Collect-o-matic!

Collecting money from recalcitrant clients is one of the most boring bits of being a freelance. The law does entitle you to interest and compensation from late payers. We also provide a much simpler tool for calculating these so you can send an additional penalty invoice yourself.

But if that fails, the National Union of Journalists can help its freelance members collect what's due to them. Often, one stiff letter avoids a trip to Small Claims Court - and, if it comes to that, the Union can often help its members there too.

This form is designed to help you - and NUJ staff - collect all the necessary information as painlessly and accurately as possible. That's why it's detailed. You may want to hang up the phone while you fill it in at your leisure, then re-connect when you click the [SEND...] button.

Information in tinted fields is required. Other fields may be required, depending on your answers. The whole point is to check that the union has the whole story to start with. You may want to start by taking a look at section 5.

If you use a modern "browser" program, it should check your entries to ensure that the Freelance Office gets all the information needed. It's supposed to be picky. And it will do most of the arithmetic for you. It should flag in cyan the fields it's filled in for you. You can still change them. Click here to stop automatic recalculation.

1 If you give your membership number, we'll be able to respond more quickly. The NUJ cannot help non-members collect payment, unless you belong to another International Federation of Journalists member union and have a problem collecting from a company in the UK or Ireland. If so, enter the name of the union you belong to in the "Branch" field.

2 It is always better to have a written record of what you agreed. Oral contracts are as valid as any other kind - it's just that they are, obviously, harder to prove. If you are proposing a contract to your client, see note 7.

3 Remember, you should add Value Added Tax if and only if:

1. you are registered for VAT; and
2. your client is in the same territory - i.e. the work is not exported.

4 Under EU regulations effective from August 2002, payment is due 30 days after your client became aware of how much they owed you, or after you delivered or did the work, whichever is the later. But this rule is overriden if you agreed a different due date when you took the work on. (See examples)

If payment is delayed beyond this date interest is payable at a penalty rate, plus compensation for debt recovery costs. See Late payers, your time is up for more details. In the UK the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 allows you to claim interest, but no compensation, on contracts made after 01/11/1998 - though Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) were exempt up to 01/11/2000. After filling in the relevant dates and amounts, click here for a detailed account of the interest and compensation.

So the EU backs up the NUJ's longstanding advice that the payment clock should start ticking as soon as the work is delivered. Publishers want to count from publication, which is one reason they set up so-called "self-billing" systems. The regulations authorise your union to act on your behalf against clients trying to impose contracts that circumvent the penalties. If you are an NUJ member and think you have been "offered" such a contract, contact the Freelance Office.

5 Really detailed contracts specify a "jurisdiction" - the country where you agree to go to court. This also decides whether you can claim interest and debt recovery cost compensation, and how much. As a rule of thumb, unless otherwise specified in a contract the jurisdiction is the country your client operates in.

Note: France and Germany are included for testing purposes only. I haven't been able to work out whether they have implemented the compensation that an EU Directive mandates.

If you find a problem or a solution, please tell me about it.

6 The NUJ recommends that when work has been commissioned and carried out satisfactorily according to the brief, it should be paid for in full. If publishers over-commission or change their minds, that should be their problem. Many publishers, however, offer "kill fees" of 50% to 67% in the hope you'll accept that, shut up and go away. Your having read this far may suggest otherwise.

7 The UK government advises including the following text on your invoices:

I understand and will exercise my statutory right to claim interest and compensation for debt recovery costs under the late payment legislation if I am not paid according to agreed credit terms.

8 Repeating some of Note 4 in more normal English... usually there is one of two stories to tell. Either:

• On 24/03/2012 you agree to do a piece of work - and you agree then and there how much you will be paid. You deliver the work, as agreed, on time, on 28/03/2012. So the clock starts ticking on this, the second date. The payment is overdue 30 days later, which is 27/04/2012. Or:
• On 24/03/2012 you agree to do a piece of work - and, say, you agree that you'll let your client know later on what the expenses are. You deliver the work, as agreed, on time, on 28/03/2012. But this time the clock doesn't start ticking until the client knows formally how much they owe. On Saturday 14/04/2012 you get around to invoicing for the work and expenses. Allowing the usual two working days for the post, your client is aware how much they owe you on the Wednesday, 18/04/2005. The payment is overdue 30 days after that, which is 18/05/2012.

Note that though this program knows about weekends, it doesn't know about state holidays. If the due date is counted from the date on which you sent an invoice, please adjust it if necessary.

So why do you need to tell this program when you agreed to do the work, although both stories seem to ignore that date? Because it determines what late payment regulations, if any, apply.

And remember that both these stories assume that your client didn't persuade you to agree some other payment terms, or vice versa.