We bet that you would love to say that all your clients pay their bills on time or even early on occasion. However, we know that that is probably further from than truth than you would like to admit. In fact, you are probably waiting for at least half of your clients to pay their bills from two or three months ago.
Here are 6 invoicing ideas that will squash those late payments from your clients:
- Prepare Properly: While it would be great to only choose clients, who are known for paying their bills in a timely manner, we understand that you can’t afford to be that picky in today’s world. Therefore, we recommend that you collect a deposit or retainer prior to the start of the project or each phase.
- Send Out Timely Invoices: Sending out timely invoices is a great way to ensure that you will get paid promptly. Any invoices that are received weeks after a job is completed will be put aside for your client to review as they do not fully remember what work was done.
- Create Different Payment Options: While accepting checks via mail is a good way to do business, technology has evolved tremendously over the years. Nowadays, it is possible to accept almost any type of payment online, which means that you will receive your money that much faster. You also won’t need to make a trip to the bank to deposit all those checks.
- Use Clear Payment Deadlines: If you do not specify when you want the payment by, your client may leave that bill on their desk until who knows when. We recommend that you are clear in your instructions as to when you expect the money by. You can use the wording “Payment expected in full within 10 days” or “Please Pay This Amount in Full within 30 Days”.
- Use Please and Thank You: Your clients will appreciate the words please and thank you on their bill, and some studies show that invoices that include these words are paid quicker than all the others.
- Create Good Relationships: You should never be afraid to pick up the phone and call a client to ensure that they received their invoice. Of course, you will want to make phone calls more often than asking for payments. That is why it is important for you to build good relationships with all your clients, as it can work to your advantage when a payment goes missing for the first time.
If you implement these invoicing strategies into your business, you may find an increase of invoices that your clients pay on time. Of course, you will still have those clients that will still wait forever, but then you can pick up the phone and use your phenomenal relationship with them to kindly ask for payment.
We focus heavily on the relationship between the builder and the client here at CMS Bush. Our construction management specialists use the latest technologies and properly manage your project from start to finish. Call us at 407-316-8544 to discuss your upcoming project or to get more information about our construction management processes.