Thanks Kris for the great follow up to my post. 😉

1. Figure out who in the department you are working with is responsible for processing invoices. It’s usually not your point of contact. They’ll forward to a person in their department who then is responsible for getting the proper approval and sending it to the accounts payable department. Then, once you learn that information, open up a dialogue with that person and send your invoices to your point of contact and to the other person. Developing a relationship with the person who is only responsible for processing invoices will ensure you get paid much faster than just relying on project manager you worked with to get it submitted properly. They are crazy busy and the day your video project is completed, they are off to manage a dozen other projects.

2. When emailing or faxing your invoice, make sure you ask your clients to confirm receipt. If they confirm receipt via email, you can pull that up 31 days from now when they say that the reason you haven’t been paid yet is because you never sent the invoice. Trust me, it happens…a lot.

3. If your video is in the last level of approvals and it seems to be taking a while to get their final feedback, ask if you can go ahead and submit your invoice so it can start processing. Tell them that it’s okay if they don’t want to submit it until the video has received final approval but more often than not, they’ll go ahead and process it if you’ve built a great relationship.

That makes sense, thanks Ron

It depends on how big the fee. If it’s a really big fee, with a long production life, and the client is willing to pay it all up front, I’d be willing to go up as much as 10%. Imagine getting an $18,000 check all at once NOW on a $20,000 contract as opposed to getting five $4,000 checks ever other month for the next 10 months. That would be worth a 10% discount to me. But on average I’d say it lands around 5% when I offer one.

Great tip. How good of a discount do you offer? 20%?

That’s a good idea I frequently use as well. Thanks Steve.