Paying Bills Customs

[Learning]

Many businesses I deal with have their set routine for paying their invoices. Such as 14 days to process, with payment on the 20th. So if you get your invoice in on the 7th you won't get paid until the 20th of the following month. Fronterra use to be 90 days!

[Perry]

It was in one of his books that Dolf de Roos mentioned the benefits of paying on invoice, rather than leaving it till the last / due date for payment. One of the things he mentioned was the pathetic interest that might be earned, compared to the good reputation earned with suppliers who came to appreciate that they would be paid and paid promptly. And that may mean getting higher priority service when there was lots of work on. I know that works, based on past experience.

I once had a plumber arrive for a job quoted @ $3k. I handed him $1k when he arrived on the job. He never had any difficulty finishing that job in a timely way.

If you can, paying in full on invoice seems to me to have some benefits and few negatives.

[Learning]

I think there is a difference between sole traders/small business and large corporations. I'm far more likely to pay a hard working tradie promptly than a faceless, electronic voiced national/international entity.

[Perry]

Well, as mentioned at the start of this thread, there's always the benefit of handling the piece of paper (e-invoice) once only.

[mrsaneperson]

Mine are always automatic deductions ex. water, power, sky etc from a credit card this way i get the benefit of points systems that those cards operate. Only Spark charge an additional credit card fee so for them i have it taken directly from the bank account. I pay the rates manually online as those are such very large figures.
Trades people email me invoices i always pay straight away , that way its done & dusted.

[Peter Griffin]

Do you pay the tradies via the credit card account?

[mrsaneperson]

Do you pay the tradies via the credit card account?

Generally not , but I had a plumbing outfit recently who asked me my credit card details before coming out. Then i presumed that they would be taking the invoice money from the credit card automatically but instead they still preferred their customers to pay direct .As it was i told them you already have my card details please go ahead and deduct so they did.