Being Honest Sucks....
As a freelancer, you are pretty much in charge of your own finances and invoicing... and all of the crappy accounting that goes along with it. Somtimes, I wish people would make my life easier when they pay.... and just pay the amount on the invoice... not higher, not lower... and just reference the invoice number as well. I know it is just a little thing to add in or leave out... but it really makes a huge difference when you are trying to find invoices and match them to payments. I think next time I get an invoice to pay, I will try paying it multiple batches of random 2-5 euro deposits... just so I can get the crankiness out of my system... however, that said, I'm not likely to do that... because I'm just too aware that I'll be inflicting pain on the wrong person which will likely rebound back to me in a bad way... (So, is it because I'm a nice guy, or scared of the consequences?).
Now, more often than not... when going through my account and matching them up to invoices... I usually find that people haven't paid... and then it is time for quick round of reminder emails... after a couple of times, it get pretty annoying... but it is amazing how fast people suddenly remember to pay when there is a threat of a 10% late fee (which I apply after 3 weekly reminder emails...). Often, these are the teaching invoices (the music invoices are paid by organisations which have no problem paying on time... mostly...)... and I have little sympathy in the late payments from families that earn roughly 10-100-1000 times our family income! However, when the threat of the late fee comes up... BANG, the payment is there within the next day! I should start with that....
Anyway, very occasionally, there is an accidental double payment or overpayment... often the double payment happens in families when one parent pays, and then the other sees the invoice and does it as well... or perhaps they forget to mark it as paid... Ah well, those I usually find quickly enough as I should only see one payment per family per month.. so if I see two and they are identical, it is easy enough to bounce it back... sad to see the money go, but you really can't rip people off like that!
More tricky to find is the overpayments... I don''t normally check the actual amounts of the payments so carefully (I'm not an accountant....). At best, I will try to reconcile them every few months... just to double check when I send in the VAT quarter reporting. Unfortunately, this means that I've often already spent or allocated that money... and then I have to just pull the cash from somewhere to return the money (or reduce the next invoice...). Juggling money flows is one really critical part of being a freelancer... things come in at random times and with random delays... but bills need to be paid on time.
This last month saw two double payments... one relatively small one from a student... obviously a double payment as it was the same transfer in quick succession twice for the same amount. Probably an internet glitch and they didn't think that it went through... That was an easy catch...
The second was one that I only just sorted out today. A large payment from an orchestra... It was a touch tricky to figure out... as it HAD NO INVOICE REFERENCE! I had recently sent them an invoice for a different project (for a smaller amount)... so, my initial thought was that they had crazily overpaid! However, when they finally returned my email about 5 days later... it appears that they were paying for a project that was about 3 months past!
Well, now that I'm home... I see what they are referring to... and sadly, it appears that they had already and promptly paid for it back in July... so, it's going to be with great sadness that I have to bounce this money back out... My account looked so nice for a week... but I'm glad that I quarantined the money and didn't spend it. After all, it wasn't mine....
Account banner by jimramones
I hate doing my accounts. It bugs me. And as a professional I am a CPA 🤣😂🤣. Today I did my tax return. So I feel your pain.
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Haha... so you do everyone else's stuff well? and then leave the pain and disorganisation for youself?
sometimes indeed bengy but it's not that bad I think. You can make new friends and you can make them trust you. It's being part of our lives but you still found a way to handle it.
have a good day
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Thanks... yes, in the end... honesty isn't directly financially rewarding... but it does pay of in non-monetary ways!
Oh, I am so with you on this! I loathe having to chase for money. It's even worse when it's a government department . What irks me is people who earn salaries who have absolutely no concept of what it is to literally earn every bean.
As you gather, I've been there and am still doing it!
Glad you sorted it and that you were so smart to "quarantine" that amount.
Oh... the government here is pretty good (mostly... although there was that one time when they asked for a chunk of money to be paid to them... and then reimbursed it the next week...).
Yes, the idea of really needing invoices to pay on time... and to be able to keep the cash flow moving and stocking up a reserve to smooth out the dips... it's really annoying and something that really is unique to a freelancer...
Wow man like that story. It is a bummer that managing money has to get the way of what you like to do.
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Yeah... it is annoying but a necessary evil..
That's gotta be tough! Both to keep track of it all and to have to bounce the money back. Ouch! But, being honest, may very well get you more business in the future.
Well... more to the point... best to bounce it back before I spend it and then run into problems when they eventually notice!
I'll start off by saying up front, I'm no businessman, but it seems that you could require them to include the invoice number or their copy of the invoice itself, in order for their payment to be processed, the way other big companies do.
I think your doing the 10% late fee, while not the same as requiring the invoice number, is a very similar solution to handling those who aren't paying on time.
But this all really sounds like a nightmare! I hate doing accounting work too, and even though paying bills is so much easier than when we had to write checks and mail our payments in, I still dread the 15 minutes or so it takes me to just log in to the sites where I pay my bills each month.
That's how spoiled I've become, LOL! I really hope you find a solution!
I try to avoid wielding a big stick sort of approach as much as possible... mostly as most of these orchestras and ensembles (and students...) have an ongoing working relationship (with me as the employee and they as the employer...). So, trying to avoid poisoning the relationship is really quite important as a freelancer... on the other hand, standing up for yourself is a tricky balance to manage as well!
Chasing people for money is not a fun task but necessary to keep your business running.
No it really sucks, but as you say... it is definitely necessary!
Truly is amazing how some who have the money have to be begged to pay their debts.
Helping my son with his accounting we find the old pensioners (he does give special discounts to) pay almost immediately, businesses seem to think because he is a small business they have the right not to pay, yes tedious, almost like extracting teeth, however when work is complete you expect payment.
Over-payments I normally advise the person that they have a credit on his books to be deducted from next accounting bill, unless the amount is large in which case we return immediately, each transaction movement costs over here.
Ouch, it costs for transactions over there? Luckily, here it is free transactions for EU transactions. It is a pain as other people would expect to be paid on time and in full... somehow, it doesn't seem to work the other way around!
I used to have the same issues when I sent out invoices for cellular accessories that I used to sell @bengy. 😠
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Ah yes, it is such an annoying part of the job!
I despise having to chase people for money..
If one can borrow from us, they should be sure to pay up..
Yes... it would be nice if they paid on time... sending reminder emails and phone calls is quite annoying... especially when they keep telling me that they forgot and will do it right away!