Late payment of an invoice

In most cases, this will resolve the issue. You might find that they did not receive the invoice or that there has been a simple oversight that can be quickly rectified.

However, on occasions this might not be enough to resolve the situation and if you are working through an agency it might be worth also speaking to your consultant. They will have an interest in keeping you and the client happy and may be able to resolve the situation ‘from the inside’.

Similarly, if that fails it might be worth speaking to your client – if they are promptly paying invoices they might be concerned to find the funds are not being passed on to you and will pressure the agency on your behalf (it is worth noting, however, that the payment terms from an end client to agencies is usually much longer than your invoicing terms with the agency, but this should not stop the end client being concerned if the agency is not being fair to you).

If you work for an end client, there is no middle man and you should talk to whoever seems appropriate – maybe the person who signs of your work and/or approves your invoices.

Of course, at this early stage this all requires some tact and diplomacy – it would be unwise to ‘fly off the handle’ and make threats about the unpaid invoice when all that was needed was a phone call to the payroll department of an agency to find the issue and arrange a same day payment.