This practice has a very bad look, and my heart is with the freelancers. But I also know human psychology is fickle and there is a functionally identical way to

This practice has a very bad look, and my heart is with the freelancers. But I also know human psychology is fickle and there is a functionally identical way to pay freelancers that would generate far less ire: The client quotes the freelancer a due-on-receipt, net-zero-days price and then offers a "no hurry payment" bonus of twenty-five or thirty percent or whatever that comes with net-30/60/90 terms. If a freelancer doesn't ask about payment terms when negotiating payment with a new client, he or she will quickly learn to do so. You don't need to experience the sting of learning that your client intends to pay you net-120 more than once before you focus like a laser on payment terms and conditions. When I engage with freelancers or small businesses as vendors, I make a point of making sure the accounting folks know a particular vendor should not be subjected to "cashflow optimization," which I have known AP folks to elevate to an art, a sport, perhaps even a tenet of a fanatical religion. A couple of related items: Why Variable Pricing Fails at the Vending Machine: https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/27/business/why-variable-pricing-fails-at-the-vending-machine.html https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/27/business/why-variable-pri... Coke’s Segmentation Error: https://pragmaticpricing.com/2010/05/15/cokes-segmentation-error/ https://pragmaticpricing.com/2010/05/15/cokes-segmentation-e...