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Do you request that your private clients pay immediately? Thread poster: Zolboo Batbold
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Zolboo Batbold 
Italy
Local time: 15:15
Member (2021)
English to Mongolian
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SITE LOCALIZER
Agencies have 30-60 days policies. How about private clients, like ordinary people? Do you require that they pay for the job done right upon delivery or do you give them some time for the payment? I'm talking small tasks worth 100-200 $.
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ATIL KAYHAN
Türkiye
Local time: 16:15
Member (2007)
Turkish to English
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I state on my invoice that my payment term is a maximum of 30 days. This is for everybody.
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| Not all clients are equal (to us) | Feb 26, 2022 |
Zolboo Batbold wrote:
Agencies have 30-60 days policies. How about private clients, like ordinary people? Do you require that they pay for the job done right upon delivery or do you give them some time for the payment? I'm talking small tasks worth 100-200 $.
For ordinary people: advanced payment whatever the amount.
For direct clients: 30 days from invoice date, end of month. (If the amount is large and the client is new, I may ask for 50% advanced payment.)
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Thayenga
Germany
Local time: 15:15
Member (2009)
English to German
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All my private clients pay within a couple of hours or maybe one day after receipt of the file and invoice.
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Some of my direct clients are international organizations, one or two pay a few days after receiving my invoice, others at 30/45 days or even longer, depending on their “payment circuit”. I worked for a few years as a sworn translator in Belgium and when I started I was told by an experienced translator to always ask for advance payment from ordinary people…
P.S. BTW all the agencies I work with pay at 30 days.
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:15
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Q. Do you request that your private clients pay immediately?
A. No. I specify my usual payment terms. If they want to pay me earlier than that, of course they're free to do so - and many of them do.
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Paul Lambert
Sweden
Local time: 15:15
Member (2006)
Swedish to English
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No, there are always terms. The best are 15 days, but mostly 30 days. Some have 45 days. The most I tolerate is 60 days, but certainly never before I do my work.
Frankly, the only reason I can think of demanding payment upfront would be if I don't trust the particular client to pay, but in that case, I would rather not work for an untrustworthy client.
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Peter Motte
Belgium
Local time: 15:15
Member (2009)
English to Dutch
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| Actually immediately | Feb 26, 2022 |
My private clients always asked for translations of sworn translations, and they paid when they came to pick up the translation.
There's nothing abnormal in that. Normally you always pay immediately if you buy something.
I see no reason to give them an translation and tell them they can just transfer the money later.
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Kay Denney
France
Local time: 15:15
French to English
I put the same terms on the bill, but they usually pay very quickly. My favourite client doesn't even wait for the bill, she pays the minute I deliver the work, as per the estimate I gave.
Not only does she pay fast, she also has me translate very beautiful texts for a very beautiful website, and even puts my name on the website too so I can refer potential clients to it.
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Joakim Braun
Sweden
Local time: 15:15
German to Swedish
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Always 30 days. Few of those jobs are for more than 500 EUR, though.
Usually private clients pay almost by return of post.
I've never had any payment trouble from private customers (hundreds so far).
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Paul Lambert
Sweden
Local time: 15:15
Member (2006)
Swedish to English
+ ...
| Oops. Maybe I got you wrong when you say "immediately". | Feb 26, 2022 |
I took that to mean that you demand payment upfront before you start work.
If you meant that you demand payment immediately upon delivery, then that is another thing. My own answer is still no.
Some do pay quickly, but nevertheless there are terms spelled out in the invoice.
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Robert Forstag
United States
Local time: 09:15
Spanish to English
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| Essentially, yes (i.e., upfront payment[s]) | Feb 26, 2022 |
Basically, I proceed in one of the following two ways:
1. For small projects (say,
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Robert Forstag
United States
Local time: 09:15
Spanish to English
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| Only part of my previous post [above] displayed | Feb 26, 2022 |
Strange.
Some new site feature?
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Stepan Konev
Russian Federation
Local time: 16:15
English to Russian
| Probably you used character < | Feb 26, 2022 |
Proz forum hides everything after the character < or >. You need to use a code, & l t ; or & g t ; (less spaces).
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 15:15
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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Zolboo Batbold wrote:
How about private clients ... do you require that they pay for the job done right upon delivery or do you give them some time for the payment? I'm talking small tasks worth $100-200.
I don't distinguish specifically between agencies and direct clients (and private non-business clients) w.r.t. payment terms. What I do is to estimate how much of a risk it is to trust that the client will pay, and then base my terms on that risk assessment.
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