| 话题中的页数: [1 2] > | Poll: Which of the following payment terms do you most commonly accept? 论题张贴者: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Which of the following payment terms do you most commonly accept?".
This poll was originally submitted by Maja Źróbecka, MITI. View the poll results »
| | | | Gudrun Maydorn (X) 
德国
Local time: 04:35
English英语译成German德语
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| You are the service provider | Sep 26, 2012 |
It is not a question of which payment terms I accept. I am a self-employed translator/service provider, therefore it is me who sets the rates and the payment terms. I only accept translation jobs on my terms. Or have you ever taken your car to the garage and told the mechanics that they have to accept your payment terms if they want the job of repairing your car?
[Bearbeitet am 2012-09-26 08:41 GMT]
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Gudrun Maydorn wrote:
It is not a question of which payment terms I accept. I am a self-employed translator/service provider, therefore it is me who sets the rates and the payment terms. I only accept translation jobs on my terms. Or have you ever taken your car to the garage and told the mechanics that they have to accept your payment terms if they want the job of repairing your car?
[Bearbeitet am 2012-09-26 08:41 GMT]
and thanks for your input, however, from my experience I often have no room for negotiation, and the most common terms to which I work are actually up to 45 days. This is often due to the fact that some TCs have an automated invoicing system to cut costs and simply have one accounting period for all.
But you did not answer what your terms are?
Thanks
Maja
| | | | Grayson Morr (X)
荷兰
Local time: 04:35
Dutch荷兰语译成English英语
| Nominal vs. actual | Sep 26, 2012 |
I answered the poll based on what I put on my invoices: due upon receipt. In practice, however, my business clients often pay at 60 or 90 days, and I'm fine with that; it's pretty standard practice in the corporate world.
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| 30 days payment policy | Sep 26, 2012 |
Hi there,
I agree with Maja. Sometimes there's not room for negotiation, but you can always look for new customers and/or try to convince them due to your expertise in certain areas in order to negotiate higher rates instead. I tend to work with customers which have a 30 days maximum payment policy. I find longer terms simply unfair and unbearable.
| | | | Gudrun Maydorn (X)
德国
Local time: 04:35
English英语译成German德语
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| up to 14 days | Sep 26, 2012 |
Admittedly, this may be easier to achieve in Germany than elsewhere in the world...
| | | | neilmac
西班牙
Local time: 04:35
Spanish西班牙语译成English英语
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| Blood from a stone | Sep 26, 2012 |
It all depends on where the money is coming from. As a freelancer, I think it would be presumptuous of me to insist on a 30 or 60 day due date. Having spent many years living from hand to mouth, I understand that cash flow can sometimes be a problem for businesses. With smaller firms, it may be due to lack of liquidity, with larger ones, due to their business volume or internal processes, and with administration or universities and research institutions, the budget question is an ongoing laby... See more It all depends on where the money is coming from. As a freelancer, I think it would be presumptuous of me to insist on a 30 or 60 day due date. Having spent many years living from hand to mouth, I understand that cash flow can sometimes be a problem for businesses. With smaller firms, it may be due to lack of liquidity, with larger ones, due to their business volume or internal processes, and with administration or universities and research institutions, the budget question is an ongoing labyrinth, about which you'd better not get me started ....
So, my answer would be something like:
a) being paid immediately, or at 30 days, would be nice;
b) being paid at up to 60 days is still OK;
c) when approaching 90 days, I might start to get fidgety, that's if I haven't forgotten all about the blessed invoice in the interim;
d) I am usually even willing to wait for up to 120 days, but I reserve the right to rant and whinge about it to anyone who'll listen, or pretend to;
d) on occasion, I have even had to wait over a year for payment, from regional authorities and similar, but as they say in Spanish (including the quasi-ubiquitous errant comma) "las cosas del palacio, van despacio" ...
I always feel that when I put a "due date" on my freelancer invoice it is merely wishful thinking, a sort of translator's version of a letter to Santa Claus... ▲ Collapse
| | | | Julian Holmes
日本
Local time: 11:35
正式会员 (自2011)
Japanese日语译成English英语
Is the standard payment practice in Japan - bill at the end of the month, get paid at the end of the following month.
However, recently, I see more companies paying on the 10th of the month after next.
Just in case you decide to work for a Japan-based customer, all companies here are legally required to pay within 60 days of the end of the billable month and no later. Companies are also obligated by Japanese law to issue a PO if they are capitalized at 10,000,001 yen or more. ... See more Is the standard payment practice in Japan - bill at the end of the month, get paid at the end of the following month.
However, recently, I see more companies paying on the 10th of the month after next.
Just in case you decide to work for a Japan-based customer, all companies here are legally required to pay within 60 days of the end of the billable month and no later. Companies are also obligated by Japanese law to issue a PO if they are capitalized at 10,000,001 yen or more. Companies capitalized at 10,000,000 yen or less are not required to do so.
HTH ▲ Collapse
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Grayson Morris wrote:
I answered the poll based on what I put on my invoices: due upon receipt. In practice, however, my business clients often pay at 60 or 90 days, and I'm fine with that; it's pretty standard practice in the corporate world.
One of my best customers pays one or two days after receiving my invoice, most of them pay at 30 days, some at 60 or 90 days and one or two have to be chased...
| | | | Alexandranow
罗马尼亚
Local time: 05:35
Romanian罗马尼亚语译成English英语
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ProZ.com Staff wrote: This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Which of the following payment terms do you most commonly accept?". This poll was originally submitted by Maja Źróbecka, MITI. View the poll results »
I like to have the payment sooner, if a client is near ( same city so on...) and if the job was short. Same if it is a new client. But if the client is far and the job is great enough and well paid I might wait some more time, but I would work sooner for a client who pay sooner.
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neilmac wrote:
It all depends on where the money is coming from.
... it depends on where the money is going to as well.
Take this stance: A freelance translator giving a client any time to pay beyond COD is tantamount to that translator granting that client an unsecured loan.
Have a look at the table in http://www.worldinterestrates.info/ . It shows monthly interest rates in several countries.
Let's assume that the job involves a lot of post-translation work, e.g. DTP, video dubbing, printing, whatever. This means that even if the outsourcer were to be paid COD by the end-client, actual delivery would take place much later than they received the translation. Let us further assume that the client's cash flow doesn't allow them to pay the translator COD. To complete the exercise, let's assume that the translator needs the full amount receivable from their work forthwith, to fulfill some previous financial commitment.
Bottom line is that someone here will need a loan: either the client to pay the translator, or the translator to pay their debt. For calculations, let's assume that the translation job was worth USD 4,000.
If the party getting the loan is, say, in the USA, where the interest rate is 0.25%, this loan will cost USD 10.00 per month. However if the party getting the loan is in Brazil, where the interest rate is 9.0%, that very same loan will cost USD 360.00 per month! ... only thirty-six times more!
So I decided to separate translation costs from financial costs. I state my standard rates for payment within 14 days from delivery. This is adequate processing time for a translation outsourcer, just as I needed processing time to actually do the translation. If they want to pay me faster, they'll be entitled to the corresponding discount.
Bottom line is that if my client in the USA borrows money to pay me COD in Brazil and gets that discount, they'll be having an 8.75% profit from the difference in interest rates. Some are smart, see it immediately, and grab the opportunity; others are obdurate, Our policy is payment in 30 days (or more! - which I simply turn down), and miss it. It's a matter of being money-savvy.
Maybe for this same reason PayPal - since they set up their own operation in Brazil - delays payment by up to 1-2 weeks, on top of deducting 6.5% in fees + 3.5% in admittedly lower exchange rates. So, following the same principle (financial costs separate), my clients are entitled to a 10% discount if they use any payment method other than PayPal.
While I charge for everything I do and/or pay, I fight on my clients' side to lower their actual costs, whenver they allow me to do so. Yet some are equally obdurate about using PayPal and nothing else.
I don't see so much of a point in struggling to lower rates, when there are still other options to cut costs.
| | | | | Payment policies - small firms vs large firms | Sep 26, 2012 |
Small firms/sole operators are capable of paying on the correct date.
Despite having signed contracts with several companies based on my written conditions of 30 days' payment, more than once I have then come up against the accounting department, who tell me that they will only issue payments on certain days of the month, tending to be the last day. So, as many of us know, the apparent 30 days turn into anything up to 60 days.
I'm sure that if I added such an extensio... See more Small firms/sole operators are capable of paying on the correct date.
Despite having signed contracts with several companies based on my written conditions of 30 days' payment, more than once I have then come up against the accounting department, who tell me that they will only issue payments on certain days of the month, tending to be the last day. So, as many of us know, the apparent 30 days turn into anything up to 60 days.
I'm sure that if I added such an extension to my credit with my creditors I would never hear the end of it. ▲ Collapse
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neilmac wrote:
I always feel that when I put a "due date" on my freelancer invoice it is merely wishful thinking, a sort of translator's version of a letter to Santa Claus...
I couldn't agree more, but it is not only the case in the translation business. I see it elsewhere, too.
Direct clients are the best in this matter. They pY within a week or two. Once TC in Germany also pays me instantly. Majority at 45 days, though. One TC at 60 - a bit too long for me.
Maja
| | | | | 30 days is the average | Sep 26, 2012 |
Most of my clients pay on 30 days. The smaller agencies will pay on receipt. One or two will pay 45 or 60 days.
| | | | neilmac
西班牙
Local time: 04:35
Spanish西班牙语译成English英语
+ ...
| Different strokes | Sep 26, 2012 |
Antonio Contreras wrote:
I tend to work with customers which have a 30 days maximum payment policy. I find longer terms simply unfair and unbearable.
Just out of interest, I wonder if the prompt payers you mention are Spanish companies? Virtually all my clients are Spanish and I only have 3 who pay that quickly, while the rest are a nightmare....
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