Very quick update

Quick update on my last post - payment will arrive in my bank account tonight (3 weeks late) which will include the interest but not the compensation fee. (I've amended my invoices to actually state an amount in the text I put at the bottom - for an invoice of under £1,000 this will be £40, more for over £1,000.)

I haven't lost business as a result as they've been in touch twice this week about upcoming projects - one I can't do as I'm too busy to even blog at the moment.

Right, back to the grindstone (laptop) ...

Late Payment Charges

(Image from freeimages.co.uk)

The time has come to get serious with one of my clients. For the second week running I've received an email asking me to be understanding as they can't pay my invoice due to 'insufficient funds' (a phrase I'm about to hear from my bank).

The invoice isn't for a great deal but 6 weeks ago when I completed the job and raised the invoice I'd been working long hours to get the project finished within a tight time frame (I had to turn it around in 5 days).

At a colleague's advice I added the following to the bottom of my invoices about 18 months ago:

Payment within 30 days please.
I reserve the right to claim statutory interest at 8% above the Bank of England Base Rate from the date the debt becomes overdue in accordance with the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 and to claim an additional sum for pursuing the debt as provided for by the Late Payment of Commercial Debts Regulations 2002.

Usually referring to this is enough to ensure that timely payment is made but not in this case so I'm having to follow through for the first time.

There are detailed instructions on how to calculate the interest bit here. At the moment it is 13% of the amount owed, divided by 365 days, multiplied by the number of days overdue - which doesn't look like much really.

But I can also claim compensation arising out of late payment £40 (more is due if the original invoice is over £1000). Which should just about cover any charges by my bank due to insufficient funds.

I will let you know how I get on with this client - they are usually quite good and at least they have let me know the situation rather than hoping I don't notice.



I'm assuming there is similar legislation in other parts of the world - do you find that small businesses or sole proprietors tend to be taken advantage of by larger companies in this way?

Late payments, a worrying trend

I am supposed to be on holiday - but it seems I can still get frustrated by what is happening at home from the other side of the World.

It seems that every single client I've had over the last 6 months has messed me about over payment. EVERY SINGLE ONE. My reserves have been eaten up in overdraft fees and I often wonder if stacking shelves in a supermarket would be a better option - I've done it before and it was mind numbing but at least I had a regular pay check.

A couple of days ago I found out that a new client I'd worked for on a massive project over Christmas - getting in extra childcare and working right over the Christmas break - has not only failed to pay me on time but, on querying when the payment would arrive, I was told that it wouldn't be until the beginning of March. In what other profession than those who are freelance would this delay be acceptable? Because I can only work part-time at the moment this amounted to a months work - so my mortgage and other payments are all affected. Am I just unlucky with clients or is this a general trend that us freelancers should be aware of?

The client I've been ranting about for several posts is still emailing me over 'where I am' with the project that I finished 3 weeks ago. As I've actually spoken to the person I know he has been getting my emails so I am now regarding them as humorous rather than irritating - but really if they can't be professional with their freelancers how are they with their clients?

Now to workout a months interest for my late payer ....

Momentary euphoria turns to nagging doubt

I'm experiencing momentary euphoria due to the fact that the project I mentioned in my last post is finally 'in the post' to the designer. The client and the project manager stopped answering my emails last week so I'm now starting with the nagging doubt of whether I'll ever get paid by them and, if I do get paid, if they will give me any more work - and if so if I would accept it?

You see I've been in the position for the first few years of my freelance career of only having a couple of clients - one of which I worked for in a previous life as an in-house editor - and chugging along quite happily until 1) the work dried up and I realised it was true you can't put all your eggs in one basket and 2) little one went to nursery and I suddenly had more time on my hands - and I'd rather work than do the housework!

My first action when the work started to dry up was to advertise in a few places locally (so far to this date I've had no clients from this :-]), get on as many web forums for freelancers as I could and, of course Facebook.

The second was to chase up my advanced membership of the SfEP which had been sitting in the office for a year waiting for my previous employer to write a reference about my freelance work - which she simply 'didn't have time' to do. Thankfully as I could prove that in the year since I had made the application I had worked 100s and 100s of hours and had undertaken CPD (continuous professional development) the council granted me the status and I was able to add myself to the directory. The result has been several new clients and a very hectic workload but also some bad experiences - unintelligible briefs, contrary clients and late payment. There have been good points too - expanding my repertoire, building up a good client base and in some cases a bit better pay!

So I'm not in a position to pick and choose just yet - but it would be nice! Perhaps when he's at university :-)