Excuses the clients give us

If it wasn't bad enough that you're your client is paying late, the reasons why they haven't paid on time are all too often laughable.

Let's cover a handful of the most amusing or all too common excuses why payments haven't been made on time.

"This isn't what we asked for"

Challenging the deliverables should have happened before you invoiced, and shows the importance of getting regular feedback throughout the project, but once it's been invoiced, the time for challenges like this has passed.

"You sent it to the wrong email email address / It was missing some information"

This conversation needs to happen within 24 hours of receiving the invoice, not once it's overdue.

"Our client hasn't paid us yet - so we can't pay you."

It's called 'cost of business'. you can be sure they're paying their internet bills before their client is paying them; or they've bought their computers before their client pays them; so how are you any different? You're a cost to them delivering work to their client, and its not your problem how long their client takes to pay them.

"It's with my boss. It's just waiting sign off"

You've had 30 days. No excuse.

"This is for a pitch, so when we win the pitch, we'll pay you."

And what if they don't win? This isn't an excuse. The work has been done, it's their risk, not yours.

"I totally forgot, why didn't you remind me?"

No excuse.

"Our payment terms are 120 days"

We agreed payment terms upfront, you can't re-negiotate that.

"Can we get a discount if we pay early?"

Yes, you can not pay the penalty.

"......"

uhoh, you've been ghosted, they're not replying at all! Sometimes a delaying tactic, sometimes you're at the bottom of the todo list, sometimes just rude, this isn't an excuse but just refusing to engage, which honestly is just unprofessional and disrespectful.

No matter the excuse - all too often, you'll hear about these excuses after the payment is due - and can often come as a surprise that they weren't happy with the deliverable or you they didn't have the information they needed. If there is a dispute, it needs to happen immediately on receipt of the invoice (or ideally before).

Did you know?

Unilever have 3 month payment terms. 3 months! And larger suppliers even have to pay to use their invoicing system!