If you’re a freelancer who invoices client, read this. If you hire a freelancer who sends you invoices, also read this.

When you hire a freelancer, generally they give you their all. That means turning away other paying work so that they can do your job, often going above and beyond to do your work, and sometimes doing the work before you’ve paid them very much at all (I would hope that you’re paying your freelancers at least a deposit, but I know that not every freelancer works this way).

And this is the time of year when freelancers also have to realise that they’re probably taking one or two weeks off over Christmas which means THEY DON’T GET PAID FOR THEIR TIME and probably won’t be invoicing either.

So if you have an invoice from a freelancer sitting in your inbox, on its way to or with accounts, or maybe not even due until later this month, do a good thing. PAY IT NOW. Even if it’s not quite due, or you think you could get away with not paying until after Christmas.

It really is the best Christmas gift you could give them. Trust me on this one.

🎁🎁🎁

If you’re a freelancer and an invoice is overdue (and you’re in the UK) then PLEASE go and read up on Late Payment Fees. You are entitled to charge them from when an invoice is one day overdue, and also add an admin fee for doing so. It’s simple to do, and there’s a handy website to help you calculate the fees and help with the wording here – Late Payment info from The Small Business Commissioner.

If you have an invoice that is overdue, reissue that invoice including the fees, and resend it now. Explain that the interest is charged daily, so every time you have to send a new one, there are more fees being accrued.

I know it’s hard to do, but so is having to spend Christmas worrying about overdue invoices. I know, I’ve done it.

I am extremely lucky that I’ve only had to do this once in the last few years, but it worked, and now is an integral part of my contracts.

Let’s get as many freelancers as possible paid before Christmas!

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