Getting Paid

[leglace]

Would like some advice from other freelancers on how to get paid in a timely fashion. I don't ususally have problems but the paper I've been stringing for during the past year is just terrible about getting checks out. Their accounts payable person tells me she has no set schedule and just "sends checks when she feels like it."

 

[Editude]

This is an ongoing (and unchanging, it seems) fact of life in freelancing. Mrs. Editude has a consistent client who clearly puts sending checks far down the to-do list. The solution? Hound them. And still the payments will flow in inconsistently. It's not personal. When the hounding becomes more a part of the equation than the writing/editing/designing, then step away from the gig.

 

[lone star scribe]

Talk to the editor(s) who assigned you the story and let them know you need to be paid in a more timely fashion, i.e., weekly, biweekly, monthly, whatever. If it's taking more than a month, that's wrong.

You can jokingly suggest that you can start filing the stories "when you feel like it," but really your only recourse is to stop taking their assignments. And if it's your main deal, you probably aren't in a position to do so.

 

[MU_was_not_so_hard]

I have a mag right now that owes me a better-than-average check for a story I did a long time ago. I felt like crap until I found out a buddy has a paper that owes him from 18 months ago.
Just sort of a fact of the trade that I have to deal with a lot as a full-time freelancer.

 

[Cubman71]

This just happened to me for a website I was working for and producing tons of content. Usually, my check would come in the first 3-4 days of the month. This month, it didn't come until the third week (9/16 to be exact), with no advance notice from the powers that be.

Since I've been burned before from a previous stop for bouncing checks, my decision was to stop producing the work (and since I was responsible for posting content during football season, when it doubled), that really put a crimp on the site I was working for.

My mantra is...you expect timely content, I expect timely paycheck.

 

[OnTheRiver]

I work for a relatively mid-sized daily paper (our circ. <100,000)

I turn in a freelance paysheet every two weeks, come hell or high water. It's gotten so timely that if the pay's a day late, I get a call or two wondering if I'm OK.

There's no excuse for someone to go more than a month after a story's publication and not be paid.

Hell, we do it within 2-3 weeks at my lil' ragtag shop.

 

[SixToe]

After speaking with the SE, start filing an invoice to the SE and Accounts Receivable lady.

Invoice

Oct. 15, 2008

Mr. Leglace
123 Main St.
Anytown, Anystate

Re: September freelance


Then list the dates, events covered and amount per event, followed by the total.


Her response of "sending checks when she feels like it" is unprofessional.

 

[mustangj17]

I waited for months for a check this year. Even then they tried to argue about the pay rate. That made me real mad. I'm sorry the person who guaranteed me xx.xx per story is no longer working there- but that's not my problem.

 

[playthrough]

You shouldn't be dealing with that person to begin with. Deal with your assigning editor and don't settle for being pushed onto an accounting dept or anyone else. With luck you'll have an editor with a conscience-- the last one I dealt with on a delayed payment responded to my e-mail inquiry by saying "how embarrassing!" I had a check within the week.

And yes, file invoices.

 

[WoodyWommack]

Yeah, no doubt. Most of the places I work for pay in a timely matter but I have a paper that still owes me from the NBA Summer League. Honestly I just keep good records of who owes me how much, and if it goes beyond six weeks I start emailing/calling on a regular basis.

 

[Rosie]

Very important - keep good records.

I was freelancing for a paper on a regular basis and they decided to change the payment agreement. AFTER I'd submitted several weeks worth of work.

I took them to small claims court.

I won.

It cost them more money than if they would have just paid what they owed me in the first place.

 

[cyclingwriter]

Records are key. I've learned that making sure to get everything signed or at least have some sort of proof that Company X knew I was doing a project for such and such a fee. That being said, I am still hounding a guy almost two months after I handed in job for him. Sigh.

 

[FileNotFound]

I waited for months for a check this year. Even then they tried to argue about the pay rate. That made me real mad. I'm sorry the person who guaranteed me xx.xx per story is no longer working there- but that's not my problem.

Mustang, if you didn't get that "guarantee" on paper, it never happened.

One of the problems with getting paid is having to go through overworked sports editors, who put communication with Accounts Payable far down on THEIR overflowing lists of work to do. No excuse, though, for the A/P person cutting checks "when she feels like it." That's crap. Keep hounding them.

 

[Nathan Scott Phillips]

Very important - keep good records.

I was freelancing for a paper on a regular basis and they decided to change the payment agreement. AFTER I'd submitted several weeks worth of work.

I took them to small claims court.

I won.

It cost them more money than if they would have just paid what they owed me in the first place.

Did they every give you any work after that?

 

[I Digress]

Invoice. Records. No excuse to be paid less frequently than monthly. In fact, not sure how they can keep track of their own books if the don't have some sort of schedule for these kinds of payments.

 

[Dan Hickling]

I'd echo the thoughts about the record keeping...Things will go haywire with even the best of clients...so do be persistent, but do not napalm any bridges...I'd like it if shops operated the way plasma banks, do...cash on the barrel head. But the truth is that every place handles things in a different manner, and you have to allow for that. Thirty days from the date of invoice is reasonable...But this is important, always send an invoice. And make sure that you supply a purchase order no. (just make one up, I incorporate the date and client in mine). I hear from guys who are waiting for money from shops, and my first question to them is, "When did you send the invoice". Answer is usually, "I didn't send one"....

 

[playthrough]

Well said, Dan. I think there is a little bit of trust involved, for better or worse. In nearly four years of full-time freelancing I can think of one client (a magazine) who writes contracts and demands a signature before work begins. The overworked newspaper editor won't have time for that and might laugh you off the phone if you ask for your Friday nite stringer fee in writing or ask him to sign something before you go to cover a story.

It can be a fine line between being businesslike and being high-maintenance, with the latter being a turn-off that could hinder your ability to get more work. Can't emphasize the invoice thing enough. There's nothing wrong with turning in the invoice right along with the story, then following up if the check doesn't arrive after two weeks (two weeks has always been my baseline, seeing how many payroll depts work).

 

[In Exile]

Always know this: as a freelancer in any project, you will ALWAYS be the last one paid, so expect it.

 

[leglace]

I invoice my assignment editor weekly with dates, names of the assignments and price all listed. He turns those over to the accounting person who "pays when she feels like it." When I ask him about checks, he gives me her email address and tells me to "be polite." I understand most papers don't pay weekly, but I've never worked for a paper that did not have a set schedule for sending out checks. If she sends them out once a month on the 15th that would be fine but when I first started working for them last year, I think I filed stories for 3 months before I got a check. Unfortunately, I really need the gig or I wouldn't put up with it. I had a different gig for 6 years where freelancers were paid always on the first Tuesday of the month via direct deposit which was wonderful. I miss those days . . .

 

[SixToe]

"pays when she feels like it" is terrible.

If the SE tells you to be polite and won't help much, then you need to go to the EE or Publisher.

If I was that paper's publisher or comptroller, I'd be frightened if that's how she handles accounts.