Hello fellow CC members! I was hoping you ladies could help me out.
Our client is from Canada and we're in the Philippines. They're doing some outsourcing with us. My problem is they don't pay us on time.

We send our billing statement through email and with banking transaction time to consider, we're expecting to get paid after 5 business days. But it takes them a long time, sometimes up to 20 days after we've sent them our billing statement.

This is really frustrating to us since this is our main income source. I need it personally to pay for my own bills like utilities and groceries, etc. This has been happening for such a long time that it's so frustrating and it honestly makes me unmotivated to work.

I was wondering if there is a way for me to let the client know about paying us. How to go about it? Like how to word it in an email? I don't wanna seem b*tchy but nice and at the same time firm.

Please help me out. Thanks! and thanks for reading!

I'm not a business person, but pay a lot of bills...
I've never heard of anyone who expects to be paid within 5 days, unless it's someone working on my house or car and you pay them right then.
Billing statements should say on them when the due date is, usually 20 - 30 days.
It sounds like a communication problem, they do not realize you expect to be paid so fast. Can you just take a credit card when they order, or something like that?

thanks for replying!

oh. I didn't know it usually takes that long. I'm a transcriber so basically we do the work and then just send it to the client.

unfortunately we can't accept a credit card. What they do is just transfer the money to our bank account. It takes two business days for the transaction to be completed and i always thought the five days was enough time to do it.

so... we shouldn't expect to be paid earlier? man. my bills are piling up and it's the only way i earn. darn...

what does your contract say? What kind of a company are they? Do you have to send them an invoice? The contracts that I have written up indicate how frequently they would invoice us - usually at the end of the month then we have a certain time to pay 'payment term net 15 days', so we sent the payment within 15 days but then the transaction has to clear at the bank - sometimes up to 5 days.

It is different in every industry and country, where I am when you work somewhere you dont get paid at the end of every shift or even every week. The most standard practices here are every two weeks (wage employees), or once or twice a month (salary employees. Where I work I get paid once a month but I can request a mid-month advance. When I first started the timing did not work out for me to receive a mid-month advance, the paper work took a while for them to sort out , I worked for almost 6 weeks before I got my first paycheck. Also with wage employees there is usually a one week holding period - you work for two weeks then a week after that you get paid for that time.

If you are working for a company and submitting your hours your pay might also be following their standard payperiods, You could be submitting your time worked at the beginning of the two week period, having to wait to the end of the period, then waiting a week for their payroll to do the work and then the transaction time.

we get paid by the number of lines we do. so everyday we send them the number of lines we did for that particular day. then at the end of the month we send them the total for the month's work. they used to be punctual about paying us but as i said sometimes it takes 20 days. i think the worst was 25 days and that's like working for another month without getting paid for last month's work.

it makes me very lazy (call me insane but money motivates me a lot) LOL and it's just frustrating when you can't pay your own bills.

i was hoping if we send them the billing statement and also tell them we expect the pay by a certain date (kinda like how the electric company does their bills) that it would help. but i don't know how to say it without, well, being mean.

thanks!

hmm so its a problem that has come up recently. Do you have a written contract that states the time frame in which they are supposed to pay you? Do you have anyone in the accounting department that you can speak to? Writing something on an invoice that they see on a regular basis would need to be highlighted - you could write 'payment term 5 days' but that is generally not standard practice. I think the best would be to speak to someone in person and ask why this is happening - what changed?

dinas27, thanks so much for replying.

This delay actually started when the client got an accountant hehe. Ironic right? When he was the one taking care of the billing it was faster but now with this accountant, it's taking weeks.

I guess we'll just have to keep reminding them then.

cupcakeshoppe.....I would make sure that your payment terms are clear to the accountant. Maybe get his/her e-mail and send them a quick note with your concerns.

I have a few clients at my Salon that are elderly and use an accountant. They are weekly clients so I prebill for the month with the statement dated say Oct. 1, payment due upon receipt. I always get the check within 1wk.

I think if you're clear with your terms "payment due 5 days from the date of this statement", you shouldn't have a problem. Not every bill I get has 30 day terms, heck my cable tv bill is billed ahead The company that cleans my salon has 7 day pay terms.

So the important thing here is to just be very clear about what your terms are. Since it's all being done via internet and electronic payment there should not be an issue for them to abide by your terms.

Good luck!
P.S. I always wondered where your location was.....the Philippines wow! That's what's so cool about this site, I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be communicating with somebody from so far away! Awesome

I would guess that the accountant is just busier and that is why it takes longer to get to the bills. Or maybe there is one day a month when he deals with all the bills from that client. Twenty days really is not that long to wait for payment. Well, I know it is a long time when you really NEED the money, but it's not that unusual. If it was specifically agreed somewhere that you would be paid in 5 days, I would just email or call or whatever and give them a little reminder that your bill needs to be paid sooner (Good afternoon Joe. Just wanted to let you know that we aren't receiving our payments until about 20 days after the statement. I would really appreciate it if you could look into this and get it back to the 5 day schedule). If it was not agreed on specifically, I would call and tell them that it used to be paid in 5 days, and since you rely on that income, you would really like to be paid in 5 days (Good afternoon Joe. I've noticed the payment schedule has changed. We used to get paid within 5 days of sending the bill, but lately it is taking up to 20. I actually count on the payments to pay my current bills. I would be really grateful if you could go back to paying within 5 days. I appreciate your help with this.).

If you feel a little awkward bringing it up, then say that. "Hey Joe, I feel a little awkward bringing this up, but ..." Canadians are generally pretty nice and we like to help out. I imagine they will accomodate you if they can.

Sounds like a cash flow issue. But, it may be that the accountant has set up some sort of process about how bills are paid, like once a month rather than daily as the bills come in.

dkelly27, thanks! and yes I'm from the Philippines where it's either hot as hell or raining like cats and dogs.

margaretb, thanks so much, especially with the suggestion you made of how to say it. My problem is since English is not my first language, I don't wanna seem curt. The way you put it is really polite but shows exactly what I mean. So thanks!

Pookie59, it could be that. Or maybe the accountant is not used to the job yet.