Getting Paid

This article tells you how to deal with payment problems and explains the resources that can help you avoid bad payers in the first place.

One of the safest ways of making sure you get paid for your work is to avoid working for bad payers! That sounds simple, but what can you do to make sure you only work for the good guys? There are various options.

Members of ITI have access to a credit checking facility that provides information on company accounts, past CCJs and bad debts. Details on how to access this facility can be found on the ITI website http://www.iti.org.uk/.

There are various e-mail lists and e-groups available through which you can ask about the payment practices of specific customers, or which provide information on bad payers. These include:

• ProZ.com's “blue board”: http://www.proz.com
• Zahlungspraxis: http://de.dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/zahlungspraxis
• Payment Practices: http://www.paymentpractices.net/
• ITI member forums: http://www.iti.org.uk/
• E-groups of ITI Networks and Regional Groups

If you are anticipating problems even though the payment is not yet due, send a “Statement of Account” on the due date. This should list all open (unpaid) items.

It is good business practice to send an end-of-month statement to each client with outstanding invoices at the end of each month. In fact, some businesses have a policy of paying on receipt of a statement, rather than an invoice.

In the UK, small claims of £5000 or less are handled by the “small-claims track”, and you can even make claims online at https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/csmco2/index.jsp.

For disputes within the EU up to a value of €2000 the European small claims procedure has been in existence since 1 January 2009.