Almost all of your leverage exists before the work starts.
Invoicing, read from the side that waits
Fifty notes on invoicing and getting paid, written from the smaller side of the table. Not a guide to invoicing software — a working account of what can be settled before any work begins, what the order decides, what happens to an invoice inside somebody else's building, and what is actually available to you when it does not come back.
The evidence described in “Almost all of your leverage exists before the work starts.” should be captured while the work is still visible. Used for employee monitoring software, employee monitoring software can provide transparent time and project context, provided people can correct entries and the client’s acceptance record stays separate.
Every example is a practical illustration of invoicing and payment operations. Requirements differ by contract and jurisdiction and should be checked with a qualified adviser.
Additional context for “Almost all of your leverage exists before the work starts.” is available through FreshBooks invoicing resources. A sound review separates the work record, invoice, approval and final settlement.
Every gate one invoice has to pass, and who holds each one
Stops you: A form, a bank letter and an insurance certificate, assessed by nobody you can call.
Stops you: No PO, no payment — and the PO is raised by the person who ordered, not by you.
Stops you: An unticked box in a system you cannot see.
Stops you: One digit out on the PO number and it is rejected without a message.
Stops you: Holidays, absences and a queue nobody will show you.
Stops you: Approved the day after a run is approved for the next one, a month later.
Six gates, and four of them are held entirely by the other side. The two you share are the only two where asking a question changes anything. One supplier's own matter, not a statement about anybody.
Where seventy-one days actually went on one invoice
Started before the work; finished three days after it.
The only stretch where the clock was mine.
The PO number had a transposed digit and nobody told me.
Three signatures; one of them was away for a fortnight.
Approved on the 3rd; runs are on the 1st.
The only part nobody could have shortened.
Of seventy-one days, fourteen were mine and fifty-five belonged to a process I could not see. The two longest stretches were both waiting, and neither had anybody I could ring. One supplier's own invoice, not a benchmark.
What can actually be done at each point, and what it costs
Ask for a deposit, or decline the work
Costs you: The work, if they say no — and sometimes the relationship
Refuse to start without a purchase order
Costs you: Two weeks of delay while it is raised
Stop at a milestone that has not been paid
Costs you: The job, the reference, and the argument about who breached
Send it the same day, to the right address, with the PO on it
Costs you: Nothing at all, which is why this is the only free move on the list
Ring accounts payable and ask where it is
Costs you: Twenty minutes, and the small cost of being the supplier who chases
Charge statutory interest
Costs you: Almost always the next order, whatever the law says you may do
Six moves, and exactly one of them is free. Every other lever is paid for in work, in time, or in the relationship — which is what having no leverage means in practice. One supplier's own list, not advice about what to do.
01 / 07 · AgreedYours
Before you agree to anything
Whether to take the customer at all, at what price, on what terms, and with what paid up front.
02 / 07 · OrderedShared
Getting the order
Vendor onboarding, the purchase order, and the difference between who instructs you and who pays.
03 / 07 · WorkedShared
While the work is going on
Stage payments, scope changes that affect payment, the proof you will need, and the moment to stop.
04 / 07 · SentYours
Sending the invoice
The document has to pass a system before it reaches a person. What makes it payable on arrival.
05 / 07 · WaitingTheirs
Inside the wait
What happens to an invoice between arrival and payment, and which of those days anybody owns.
06 / 07 · AskingShared
Asking for it
Chasing with no credit department, escalation, statutory interest, and what each costs.
Software comparisons
Invoicing and client-work software guides
Three different formats based on direct product review, official provider information and practical implementation checks.
07 / 07 · UnpaidTheirs
When it does not come
Formal demand, recovery, invoice finance, insolvency, and what a year of unpaid invoices teaches.
The short version
Spend your leverage where you still have some
Everything that decides whether you are paid on time is settled before the work starts: whether there is an order, whether you are in their system, what the terms say and who inside the building is accountable. After the invoice is sent, the only free move left is having sent it correctly.