Poll: About what percentage of your clients pay on time, without delay? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "About what percentage of your clients pay on time, without delay?".
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My payment terms are 15 days for new clients and as agreed for my long-standing customers, which means that some very dear customers (4) pay the day after receiving my invoice, a few pay at 30 days, one pays at 45 days and another one has been paying at 60 days like clockwork. I haven’t had a single non-payment issue for some time…
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Jan Truper 
Germany
Local time: 15:37
Member (2016)
English to German
Otherwise they wouldn't be my clients.
I deliver 100 % of my work on time, so I expect them to honor their part of the agreement as well.
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I'm basing the percentage on the how much of my workload the on-time payers account for. They all pay according to their established schedule, which is sometimes slower than I would like. My experience has been as follows:
- Private individuals pay immediately;
- My biggest client (an international organization) pays within 5 days;
- My second biggest client (another international organization) pays within 10 days;
- The agencies I work with pay within 10 to 45 day... See more I'm basing the percentage on the how much of my workload the on-time payers account for. They all pay according to their established schedule, which is sometimes slower than I would like. My experience has been as follows:
- Private individuals pay immediately;
- My biggest client (an international organization) pays within 5 days;
- My second biggest client (another international organization) pays within 10 days;
- The agencies I work with pay within 10 to 45 days, depending on how they operate.
After a bad experience in 1995-97, when I had to wait over 2 years for USD 9,000, I have not had any serious problems. Most of my clients have improved their performance over the years.
[Edited at 2019-08-28 08:30 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Jan Truper wrote:
Otherwise they wouldn't be my clients.
I deliver 100 % of my work on time, so I expect them to honor their part of the agreement as well.
OK, there have been occasions when I have sent a reminder, because a small agency or outsourcer has had a lot to do, so payment has been delayed. But then they apologise and pay instantly, and at all other times these clients have paid on time or early. They are usually extremely reliable.
Apart from that, in 16 years of freelancing, I can count on my fingers the times I have really had trouble getting paid. (= sent a second or third reminder, or telephoned the client and offered to pay them a visit to talk about it.  ) It took over a year when an agency went bankrupt, but even then, I was really lucky and did not lose much!
One client with a large job told me she had difficulty finding the whole fee all at once, and we made an arrangement that she could pay over three months. She did, of course!
AND my terms are normally 30 days from the invoice date, no spinning it out to 60 or more.
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My payment term is 15-45 days. I do receive payments on time.
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 15:37
Spanish to English
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I've stated this in previous polls, but I'll say it again. After living and working in Spain for decades, I have come to consider MY due dates to be wishful thinking rather than something set in stone that my clients are obliged to abide by (whatever EU rules might have to say about it).
I bill my best client at the end of every month and they pay me promptly, usually within thirty days. All my other clients pay me when they can, which means, for example, that each university or research i... See more I've stated this in previous polls, but I'll say it again. After living and working in Spain for decades, I have come to consider MY due dates to be wishful thinking rather than something set in stone that my clients are obliged to abide by (whatever EU rules might have to say about it).
I bill my best client at the end of every month and they pay me promptly, usually within thirty days. All my other clients pay me when they can, which means, for example, that each university or research institution has its own system and funding, so some may take longer than others and have different requirements.
The one agency I occasionally work with usually pays within 30 to 60 days, although if they took a bit longer it wouldn't bother me.
And the direct client I have worked with the longest pays the lowest rates and takes the longest to pay off them all. However, it's a small company and I understand that they sometimes have cash flow problems, and they always pay up in the end.
[Edited at 2019-08-28 10:18 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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80% or most of the time, 99% really.
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Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 10:37
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
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It's way above 80%, but not 100%, so there wasn't a feasible choice among the answers.
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Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 10:37
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| Cool, but... | Aug 29, 2019 |
Jan Truper wrote:
Otherwise they wouldn't be my clients.
I deliver 100 % of my work on time, so I expect them to honor their part of the agreement as well.
Cool, but they'll have to not pay you on time once to become a "no longer a client", right. So it's still not 100%.
Remember, if you ever have to send a reminder to a client, even if only rarely, that's also not "on time" anymore.
So, it's never 100%.
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Jan Truper
Germany
Local time: 15:37
Member (2016)
English to German
Mario Freitas wrote: Jan Truper wrote:
Otherwise they wouldn't be my clients.
I deliver 100 % of my work on time, so I expect them to honor their part of the agreement as well. Cool, but they'll have to not pay you on time once to become a "no longer a client", right. So it's still not 100%. Remember, if you ever have to send a reminder to a client, even if only rarely, that's also not "on time" anymore. So, it's never 100%.
Of course you are correct in that over the course of my translation career, the 100 % were not reached constantly, since I had to get rid of the bad apples in order to arrive at my current pool of clients.
The last reminder payment reminder I sent to a client dates from 2015. (They eventually paid about 4 months late, after lieing to me several times). I left a "bad payer" Blue Board review and ditched the company by telling them that I would only be available for work if they paid me in advance, in full.
But of my current clients, 100 % pay on time, without delay. And should they violate their own contracts, I will replace them ASAP.
[Edited at 2019-08-29 06:08 GMT]
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