I’ll never forget Christmas 2020. I was working exclusively for one client and had been for months. This had been WFH and the client was over the worst fears of Covid and had actually started to secure new clients because their software is generally in a sector that benefited from remote working. New exciting clients were mentioned and a huge rebuild and upgrade was in progress.
Then the email – in mid December (!) that cashflow was tight and they would be making no payments in December but would make payments sometime earlier in January.
It is now days from Christmas. The bills are bigger – kids presents, food, heating. Everything. And just like that – despite payment falling due on outstanding invoices, no more cash was coming my way. I can understand if cashflow is an issue but Christmas, really?
It is time that every company can be tracked from invoice raised and due dates through to payment made. I love the idea that if I and other suppliers connected to this (Payment Check – Ed) we could even see the spike at Christmas that year – maybe this would focus freelancers to use proper contracts and just maybe change company behaviour.