Poll: In general, how would you rate your clients' payment management?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
SITE STAFF
Oct 30, 2018

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "In general, how would you rate your clients' payment management?".

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Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 08:11
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
Good on average Oct 30, 2018

My two most faithful clients are excellent. They are international organizations, not agencies. My experience with agencies has not been as good. Some of them have been terrible. So if I average them out, giving more weight to the clients that give me the most work, then 'good' would be the final rating.

 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 15:11
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Good on average Oct 30, 2018

It varies a lot from client to client: from excellent (three clients who pay immediately, all translation agencies) to poor (I rarely need to send a customer a reminder, but those who need reminding need to be reminded every time). All in all: good on average!

Muriel Vasconcellos
 
neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 16:11
Spanish to English
+ ...
Too varied Oct 30, 2018

For example, official institutions sometimes take much longer than private sector clients to pay up, probably because of their Byzantine accounting procedures. Over the years there have been several funding scandals in the area where I live, leading to attempts to tighten up regional and local government procurement and billing processes, which from my point of view has complicated things even further.
Two of the universities I work with have recently changed their accounting systems, and
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For example, official institutions sometimes take much longer than private sector clients to pay up, probably because of their Byzantine accounting procedures. Over the years there have been several funding scandals in the area where I live, leading to attempts to tighten up regional and local government procurement and billing processes, which from my point of view has complicated things even further.
Two of the universities I work with have recently changed their accounting systems, and for the moment everyone seems to be running about like chickens with their heads chopped off. Whereas I previously just did the job, issued the bill and waited for payment, nowadays academic authors from these institutions need to ask for an estimate in advance, and if the estimate is approved, then I can issue a pro forma invoice. The problem is that their funding is scheduled and has to be used up by a certain deadline date, and the authors often don't have the works ready for translation or correction before that date. This gave rise to so much hassle and faffing about that I raised my basic rate for them by 25% due to the extra admin involved.

Private sector clients can be a nightmare as well. I work with one company that publishes a bimonthly journal and holds conferences usually at least once a year. When they approached me in September to translate this year's conference schedule, I realise they still hadn't settled the last couple of bills I'd issued them earlier in the year (five or six months previously). When I informed them, they sorted it out and paid me the outstanding sums within forty-eight hours, but it just goes to show how you sometimes need to chase up even long-standing clients.

However, my best client pays me regularly at the end of each month... which is nice

PS: I only really work regularly with one agency nowadays, and they are pretty well-organised, usually paying within thirty days as long as the invoice is issued before the end of the corresponding month.

[Edited at 2018-10-30 10:07 GMT]
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Yetta Jensen Bogarde
Yetta Jensen Bogarde  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 16:11
Member (2012)
English to Danish
+ ...
Fair Oct 30, 2018

but that is only because I have shed the many clients with intolerable payment terms and kept the best.

PS: I mostly work for international agencies

[Edited at 2018-10-30 10:26 GMT]


Grace Anderson
 
DZiW (X)
DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
+ ...
very-very different; tenSfolds at least Oct 30, 2018

Even working with the "most generous" remote clients and agencies as a translator, I couldn't even dream of what I get working with direct local clients, let alone as an interpreter.

The point is not only what, but also how they pay, for we are my people now


 
Maxi Schwarz
Maxi Schwarz  Identity Verified
Local time: 10:11
German to English
+ ...
usually I don't know how my clients organize these things Oct 30, 2018

I have only ever had one client, a PM of an agency, tell me about about their management system. They ask my fee, tell their end client the fee, demand prepayment to be deposited, and once that is deposited they tell me to go ahead with the translation. I have no idea about anybody else's payment management. If I get paid on time, that is all that matters.

 
Mario Freitas
Mario Freitas  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 12:11
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Good Oct 31, 2018

If the client pays you regularly in the agreed dates, that's good.
If they usually pay on time and sometimes even a few days in advance, but never late, that's excellent.
If they usually delay a bit, that's fair.
If you always have to remind them to pay you, but then they pay you after the reminder, that's bad, but still acceptable.
Non-payers and delays beyond 10 days are the only ones unacceptable, bad, disastrous.

The vast majority of my clients pay on tim
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If the client pays you regularly in the agreed dates, that's good.
If they usually pay on time and sometimes even a few days in advance, but never late, that's excellent.
If they usually delay a bit, that's fair.
If you always have to remind them to pay you, but then they pay you after the reminder, that's bad, but still acceptable.
Non-payers and delays beyond 10 days are the only ones unacceptable, bad, disastrous.

The vast majority of my clients pay on time, without the need to remind them.
A few of them need a reminder sometimes, but then they'll pay.

So the average is "Good", no doubt.
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Poll: In general, how would you rate your clients' payment management?






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