3 ms·

I have sympathy for people subject to the vagaries of corporate payment settlement terms, but when you agree to net 60 you may not get paid for 60 days. To get

I have sympathy for people subject to the vagaries of corporate payment settlement terms, but when you agree to net 60 you may not get paid for 60 days. To get paid sooner will cost something.

howeyc 8y ago
This isn't really a story to me. Perhaps it could be re-titled "freelancer learns businesses usually pay net-60 (or 30, or 90). That there are intermediary companies offering cash-flow for a fee isn't exactly new either.
chaosbutters 8y ago
my company forces vendors to net 60, and if they argue with it, they will threaten net 90 and say that is the industry norm and they are being nice at net 60.
- planteen 8y ago
  Does that work? If it does, you must be at a big company and not dealing with the government. Chasing down invoices seems to be a huge pain for small companies. It seems like many big customers would laugh at the small company and agree to NET 60, then pay you in 95 days.
maerF0x0 8y ago
Basically one needs a sliding rate scale on credit risk. At the very least one should be charging ~6% more (1.02 ^3) for net 90 terms, along with Credit Card like rates for missed payments. A good rule of thumb in America is if they have lawyers, you need lawyers.
poulsbohemian 8y ago
If we agree on net-60 and they actually pay net-60, then everybody is good. The problem is that anything > net-30 tends to be signaling that you'll get your money when we darn feel like it, maybe never. Yes, I understand that the larger the company, the longer the payment terms, but its that risk factor of the unknown that is the squeeze on the little guy. Ironically I was just discussing this with my partner this morning as I seek to collect on a debt of > 365 days... feels like there should be lots of opportunity for disruption around getting paid, as contract law (which should be the cornerstone of civilization) is not really helping me collect with any degree of speed.

I have sympathy for people subject to the vagaries of corporate payment settlement terms, but when you agree to net 60 you may not get paid for 60 days. To get paid sooner will cost something.

howeyc 8y ago

This isn't really a story to me. Perhaps it could be re-titled "freelancer learns businesses usually pay net-60 (or 30, or 90). That there are intermediary companies offering cash-flow for a fee isn't exactly new either.

chaosbutters 8y ago

my company forces vendors to net 60, and if they argue with it, they will threaten net 90 and say that is the industry norm and they are being nice at net 60.

planteen 8y ago
Does that work? If it does, you must be at a big company and not dealing with the government. Chasing down invoices seems to be a huge pain for small companies. It seems like many big customers would laugh at the small company and agree to NET 60, then pay you in 95 days.

maerF0x0 8y ago

Basically one needs a sliding rate scale on credit risk. At the very least one should be charging ~6% more (1.02 ^3) for net 90 terms, along with Credit Card like rates for missed payments. A good rule of thumb in America is if they have lawyers, you need lawyers.

poulsbohemian 8y ago

If we agree on net-60 and they actually pay net-60, then everybody is good. The problem is that anything > net-30 tends to be signaling that you'll get your money when we darn feel like it, maybe never. Yes, I understand that the larger the company, the longer the payment terms, but its that risk factor of the unknown that is the squeeze on the little guy. Ironically I was just discussing this with my partner this morning as I seek to collect on a debt of > 365 days... feels like there should be lots of opportunity for disruption around getting paid, as contract law (which should be the cornerstone of civilization) is not really helping me collect with any degree of speed.