At the end of the day, this puts you in a bad light and positions you as unprofessional. The temptation to drag a company on social media when this happens might be irresistible, but that’s not the route to go when working to solve payment disputes. To get around this, either cc the person when you contact the accounting department or mention this in an earlier follow-up email. When you go to the accounts payable person, you don’t want to damage your relationship with the person who is hiring you for repeated work. Mark this payment as a loss and move on (and don’t work with that client again.) What NOT to do when you haven’t been paid Would it be better to just walk away and move on to the next job? Maybe so. It’s hard to see your work and time not getting paid for, but walking away saves you from mental stress and additional lost time.Ĭonsider the value of the time spent on chasing a payment.
Sometimes, it’s best to cut your losses and walk away. Think hard about if the amount of the invoice is worth chasing down. There are some freelancer-specific collection agencies out there, but they are hard to find. Use a collections agency: Collection agencies go after your lost revenue for a 30% cut. There are two things to consider with this option though-it’s expensive and time-consuming. Sending them a letter from a lawyer is the first step. Lawyers: You can go the legal route if strongly worded emails are no longer working. Other steps to take when your invoice is unpaid You can do this via email or get on the phone with them. Track down the accounts payable person with the details of your invoice.
TASK COACH SEND TO INVOICE SOFTWARE
Accounting software such as Wave comes with automated reminders built-in that take this task off your plate completely.Īfter a couple of follow-up emails with the person you are in touch with, the next step is to contact the accounting department directly. You can do this a day or two before the deadline as well. Most of the time, you just need to send a reminder email to the person you are working with that your invoice is still outstanding after the Net30 window has passed. This internal process is often slow: For bigger companies, 30 days is the standard window for payment once an invoice is received (referred to as Net30.) As a result, it’s not always possible to get paid immediately, and you may have to wait a bit for that invoice to get processed.īefore you start worrying about why your invoice isn’t paid a few days after sending, reach out and ask for clarity around the payment processing window (and moving forward, do this up front.) What if it’s been longer than 30 days? “No one wants to be left thinking: ‘I don’t know if I’m going to be able to count on this income or not.’”Īlong with this, make sure you understand how things work on the payment processing side of things for your clients (ideally, before work begins.) While the marketing or content person is the one that hires and communicates with you, most of the time the payment is cleared by accounts payable within the company’s accounting department. More often than not, it’s a management issue on the client's side. Remember: The outstanding invoice isn't a personal issue between you and the client.
Panic is never helpful in these situations. When your client hasn’t paid and is being non-responsive to your friendly reminder nudges, stay calm. What do I do when a freelance writing client doesn’t pay me? In other words, this isn’t common, but it’s probably going to happen at some point (if it hasn’t already.) In this episode, we’re sharing our experiences with non-payers and how we’ve handled those sticky situations.
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