How do you handle overdue invoices and get difficult clients to pay?

[evareder]

Getting stiffed by a client is practically (and unfortunately) an experience most freelancers make at some point.

What are you best strategies for collecting outstanding payments?

[paulmaplesden]

How to make contract sir?

And.co is a good place to start.

[shubhamdahale]

i take 70% payment advance

What % of this is non-refundable?

depending on project completion percentage

[Guest uxreview]

depending on project completion percentage

depending on project completion percentage

This won’t work with most clients. You have to tell this upfront.

If the deposit is not refundable then client needs to know this before they commit. It needs to be in the contract.

[shubhamdahale]

depending on project completion percentage

This won’t work with most clients. You have to tell this upfront.

If the deposit is not refundable then client needs to know this before they commit. It needs to be in the contract.

yes i have a contract which describes all the terms in detail to the client then after signing that contract by client i take the order and upfront payment

but i haven’t faced any issue with this and it works for me because i show all the terms clearly to client then take order

[pixelano]

depending on project completion percentage

This won’t work with most clients. You have to tell this upfront.

If the deposit is not refundable then client needs to know this before they commit. It needs to be in the contract.

Do you have a contract template. If you have then please share. Thanks

[damianorstore]

I am wondering if I should start asking customers to pay before the work has begun. This is because I am dealing with a runaway client right now. I am thinking of using the and.co built in mail reminder system for invoices maybe. Has anyone ever tried it?

How was your experience with it? Did the client end up paying the invoice?

[jonbaas]

Buyers ALWAYS pay before you work on an order. Always. If you’re doing things a different way, then you are doing it wrong, and could be in danger of your account being restricted.

[rachelbostwick]

Buyers ALWAYS pay before you work on an order. Always. If you’re doing things a different way, then you are doing it wrong, and could be in danger of your account being restricted.

I might be reading it wrong but this post was in the and.co part of the forum so he’s probably not talking about Fiverr work.

[sue_mcl]

I ask for upfront full payment for work under $500 and 50% deposit on work over $500 - unless it is a client I have a known history of paying well and I have offered them 7 or 14 day terms. I haven’t used the and.co reminder system as I send the invoice before and don’t start work until they pay the full payment or the deposit, so I generally don’t have many outstanding invoices to follow up. If you have a few at once, it could be handy.

[paulmaplesden]

My advice outside Fiverr is that if it is a new client I ask for payment up front for the first few pieces of work. After I have established an ongoing relationship with a client and have a contract in place with them, I bill at the end of each month for work completed in that month, and clients have thirty days to pay. Over the last 3.5 years, bad debts / unpaid invoices have been less than 0.5% of my income.

In every case, you will want to get a contract in place with clients that clearly defines payment terms.

[jonbaas]

I might be reading it wrong but this post was in the and.co part of the forum so he’s probably not talking about Fiverr work.

I might be reading it wrong but this post was in the and.co part of the forum so he’s probably not talking about Fiverr work.

Ah, indeed. I stand corrected.

[allahaik1]

My advice outside Fiverr is that if it is a new client I ask for payment up front for the first few pieces of work. After I have established an ongoing relationship with a client and have a contract in place with them, I bill at the end of each month for work completed in that month, and clients have thirty days to pay. Over the last 3.5 years, bad debts / unpaid invoices have been less than 0.5% of my income.

In every case, you will want to get a contract in place with clients that clearly defines payment terms.

How to make contract sir?

[shubhamdahale]

i take 70% payment advance and 30% after delivery @uxreview @jcmcbride

[allahaik1]

And.co is a good place to start.

Thank you very much sir

[jahiduls]

Buyers ALWAYS pay before you work on an order. Always. If you’re doing things a different way, then you are doing it wrong, and could be in danger of your account being restricted.

defiantly, Jonbass is 👍

[Guest neromare]

I’d follow Bass’ advice. I recently had a client who didn’t pay me the other half of the money. I froze the project. Its outside Fiverr, and for a service I don’t offer here. But I believe it can happen anywhere. Including here.

Get everything upfront. It’s how eBay works. You pay, then you get play.

[neurologist]

Buyers ALWAYS pay before you work on an order. Always. If you’re doing things a different way, then you are doing it wrong, and could be in danger of your account being restricted.

About my job , can ask customer for billing before starting my job? Can i do it in your opinion ? However i still have no any customer 555

[jess_martin]

Buyer pays immediately after submitting an order to you. However the amount gets on hold until 14 days after successful completion of the order. Sort of like deposit to fiverr.

If the buyer disputes to cancel the order and order is cancelled then the diposited amount is returned to buyer.

[Guest neromare]

It’s how the system works. Customers have to pay to start the order countdown.

[boomlandjenkins]

I ask for upfront full payment for work under $500 and 50% deposit on work over $500 - unless it is a client I have a known history of paying well and I have offered them 7 or 14 day terms. I haven’t used the and.co reminder system as I send the invoice before and don’t start work until they pay the full payment or the deposit, so I generally don’t have many outstanding invoices to follow up. If you have a few at once, it could be handy.

This is how I run my web design business. 50% upfront on projects over $500 unless it’s a larger project (over $5K) in which case, we do multiple milestone payments as the project progresses.

[utich_eng_rus]

ALWAYS ask for upfront payment especially if this is first time you’re about to start working with potential client. It might be 20% to 50% of the entire sum. Alternatively, I’ve seen a practice to agree on partial payments: you agree with a client on certain stages of the work and get paid once each stage is done and ‘shipped’ to the client. Yeah, it largely depends on the sort of task you’re given, bt anyway it’s worth considering.

The bottom line is it’s all about building trust. It’s tough nowadays, especially in online business.

[guilarteluis]

the main thing would be the part of when the payment would be made, for me the ideal would be 50% before starting work and 50% when delivering the work. that clause was one of the first of the contract

[ammar90it]

not always , we r humans after all

[mariashtelle1]

not always , we r humans after all

First of all te an old topic.

Secondly you should read fiverr TOS they made it clear there that all work starts ONLY after placing an order and after client paid for it.

It looks like you already broke quite a few fiverr rules. So you’d better go through TOS again to make sure that you account wouldn’t be banned any time soon (ah of course, you already had 2 other accounts before?)

[jcmcbride]

• 50% deposit when accepting proposal
• 25% when prototype / demo is accepted
• 25% after migration

No payment no work. Deposit non-refundable.

I 100% agree. No payment, no work. I request new to me clients pay 100% up front on all jobs less than $500. Anything above that I request 50% up front, and 50% when the 1st draft is submitted.

It’s not worth my time to chase down invoices.