Pending Invoices: How to Eliminate Friction When Settling Payments for Sustainability

How long should you wait for web development client to settle pending invoices? Depending on where you do business, you may not be able to get too many contracts if you insist on giving clients less time to pay than the regional standard. In the Netherlands, for example, most clients assume that they have 14 days to pay, and they will very rarely pay before this deadline; in fact, quite a few will wait a few more days, particularly if a weekend gets in the way.

In the United States and across most of the Americas, the net-30 period is pretty much taken for granted in all commercial transactions, and this includes website development services. For this reason, it is always better to break the work up into sections so that you can have some cash flow instead of having to wait until 30 days after the project is completed. This does not mean that all clients will wait to make invoices whole until the end of the net-30 period; in fact, quite a few will pay after a couple of weeks or even right at the moment they receive the invoice, but they all appreciate having the net-30 option available.

While you can always reduce the net-30 period and specify so on your web design contracts, there is a chance that doing this will result in friction. You are better off printing "due upon receipt" on your invoices and assume that it will be settled within 30 days. Otherwise, if you go to the trouble of setting up the payment system in your website, it may be better to leave it up to the client to negotiate the payment terms on a case-by-case basis.

You may also be able to collect any outstanding balance in the first month of the payment period, but if your client has not paid on time then you will need to wait until the period is up before you are able to collect from them. There is one major exception to this, and that is if the website development agreement that you signed states that you can have payment deducted from the invoice immediately upon receipt, in which case you can have the client pay you within 30 days and then hold on to the remainder for the balance. For more information click here https://www.reddit.com/r/webdesign/comments/pyhgws/clienttakingtoolongtopay_invoice/.