How to Handle Late Payments for Post-Production Work

Video Transcript

"TRAVIS JOHNS: Hi. This is Travis Johns with Expert Village, and I'm going to talk to you about handling late payments. Inevitably, you're going to run into clients who aren't going to pay you on time. Net 30 is usually the system that most people work on meaning at the beginning of the month, if I invoice you on day 1, you owe me that money 30 days later and not after. A lot of times, you can safeguard yourself against late payments by installing clauses into your invoices. For instance, 10% of the entire balance will be due if you don't pay me on time. A lot of times, clients still like to see this and would rather pay you the money they owe you instead of incurring a late charge of 10% or sometimes 15%. Another thing you can do is set up an automated billing system. There's software out there on the internet you can do some research on which basically sends client reminders that they owe you money on a certain date. It's also important to see if you can get in touch with the money people at the client's office; obviously, those are the ones who are going to be cutting the checks and if you can establish a relationship with them early on, you'd probably have a better chance of getting paid on time. If a client has told you that the check is in the mail and you haven't received it, you can let them know that there are other payment options that you guys can arrange. For instance, there are online options and this is a good way to avoid any unpleasant confrontations with the client because no one wants that. Any conversation about money is probably going to be awkward especially if it's after the due date. So, what you want to do is explore your options online and otherwise and make that agreement with the client before you go into the project. That way, once you're finished with the project, they can get you the money online and it can be in your bank account almost instantaneously. Another thought on late payments is do not, under any circumstances, agree to do more work if a client owes you money. Say, you have an ongoing project with them where you do specific videos and they come every month. Well, if the next one is about to start and you haven't received payment for the last video, there is no reason you should start work on the new one until you received the money for the last one. Another important thing to remember is if you set up a payment plan where you required deposit upfront, you want to make sure that you have the deposit in hand before you start any other work."