Hitting a few client invoices lately where late payment is having quite an impact on cash flow (quoth one client after a begging letter for payment “sorry hadn’t appreciated it was quite so urgent”).

Anyway, after a wee tweet got some interesting links and chatter from folk, so dumped here for the general benefit of others:

From Andy Marshall links to the Business Link advice on Managing Late Payment and also the Government legislation on Late Payment of Commercial Debts

From Mike Robinson a link to the Pay on Time website which provides useful information and a guide to the Late Payment of Commercial Debts act.

From Richard Quick a link to The Law Donut guide to claiming statutory interest on debt

Also some interesting responses about how individual folk manage late payment, including a number of folk suggesting an early-payment discount as an incentive for clients (e.g. 5-10% discount if paid in first 14 days).

General consensus for overdue payments seems to be to hit the client with a late payment fee of 5-10% of the outstanding amount for each month

UPDATE

Andy Clarke also pointed out his post on writing an effective letter for collecting debts

Also, how amiss of me to forget Mike Monteiro’s legendary musings on late payment (HT Gareth Rees)

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