The Job Is Done. The Money Still Hasn’t Arrived.

The Job Is Done. The Money Still Hasn’t Arrived.

Late payment doesn’t always start with an argument.

Quite often it starts with a perfectly friendly WhatsApp.

“Thanks, everything looks good. I’ll EFT you on Friday.”

Friday comes and goes.

On Monday you send another message.

“Morning, just checking if payment went through?”

Now you’re chasing money for work you’ve already done.

That gets uncomfortable quickly when you’re running a small contracting business. You’ve used fuel, paid labour and probably carried some material cost. The next job doesn’t wait because the previous client hasn’t paid yet.

A lot of that trouble can be reduced before anybody gets to site.

Put the payment arrangement on the quote.

If there’s a deposit, show the amount.

If a larger job will be paid in stages, the client should be able to see when those payments become due.

If the final balance is payable once the agreed work is complete, write that down too.

Contractors sometimes get strangely shy about this part of the quote. They’ll give the client half a page explaining the materials and then leave payment terms as something to discuss later.

Later is normally when the misunderstanding starts.

Say you need a deposit because you’re ordering tiles, fittings or other material for the job. Tell the client that when you send the quote. A deposit is much easier to understand when the customer knows what needs to be bought before work starts.

Bigger jobs need a little more thought.

Leaving a very large balance until the end can put you in a bad position if payment gets delayed. Asking the client to pay too far ahead of the work can make them uncomfortable too.

Break the job into stages that make sense for the actual work you’re doing, and agree on them upfront.

Extras need to be dealt with while you’re still on site

This is where invoices get messy.

The client asks you to do one more thing.

It’s small, so you do it.

Then another thing gets added the next day.

By the end of the job you’ve done several thousand rand worth of work that wasn’t on the original quote, while the client still has the original total sitting in their head.

Don’t leave that conversation for the invoice.

If somebody asks you to add something, send the price before you do it where practical.

A normal WhatsApp is enough:

“I can add that. It wasn’t included in the original quote and will be an extra R1 600 including the material. Let me know if you want me to go ahead.”

There’s nothing fancy about it.

The client knows the total has changed and you have a record of what was agreed.

The same applies when something unexpected is uncovered during the job. If opening a wall exposes damage that could not reasonably have been seen beforehand, explain what you’ve found and what it means for the price before carrying on with the extra work.

Then there’s the end of the job.

If the client has snags, deal with them properly.

Get a clear list instead of letting three different WhatsApp messages float around with different things mentioned in each one. Work through what was agreed, finish it, and make sure both sides know when the job has reached the point where the final payment is due.

Invoice at that point.

Not four days later because you got busy.

Contractor admin has a habit of getting pushed to Sunday evening. Meanwhile the client can’t pay an invoice you haven’t sent.

Keep a simple record of what is outstanding as well.

It can be proper accounting software, a spreadsheet or whatever works for the size of the business. The important part is knowing which invoices are due without having to scroll through old WhatsApp chats and reconstruct the month from memory.

If somebody sends proof of payment, check that the payment has actually reflected before marking the invoice as settled. If it hasn’t reflected yet, treat it as pending until it does.

And when a payment is overdue, follow up while it is still a normal admin conversation.

Something like:

“Hi John, just checking on invoice 118. It was due yesterday and I can’t see the payment reflecting yet. Let me know if you need me to resend it.”

If the agreed payment date keeps moving, your follow-up can become firmer.

What you don’t want is to leave it for two or three weeks because you feel awkward about asking, then start the conversation already frustrated.

For DadBod jobs, keep the agreed quote, changes and payment process where they can be properly tracked instead of letting the important parts of the job disappear into side conversations.

Get the money side clear while the relationship is still good. It’s a much easier conversation before the job than after the fourth “I’ll pay you tomorrow”.