you were relying on that check. Now what?
Late checks are a fact of life for freelancers. Most of the time, the clients aren’t being malicious — they just do things slowly. But that doesn’t help you when you have bills to pay. Here are some ways to get that check moving towards your mailbox.
Always Send an Invoice
Not all clients require an invoice — for example, some national magazine editors put payment through for you when the article is accepted, invoice or no — but most do, so you may as well send an invoice to every client just to cover your bases. That way, when the check is late you’ll have something concrete for reference.
Check Your Contract
You may discover (or have forgotten) that the contract says that the client will pay in 45 days, in 90 days, or after some other time period that’s not the typical 30 days. Of course, you should always read your contract before signing it so you’re not surprised (or so you can renegotiate the terms). Sometimes clients change the contract without telling you, so read it every time. I learned this the hard way: I had written over a dozen articles for a certain women’s fitness magazine and one time when the check was two weeks late, I e-mailed my editor — and she informed me that their new terms were payment in 45 days (which they had slipped into the latest contract without telling me). The extra two-week wait wouldn’t kill me, but it would have been nice to know.
Be Patient
I know of freelancers who start freaking out when a check that was payable net 30 isn’t in their mailbox by day 31. They complain on forums, ask other freelancers what to do, and send badgering notes to their clients. My advice: Allow for late checks in your financial plans and just chill for a while. I typically don’t start sending out follow-up e-mails until a check is at least two weeks late. Of course, you have to work within your comfort level — for example, one week may be all you can wait — just don’t start melting down if the check is six hours late. I’ve worked with over 150 magazine and copywriting clients and I can think of only two times when I was screwed, so I’m generally not worried that the check will never come. Clients can be slow to assign, slow to turn around revisions — and sometimes slow to pay. I’m not saying it’s right…I’m just saying that’s the way it is.
Send an E-mail
Once a check is a little too late for my comfort, I shoot a short, friendly e-mail to my client. This is what I typically write:
Dear Client:
I hope all is well with you!
I was going through my accounts receivables today and noticed that I haven’t received a check for the article on New Year’s Goals, which I turned in on October 12. The invoice number is 1612 and the amount is $2,250. Would you mind looking into this for me? Thanks so much!
Just about every single time, the editor contacts whoever it is that cuts the checks and gets things moving for me.
Hold Back
Sometimes freelancers ask me, “Client X owes me $2,000 for my last three assignments, and now they have another assignment for me! What should I do?”
If your checks are that backed up and you have no confidence that they’re coming any time soon, you should hold off on further assignments. Sure, it’s flattering that a client keeps hiring you, but why dig yourself into an even deeper hole? Tell the client, “I’m so excited that you want me to write about the health benefits of coffee/design a new website/translate your brochure for you. However, I’m still waiting for payment on three invoices from Your Company and I feel uncomfortable working on new assignments until I receive the checks. Would you mind looking into this for me so I can get started on this new assignment?”
If this happens when you’re in the middle of an assignment, you have some leverage: You can hold back on turning in the completed assignment until you receive the back payments. I had to do this with a book publisher once: It was time for the second installment of my fee and I hadn’t even received the first yet. In the meantime, I had written half of the book. I told the editor that I couldn’t turn in the completed chapters until I received both payments. Like magic, the check arrived via FedEx a couple of days later. I never did get another book assignment from this publisher, but I didn’t exactly cry myself to sleep that I wasn’t getting work from a publisher that got pissed that I expected to be paid on time.
Get Help
If a check is really, really late and it looks like the client has no intention of paying, there are myriad options for getting paid; for example, you could hire a collection agency, take the client to small claims court, or contact an organization that represents freelancers in your field. Each of these options has its own set of do’s and don’ts that go beyond the scope of this post, but it’s worth it to research them if you’re in the process of getting screwed by a client.
And now — while you’re waiting for your checks to roll in, get busy marketing to other clients to keep the income flowing!
Image credit: Some rights reserved by meddygarnet
Leave a Comment
Great article and really solid advice, it is hard to hold back sometimes when a client is late and you got your project done on time (especially if you put in long hard hours/late nights), but in my experience being humble has paid off with receiving more work from the same client… blowing someone up in an email/phone call is going to get you anything but a bad reputation and no more future work!
You can also include a late payment clause in your contract. Mine states that a 15% late fee will be charged if the invoice isn’t cleared in 30 days.
Because of the clause, (and also because they’re decent folks) clients let me know when a payment is going to be late or ask for an extention.
One client asked me to wait 3 months for a payment and wanted me to continue writing for them. They offered to let me keep the copyrights till their check cleared.
How you handle late payments also depends on your relationship with a client.
This advice doesn’t go for every industry, but in ours, we require 50% up front and offer a discount if 100% is paid up front. Obviously that is for retainers; not hourly projects.
As the post mentions, you must remain calm. Chances are, the client is not trying to stiff you.
Also, when you have an enterprise-level client, note that it can take the accounting and/or legal departments a long time to process payments, which is out of the hands of the person you may be working with.
Finally, we’ve never had to do this, but for web development work in which we host the app, we will cease hosting services if payment is passed 30 days late.
Interesting article and good advice. It’s important to be friendly about asking for your money(even though you deserve to be paid on time), the client is not always the bad guy and being reasonable keeps the business relation intact.
Ofcourse, this depends on the amount of money and how long you have been waiting for it.
Excellent advice Linda.
In my particular freelance writing specialty, I do occasionally get paid late, sometimes up to 6 months late. It’s usually because:
1. An overworked editor just doesn’t put in the request to the correct department.
2. The payment has to be approved by multiple people at the company, and somewhere along the way someone screws up.
In these cases I’m polite but persistent, and I send reminders or forward the invoice every couple of weeks.
Showing up at your client’s home in the middle of the night with a baseball bat usually does the trick. Just kidding!!!
I usually don’t have to deal with late payments too much, but if it happens a friendly reminder a week after the due date usually resolves the issue.
I only had to go further than that with a client who was 3 months late and kept coming up with BS excuses. However they came to their senses quickly after I filed in small claims court.
And a couple of years ago a client became victim of the recession and had to close business and just couldn’t pay. We ended up settling for 50 cents on the dollar. Better than nothing I guess…
Thanks for your comments, everyone!
As I mentioned, I’ve only been stiffed twice, and the total amount was probably under $400. The second time, I paid another writer (who was local to the client) a portion of the overdue payment to go to the delinquent magazine’s offices and pick up the check for me. The editor gave her three checks, one of which bounced. I paid the writer her commission, and ended up with a couple hundred for myself. As they say, desperate times call for desperate measures!
This is good advice. Thanks for sharing. I’ve found that polite persistence usually works in the end (even if it sometimes takes a while).
I’ve been lucky enough that thus far in my career I’ve only had one client that just plain didn’t pay their bill. It sucks, but the best you can do is learn from it. Whenever a project goes at all wrong I think about what warning signs I could have predicted it with, and what I can do differently to avoid it next time.
What I’m learning to say and ask is, “According to my service terms, I expect the final payment to made on X-day, is this possible? and if not, “When can this payment be made?” This usually works for people who are not large government agencies where payment has to go through a long process. In these cases, the client can shoot a payment over through PayPal without a problem.
For government and NPOs I will ask, “According to my service terms, payment will need to be made on x-date(s) or day(s)… is this possible? I’m aware that you cut checks bi-weekly, so when should I submit an invoice to receive a check when they are cut for everyone else?”
Organizations have a process when it comes to payroll, and it’s best to honor their process by fitting into it. But it’s most important to know when you can receive payment. I don’t like being left in limbo.
I would give you a two thumbs up for ‘Patience’ – you see sometimes, you have to trust your gut instincts and learn to read between the lines ( in your email correspondences with your client ). I had a client who suddenly got financial troubles and I was finally paid after two month’s time. I just feel the sincerity in the email message and it would have been easier for the client to ignore me as if I didn’t exist. So, this means that having 3 or more freelancing projects will work best so that you don’t run out of income if ever you had trouble collecting your pay check.
Thanks, everyone, for your comments! Neal, I like the way you handle late payments.
Super article Linda, well done!
I find sending a ‘friendly reminder’ a week after the due date usually does the trick. In my experience, late payment is usually a simple oversight and not intentional, certainly not something to take as a personal rejection of your quality (an assumption newbies can make until they learn better
.
I’ve had only one set of clients who consistently used to ignore my persistent (increasingly less friendly) reminders, and willfully paid late. Funnily enough, they kept on offering me new assignments, which I’d take, but under protest, which they of course the never took seriously.
Then I clued up, and started demanding payment in advance before starting their next job. Despite a couple of ‘the check’s in the mail, so please start now’ ploys which left me (and the work) untouched, finally the client paid up. Result!
Doing good business demands mutual respect. It takes reciprocation — give a little, take a little — on and from both sides.
My tuppenceworth for the day!
All very good points; my invoicing software sends out auto-reminders which I sometimes still have to follow up with personal emails/calls. I’ve only gotten stiffed a couple of times over the years for a few hundred dollars total.
EXCEPT one client who owes me over $1,000.00–I am taking him to court. He actually told me that “God told him he doesn’t have to pay me…” Really. Geez.
I want him to tell that line to the judge and/or at least get a BIG hit on his credit rating and a garnishment/lien in his records if I can’t actually get my money.
Most of my clients pay immediately or within a couple of weeks. Some of my clients call ME to ask: did your payment arrive yet? Kiss-kiss to them!
I believe waiting 2 weeks before you remind a client he is late, is a way too long period.
I never start on a project without deposit, except if I worked before with a client, but even than, I just get things going and do not invest too much time.
I noticed friendly reminders help, but is important to keep it at the professional level and don’t get too push or angry! That’s a surefire to never get the check or repeated work.
I agree w/@Lucian: my “friendly reminder” goes out after 7 days! I also get a 50% deposit on all projects over $500.00 and full payment upfront for smaller projects.
Of course, I work with every client’s situation, but the above is my standard.
Thanks for this great tips. I need it now.
Impeccable timing. I’m owed over $4,500 from a few different agencies in my industry that haven’t paid me on some excruciatingly long jobs I took. This is a big problem in my industry (legal services provided to attorneys). The agencies don’t get paid by the law firms, and the agencies can’t pay me as a subcontractor.
Of course, they should be prepared for extended periods of withheld payments, especially from large law firms and/or the federal government, which is notorious for being slow to pay. That means they should have a business line of credit or adequate savings to pay their contractors.
After three e-mails, I send a follow-up letter in a yellow envelope. Then a red envelope. Then it goes to collections and/or small claims. 120 days+ is way too long to wait for a check.
“Be Patient”
That only works when you’re dealing with a new client, or one that pays reasonably (sometimes on time, sometimes a bit late, but always pays without making a fuss). You can’t be patient with a client that is known to pay when invoices are 2 or 3 months overdue.
1 way to prevent this, or at least how I work is – Client settles full account before site goes live.
Thanks for all the comments! I should reiterate that 2 weeks is what works for me, and that you need to go with your own comfort level (and bank account level!) — just don’t start freaking out when a check is one day late.
Also, much of my work is done with magazines, where you typically can’t request half the fee up front. I do that with most of my copywriting clients, though.
Great advice in this article. Though it may depend on your relationship with the client, you should always collect a deposit. Not only does it help to cover any start-up expenses, but it also provides a buffer from the time you begin a project to the time you receive final payment.
I’ve also found that creating a paper trail is a great way to get paid on time. I not only e-mail my invoices to clients, but send them one the mail as well. That way, there’s less chance of it getting “lost”.
Last year I shortened my pay period to 15 days. It shows that I’m serious about getting paid and I can only count a few occurrences when payment has been late.
I agree and do what Justin and William do.
Demand payment every 2 weeks and settle full account before site goes live.
For international clients or outside of US freelancers, its really tough to think of check
Because check delivery will take more than 3 weeks to come. So in that case paypal, moneybookers or direct deposit to master card is preferable. And payment should be made during development of the project when different goals complete.
Thanks for that info Mahmud.
I really plan to use Paypal when my gigs are already stable.
Good article and lots of good advice here. As a professional delinquency management consultant, here’s what I always share with my clients:
1. Have a well-defined credit policy
2. Follow-up early (1 to 2 weeks after due date), and frequently. This creates a sense of urgency and gives your billing reminders some priority.
3.Studies show that a combination of letters and calls is more effective. 4.According to the US Department of Commerce, your open accounts depreciate by 5% within the first 30 days, and by six months, 70% of your receivables may not be collectible.
5.There are options to percentage (33% to 50%) collection agencies. Consider using a fixed fee agency, such as Transworld Systems, which is very affordable.
6. Find a way to collect without alienating your clients.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/linengie
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Transworld-Systems-on-the-Gulf-Coast/140633762656295
Great tips — thanks!
I noticed that some people’s payment terms are net 30-days? Wow you must be doing very well to be able to afford your clients to linger around, on YOUR back, for 30-days without paying you. I’m net-7 days. End of story. Unless it is a fixed cost project, than I require 50% down. My policies are plastered all over my contracts and invoice notices.
In regard to hourly, if I rush to get their task and/or project done within 7-days, I only think it is fair to get paid within 7-days. After that they get a 15% late fee, and I eventually stop returning their calls. The troublemakers get the hint quick and usually drift…without paying, but at least I didn’t accrue more unpaid hours during the 30-days for them to ditch me on.
I personally think we let our clients get away with too much sometimes. I can’t think of one client that actually pays by the due date, unless it’s an automatic payment I have setup to be taken out of their credit cards. My terms I have set are 14 days for smaller clients and 30 days for corporate clients – from date of invoice.
There seems to be confusion here that the invoice is due BEFORE the due date – and not ON or AFTER.
Definitely considering implementing a late payment fee clause as Samar has mentioned above.
Has anyone else done this and what was your result?
I have started working for someone back in Dec. 2010. It is a homecare business. It is a new business for the owner. Its her first time owning her own business. My position was a supervisor. I also interviewed and trained new employees. Now when she first hired me, she said that if someone has a criminal background that she can not hire per the state(IL.), because she is state funded. I told I did not have a background, but when my background check came back it had something on there. So after I worked about 120 hours or so, she said that i could no longer work there because of my background. I told that the info was wrong, and that I didnt do what was on there. So then she said well I would have to get it off my record to work there. So then she said that the state wrote her up, because she hired someone with a criminal background. So I contacted the court that the background check said, and they said that they did not have anything on my record and to contact IL. state police. So I contacted them and it was a mistake, the supervisor immediatley removed it off my record and sent another copy to the company I was working for. At first she was saying she wasnt going to pay me because I had a criminal record, then I proved that I didnt, so then she is saying that the state hasnt sent her any money yet. Then she was saying that the paperwork wasnt done properly, so she had to redo it in order for them to send her budget. Then she said that they have to come out to the company to go through her files and then they will release the money. I stopped working for her back in January, it is now the middle of March and I havnt recieved anything. I tried contacting her and sometimes she answers and say that the state still havn’t released her any money, but yet other employees are still coming to work, but no one has been paid yet. I need help what should I do. She owes me about 2,000 dollars.
I’m sorry this happened to you! This kind of thing is outside my area. I’d suggest hiring a lawyer if you can afford one, or a collection agency. You could also try small claims court. Sorry I can’t be more help!
Wrong spelling of cheQUes.
I know this thread hasn’t been active recently, but looks like there is some great advice. Currently, I am dealing with a company who will not pay, and frustrating is an understatement.
When I began work with them, I signed their company’s NDA and Independent Contractor Agreement. Two weeks after beginning the project, I was asked to take on additional tasks which were not in the original contract. I said that I would love to, but would first need to complete the job at hand to meet the deadline. Two days later I was presented with a new contract saying there was a flaw with the other, and was asked to sign. It was the exact same, with the exception the “new jobs” were added in the tasks section.
I did not sign the new contract, and continued working. Near the due date, I was told they would allow an extension if I could also complete the other tasks. I agreed, and completed those as well.
I have received one payment of $1,000, and am still owed $5,200. On the 45th day of them not sending the check, I ceased work. This is after speaking with the CEO, four emails, and 4 calls. I am completely being ignored with the only response being, “we will call you tomorrow.” The call never comes, and I am at my wits end. I truly didn’t expect this from a large and reputable company.
Anyone have any advice for this particular situation?
Hi Heather,
I’ll bet that was a scam and it’s the worst I ever heard of so far. I suggest you tell FundsforWriters about that. Hope Clark knows the legalities of exposing bad clients. Don’t ever let your client get away with its scam. If you do, another one will surely do that to you. I wish you’ll tell your full name because I want to expose and write about your disgusting experience.
at my work we always get paid by cheque and its supposed to be on the 15th and 1st so its fortnightly, but lately the boss as been late giving you the cheque and its now the 3rd march and we still hav/nt got it, alot of us workers will now have bank charges so what can we do.its not fair when you have done the work and you havnt got your money. thank you
Don’t tell us not to ask a client what’s up on day 31. Some of my clients, if they have not yet submitted my invoice to their AP, it will be another 30 days from the time I inquire and they submit it before I get my check so yeah I am going to check in on day 31. If I check two weeks later, that’s when they will submit my invoice and then instead of being 30 days late with my check, they are going to be six weeks late!