Category: Late Payments

Freelance life undeniably has its perks. Working from wherever you want, around your own schedule, and truly doing something you love are just a few of the benefits of being freelance. But, as with every career path, it has its downsides too.

Lack of financial control is one of these downsides, more specifically, not getting paid on time is one of the biggest headaches for freelancers.

Chasing late payments is a freelancer challenge as old as time. If you’ve ever asked yourself the question- ‘what do I need to do to get clients to pay me promptly’? then you’re not alone. While clients may love the work you do, getting them to open the wallet often remains a bigger challenge.  

The problem of payments in a freelancer landscape

Global freelancing platform, Upwork recently published its US freelancer report which states that ‘living paycheck to paycheck’ and ‘not being paid fairly’, are two of the key challenges for freelancers.

In a world where almost everything is instant, we work with increasingly digital-savvy customers on a day-to-day basis, customers who like to keep things simple.

Did you know, the average millennial has an attention span of just 12 seconds?

That means, while your customers pinball their way through their working day time stops for you, as you draft yet another very carefully worded payment-chaser email.  

Working with an increasingly digital-savvy customer base also means, the best way to avoid late remuneration is to make that process and your payment methods as quick and friction-free as possible.

Coupay’s smart bank transfer provides you with a secure, encrypted link which enables you to take payment online for free (or at approx. 20p per transaction) and your clients to quickly and easily make an online bank transfer in just four clicks.

Here are our 4 ways you can use Coupay’s smart bank transfer software to help you regain control over your payment schedules.

Send a secure payment request by text message

Take payments over the phone, but in a totally new way. Clients and customers who know you well or have worked with for a long time will want to find the most efficient to pay you without spending their time on unnecessary admin. For clients who prefer using their phone to their laptop, sending your payment request via text might just be the most convenient and efficient option. For your tech-savvy, time-poor clients who like working on the move, a mobile bank transfer is a strong option and can truly trim down admin time for both you and your client. This is a particularly efficient option if you need to take recurring payments online without your client setting up a standing order or direct debit.

Embed your payment request link in an email

Of course, many of us still communicate via email when it comes to invoice payments. For a more desktop-friendly, slightly more formal approach, you could simply generate your Coupay payment request via the easy to use dashboard, copy it to your clipboard and hyperlink it within the text body of your email. This means that your customers can simply click the link from your invoice email or payment-chaser email which then guides them through to their business banking platform in just a couple of easy steps. This enables you to take payments in just a matter of four easy clicks for your customer.

Include it in your invoices

In addition to inclusion in your invoice email, it’s important to embed the Coupay payment request within the invoice as well. Our secure payment connector is designed for quick and easy inclusion in your regular or ad-hoc invoices. This one works in the same way as with an email, simply generate your unique payment link via the handy Coupay dashboard, copy the link and embed it in the ‘payment details’ section of your invoice to make the payment process more efficient for both you and your customers.  This way, your customers can check the invoice and then make payment instantly.

Align your Coupay account with QuickBooks

If you use QuickBooks accounting software to help manage your accounts and streamline your invoicing processes, you can now integrate Coupay’s secure link payment solution to work in tandem with your QuickBooks account. This means that the whole process can be fully automated for you, from our secure payment link generation to the sending and filing of your invoices and receiving payment in QuickBooks.

So while you can’t (unfortunately!) force clients to pay you on time, you can make it easier for your customers to significantly reduce time on the administrative process, giving them a more pleasing, more mobile payment journey than before.

Coupay’s mission is to make the payment process as friction-free and painless as possible, not just for you but also for your customers. Sign up now for a one-month free trial to see how our secure, friction-free Smart Bank Transfer system could work for you.

As a freelancer or small business owner, one of the biggest challenges is how best to spend your time. While prioritisation is mostly prescriptive as an employee, when you own the business, knowing what should come first is a different matter.

While many freelancers fall into a creative black hole, coming up with heaps of ideas or simply over-servicing clients, this is probably the most efficient way to throw your hard-earned money down the drain. The way you charge your clients and how efficiently you make use your time can have a huge effect on your bottom line.

But being a freelancer means having several different jobs, with multiple plates to juggle and daily learning and development all in the mix. Learning to be your own accountant, business administrator, sales and marketing strategist as well as your actual freelancer title means that you need to be able to sometimes step back to see the wood for the trees and maximise your time effectively.

But how do you cut through all the daily noise, filter out the bad habits and separate the profitable ideas from the ‘nice to have’ brainwaves? Over servicing clients is a freelancer challenge as old as time- here are some of our simple tips on how to strip it all back and start with the basics.