How to keep control of staged payments and ensure your contract gives you the ability to manage your diary successfully.

So you offer staged payments which is brilliant as it allows your customer to have better cash flow and you to sign up that customer as they don’t need to pay you everything up front.

However you may find yourself in the position that your customer’s expectations and your own are often at logger heads with each other, how do you deal with that?

What are your customer’s current expectations when paying you upfront?

Your customer know they are expected to pay a % up front – that’s fabulous you both understand that. But then when is the next payment due?

Let’s have a look at the options and who has control of them.

Is it at first sign off? – Your customer controls when something is signed offer

Is it a set number of weeks after the first payment? – You control when this is

Is it a first sign off or a set number of weeks, whichever is first? – You both have a portion of control.

Your customer know they are expected to pay a % up front – that’s fabulous you both understand that. But when does that mean you will start the work?

Is it as soon as you receive the payment? – Your customer controls when something is paid.

Is it a set number of days after payment has been received? – You control when this is

Is it within a range of dates, to be agreed provided payment has been received within that date range? – You both have a portion of control.

Calendar – When is a booking confirmed?

It absolutely depends on how your contract is worded and how you want to run your business. If you are unsure whether your contract is saying the right things to your customer to keep you having the control of the relationship that you want, then book a free 15minute call with me and we can review that section of your contract to see if it written correctly.