working with nationwide roll out companies. 1

[alamtnman]

Although I work for a large corporation I jave my own company that does cabling and telephone systems. I hope to leave corporate and work completely for myself in the next year( waiting to pay off some debt first) I have been getting alot more calls from some nation wide companies who want my help troubleshooting issues locally for thier clients. the Issue I am having is getting paid in a timely manner. i think right now only 2 out of around 10 companies have paid thier bill in under 30 days most take the full 30 days and have had several that take 45 to 60 and even one who took 90 days to pay. Is everyone having this issue or is this just common pratice when working with them. is there a good way to check on the company and tell ahead of time.

T.R.
RCDD

there may not be any stupid questions
but their is a bunch of inquizative idiots
(myself included at times)

 

[mrdenny]

Most companies will pay you very close to the deadline. Most of my clients that are NET 30 pay on day 29 or 30. A few day a day or two late. If they pay later than that, I start invoicing them late fees. That usually does the trick. If the client regularly pays late and they complain about the late fees I will talk to them about their pay schedule, and usually change them to NET 60 or NET 90.

For some companies it just takes forever for their AP department to cut a check.

There's no way to check out if they pay on time or not. That's usually covered by your NDA.

Denny
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[kmcferrin]

I think that most companies are perfectly happy to let you float their debt up until the very last day. Larger companies just have slower accounting departments (usually), and they'll pay on whatever schedule they see fit. Tacking on late fees may not be helpful if the company decides to flat out ignore them (or may have terms in their agreements that do not permit them). Trying to collect an extra 5% can be difficult, and if you're the small fish they may view you as easily replaceable.

About the best thing that you can do (and why my employer does) is invoice clients on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. That way there is a regular revenue stream, as opposed to accumulating all of the debt of the project up front and then having to wait 60+ days for payment.

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