Late Billing

[Prof Higgins]

It has come to light that we have not been billing a client for quite a few . er. years ..:paperbag:... it is a long and complicated story as to why, but internal balls up is what it boils down to (original problem pre dates me may I add ;))

I have backtracked through everything and it looks to be around the £5k mark, not a huge amount for the company involved but equally I am sure they will be more than a little surprised to suddenly have it land on their desk. The reality is I will probably have to reach an agreement with them and scrub a percentage of the bill; would be interested to know what is a legal timescale on submitting an invoice. Just curious as if they suddenly decide they do not want to pay anything I would like to know where I stand with being able to rescue something out of it even if its only last 6 months.

[Eric Mc]

I wouldn't think that there are any legal time limits - apart from the normal 6 year statute of limitations. A lot of the time, whether you get paid or not boils down to how you go about alerting your customer to the problem.

Did they not realise that they weren't being billed?

[Prof Higgins]

Thanks Eric, Sounds hopeful should things get messy. The company are quite large so the people who request our service would have been assuming that we were invoicing straight to their accounts department and accounts department would be none the wiser until our invoice hits their desk - we did give them a heads up few months ago but has taken until now to backtrack through all the records. I am sure we will sort it out amicably as have a fairly good relationship and I am willing to be flexible - at the end of the day its also money we didn't really know we were missing so anything we recover will be a bonus.

[davidy]

Personally I would negociate with them regarding payment terms. I'd invoice them the full amount but then let them pay it over say 6 months (equal installments). That way you get all your money and they don't get the hit all at once (you've obviously not needed the money so waiting a few months for it won't hurt).

davidy

[simpo two]

You should ask for/get all of it. It's not a bad debt and not in dispute. Depending on your relationship with them you might even get it cleared up in one go.

[john75]

Have you heard of www.billchaser.co.uk ?

[Prof Higgins]

Cheers chaps, meeting now set up to discuss the matter; am sure it will be fine just wanted to know final stance I should take if it came down to pistols at dawn.