Practice Management Member Conversations

Good point! We do the work and typically bill monthly, so nearly a month can go by from the time the work is completed before we even invoice. Then we grant 30-day terms and they take 45-60 days. It could be nearly 90 days after completing work that we get paid - if we're lucky!

The Practice Manual used to have a form letter to submit when a phase of work or milestone was compete requiring the client to sign off that they approved the previous work and were requesting the architect to proceed on to the next phase. We added a sentence about authorizing payment for work to date. We submit the letter with our invoice for the previous phase so there is no delay.

We also started twice a month billing for some clients. We found that several of our clients actually paid bills twice a month.

We then worked with our more established clients to better understand their accounting cutoff and payment dates. We found our larger clients had printed schedules with this information. We would time our invoicing to coincide with their approval process and payment dates.

Many of the replies have stated some version of "no pay" "no work" and this is essential advice. For some reason it is very hard for some architects to decline when a client is pressuring you to work for free, I can testify with confidence that working for free does not pay the house payment...and your clients know that. Don't let them commoditize you. Be professional and courteous abut asking for money. It may sound counterintuitive for some, but you will gain their respect over time.

Be a good "secretary" and require signed contracts prior to starting new projects, require sign off and payment when you move to the next phase. My previous firm operated on a retainer for private clients. If they were to get behind, I would burn retainer. When the retainer was exhausted, I would stop work if they hadn't paid.

Hope this helps!