Most late payments aren’t a client being dishonest — they’re a client who was never actually told how or when to pay. Fix that at onboarding, not at invoice #1.
- Who on their end approves invoices, and how long does that usually take?
- What payment method do they actually use, not just accept?
- Is there a PO number or internal reference required on every invoice?
- What’s their standard payment cycle — net 15, net 30, something else?
“I stopped chasing payments almost entirely once I started asking these four questions on the very first call.”
None of this guarantees on-time payment. It does remove the most common excuse for a late one: “we didn’t know how this was supposed to work.”
