I want to clarify a few things with regards to late payments. Historically, I have suffered at the hands of unscrupulous payers but this year I am being more pro-active and using the legal rights available to me in the UK.
The invoices I write have stated, for some time, that "Payment is on receipt". The reason for this is that I have had instances of people taking a full 30 days and longer to settle an invoice. Adding "Payment on receipt" effectively starts the clock from when I issue the invoice and makes the client know that they should not delay in paying. From what I can make out putting something like "Payment within 30 days" would effectively make the invoice late, in the eyes of the law, 60 days after it was issued which is part of the reason I avoid this.
My question is, I know that I can levy a fixed charge and interest on a late invoice. Can this be charged 30 days after the issuance of an invoice? Is the issuance of the invoice (my invoice) technically when the 30 day "late payment" clock starts running?
Some background - I have a client who has been bought out by a larger company. One invoice is now late depsite chasing for two weeks. The original invoice was dated 21 Dec 2019.