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You don’t get it. Some companies (bigger ones) have their accounting department operating independently from their development/IT department. This is not the ca

by csomar 4y ago

You don’t get it. Some companies (bigger ones) have their accounting department operating independently from their development/IT department. This is not the case for small businesses which the OP is softly suggesting not to work with. Clients with such departments will pay if your invoice is approved. The payment process is disconnected from the team you’ll be working with. It also happens that the team you work with will not care with the costs since it’s not coming out of pocket directly. The finance team, which will pay you, has no idea what you are doing exactly except that you are authorized for the payment. The process is slow, so bear with it and price for the delay of the funds. But if you are a regular, it’s a constant flow. Small businesses where the decisions making, IT and payment (ie: director of tech is also the CEO, is also paying out of pocket) will scrutinize much more on payments, and also miss a payment if they can (a surprising amount of people will try to do this).

michaelt 4y ago
> The process is slow, so bear with it and price for the delay of the funds. Every large company actually has two parallel ways of paying. There's a main procedure which is extremely slow, because getting a 6 month interest-free loan from your suppliers is free capital, and maybe the supplier will forget and you won't need to pay at all which is free cash, and to access these benefits all you need is a smaller accounts payable department. They will be overjoyed to not pay you because you didn't submit form AB-1234 confirming that you have a policy on modern slavery. And they absolutely will not chase you for that form. Then there's a parallel procedure, where your contact asks their boss's boss's boss's boss and the bill gets paid by credit card within the hour. Having a reasonable amount of flexibility is fine - but at any time that friendly, helpful, trustworthy contact you're working with could change jobs, the project could be cancelled, or the project could end successfully and all your contacts get reassigned. You don't need to extend so much credit that you'd be put in a difficult financial situation were they not to pay - if the client has reached their credit limit, and they are late on payments they're contractually obligated to make, you just need to get your contact to trigger the fast procedure instead of the slow one.
- csomar 4y ago
  I'd say landing such a company already require an internal or initial contact there. In case that contact does not exist, I'll tread careful like I am working with a black box. You'd have to navigate their bureaucracy somehow and a big company will have a reputation for such things (either good or bad). The contact, depending on your friendly terms with him, can shed light on how these processes work and what to expect. It's up to you to determine if it's worth your time/effort to pursue working with them. Everyone has a different sweet spot.

by csomar 4y ago

michaelt 4y ago

> The process is slow, so bear with it and price for the delay of the funds. Every large company actually has two parallel ways of paying. There's a main procedure which is extremely slow, because getting a 6 month interest-free loan from your suppliers is free capital, and maybe the supplier will forget and you won't need to pay at all which is free cash, and to access these benefits all you need is a smaller accounts payable department. They will be overjoyed to not pay you because you didn't submit form AB-1234 confirming that you have a policy on modern slavery. And they absolutely will not chase you for that form. Then there's a parallel procedure, where your contact asks their boss's boss's boss's boss and the bill gets paid by credit card within the hour. Having a reasonable amount of flexibility is fine - but at any time that friendly, helpful, trustworthy contact you're working with could change jobs, the project could be cancelled, or the project could end successfully and all your contacts get reassigned. You don't need to extend so much credit that you'd be put in a difficult financial situation were they not to pay - if the client has reached their credit limit, and they are late on payments they're contractually obligated to make, you just need to get your contact to trigger the fast procedure instead of the slow one.

csomar 4y ago
I'd say landing such a company already require an internal or initial contact there. In case that contact does not exist, I'll tread careful like I am working with a black box. You'd have to navigate their bureaucracy somehow and a big company will have a reputation for such things (either good or bad). The contact, depending on your friendly terms with him, can shed light on how these processes work and what to expect. It's up to you to determine if it's worth your time/effort to pursue working with them. Everyone has a different sweet spot.