Many businesses in the UK suffer in silence when waiting on their business customers for Invoice payment. Many small business owners especially tend not to want to upset their commercial customers, especially when that business customer is a large multi national company or one of a few handful of companies which they supply to. “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you” tends to be the mindset of a lot of small business owners. And of course many large businesses tend to prey on that mentality by pushing for longer payment terms by dictating more unfavourable payment terms for the smaller supplier.

This is a culture which in recent years the UK Government and EU has tried to tackle. Much has been done over the past 20 years by introducing Late Payment Act and updating this several times over the years to further compensate late invoice recipients and encourage business customers to pay on time.

But there remains a stigma attached to asking for payment. Many business owners feel like their pride might be thwarted or risk embarrassment by asking for payment and so let the matter fester with accounts payable for weeks, sometimes months. However, the best way to get paid on time is to keep in the loop. Sending reminders on a weekly basis at least can boost your chances of getting paid on time. You shouldn’t feel embarrassed by asking for money your business has earned. If you have fulfilled your agreement by supplying the relevant goods and services and your business customer is satisfied then be direct (albeit polite) and firmly request payment for your services/goods.

You are not a servant and they are not your master. A business transaction is a two way transaction and therefore you need to let them know that this is done on fair and equal terms irrespective of the size of your customer.

The Invoicey Dashboard can provide regular email notifications which automatically update and escalate per each email sent and keep a record of correspondence so you have a clear transparent timeline of your entire contacts. By taking a systematic approach to your invoicing and outsourcing communications to Invoicey prevents you from having to deal with potentially stressful situations and means you can delegate all their hard talk to Invoicey.