Getting paid after two months

[Roby]

Thanks again Bluenose.

I apologise if it seems that I am wasting your time. English is not my native language and this is my first job so I thought it would have been better to ask people that are far more experienced than me.

[sal]

Rookie mistake to accept payment terms like that and since your main question has been already answered i will give you some pointers to avoid a follow up rookie mistakes:

- If you don't have sufficient funds to survive for 2 months without income, you should have never started contracting in the first place. Keep this in mind for future reference.
- If you are using ltd. make sure you learn how to manage yours and YourCo finances separately as you are 2 separate entities and get an accountant
- If as i suspect you are currently drawing all of YourCo income to your personal bank account it's best to account for it as a Director Loan for the time being and sort it out a month or two down the line with your accountant

Last but not least read all of the newbie threads and useful links in this forum ASAP

[BolshieBastard]

Absolutely incredible.

[pjclarke]

As an aside, I was just about to fire off an irate email chasing payment for some training I delivered at the beginning of December. The contract was set up at short notice and I didn't scan it too closely; vaguely noticed '30 days' somewhere in the payment terms text. The invoice was submitted on the 19th Dec, so I figured it is a week and a half overdue. I copy-pasted the para from the contract and in doing so noticed it actually states 30 working days.

Which, once you factor in weekends and Christmas, means they still have 2 days to pay me, >6 weeks after the invoice and nearly two months since I did the work.

This is unusual, right? Its normally 30 calendar days.

[7specialgems]

This is my first post so allow me to describe my current situation. I started working as a contractor the 17th November 2014 for an automotive company here in the U.K. At the beginning I was getting paid with a "stepper plan" which means I would have worked for two weeks, raised the invoice the third and get paid the forth. Now I am supposed to be paid every month. For instance: I will have to raise the invoice for the month of January by the 7th February and get paid the 2nd or 3rd March. That would leave me practically with no income for two months. All my other colleagues who are contractors with other agencies get paid the week after they have raised the invoices for the past month. Since I have been paid the 22th December and it will be very difficult to subsist until March, is there something I can do to get paid on February for the month of January? I know that the company has already paid the agency for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd working week of January.

Thanks in advance!

P.S. Quick question: My colleagues who have my same exact experience and degree are getting paid more than me (although performing a different type of job, mine is less technical and more administrative), does that depend on the agency or on the company (client)?

Sounds like you have started contracting without cashflow to tide your expenses over until you begin to receive your accounts payable.

Lesson learned son. Among other options, you could go out and get yourself a 0% credit card to live on as best as possible until your money starts coming in.

As for payment terms, 30 days supplier terms isn't uncommon for a new engagement, although as you've seen from some of the replies, seasoned contractors negotiate this down significantly right from the first contract.

You ought to get yourself into the position where your salary is paid for by the takings of previous months, not the current month.

If you don't understand how cashflow works, go find out.

[northernladuk]

This is unusual, right? Its normally 30 calendar days.

Forget 'normal.' Read what it says in the contract carefully and if there is any ambiguity speak to the agent to get it cleared up.

You know where assuming stuff gets you....

[Bluenose]

I'd say you raise an invoice 1st Jan, and agent month end is 31st Jan, you'd be paid 28th Feb.

Yep, perfectly possible but I just go from my own experience in that on a 30 day payment terms, if I submit an invoice I usually get paid a month (or less) later.

First gig was weekly invoice and payment terms (10 days from invoice to payment). That was with Eurobase, very professional outfit those guys.