[Jonny jones]

hi guys

its getting worse on the builders, i am thinking as from now on i will be putting in my terms and conditions that i will need a 30% deposit on any quotes over £1,500.00

the thing is i do a lot of builders cleans and ive just gone through a bad patch with one of the biggest builders in my area, i was even wondering if i was going to be another statistic. but luckily they came through with payment this week. after a total of 75 days wait from invoice.

im doing more work for them at the moment and been awarded  another, but with a 45day payment wait, i just wondered because i would have a lot of layout with wages and material that a 45 day would is a long time to wait espesially if i get 2-3 in one month.

does anyone else ask for a deposit  when in reciept of order number. or how do you guys do it.

my point is that a lot happens to these companies in 45 days espesially these days

thanx jonny

[pdl]

I personally think you will be hard pushed to get a deposit from a Building Company. I have waited 90+ days for payment.  You must bear in mind they don't acually get paid until the property is sold, so they do not have the cash up front.  It's just a matter of controlling your cash flow.

[Pristine Clean]

I personally think you will be hard pushed to get a deposit from a Building Company. I have waited 90+ days for payment.  You must bear in mind they don't acually get paid until the property is sold, so they do not have the cash up front.  It's just a matter of controlling your cash flow.

Could not have put this better myself!

[Griffus]

I think that asking for a deposit will only work against you.

Best case scenario as I see it would be that they declined and remembered that during the hard times you put them on the spot. Worst case they'll just go elsewhere.

If you do ask then let us know how it goes. You may set a interesting precedent.

Best of luck.

[Jonny jones]

thanx guys

point taken

cheers jonny

[Ian Rochester]

Does anyone use the credit management software from Barclays Bank? We've just started using it and it's a really useful piece of kit, links to the internet and you can credit check all your customers prior to agreeing terms with them, it also allows you to request a solicitor to send letters to request payment.

Costs £120 per year

[gordonswindows]

Cashflow is THE most important thing in any business.

We too have contracts that started at 90 days credit and it makes things most difficult.

While you must control cashflow, we spend an hour EVERY morning projecting our figures for a month at a time to ensure the money is there not hopefully but will be, you must not let it dictate to you how much work you want.

It would be easy to just adjust the figures daily by one day but that is when you miss the unexpected.

Last year we took on a lengthly builder clean project that realy stretched us and even had us saying NEVER AGAIN but here we are this year cleaning a new scheme of 70 new builds.

The difference this time is we have agreed with the client that we will bill monthly for whatever work we have done instead of waiting till each unit is fully finished and as we have learnt to do, we did our belts and braces planning and showed the bank the agreed work before we accepted the contract and they have agreed an emergency overdraught if needed to complete the cleans.

Communicate with the client ,the bank,your suppliers etc etc and double check those figures daily and this present economic hiccup can be a time of solid growth for some.Things are slowing down but there is still a huge amount of work that needs cleaned.

Plan act and check then check again

[Jonny jones]

hi

good advice i will take it on board

many thanx jonny

[Ian Rochester]

Just possibly been stung for £1500 from a business that we did office cleaning for that has gone to the wall without any warning!!  Went around today when I heard and the place is all locked up, phone is disconnected.

I've just done a credit check on them with my new credit management interactive software from Barclays.  They've come out with a score of 92 out of 100 (100 being good, 1 being bad).

SO MUCH FOR THE CREDIT CHECK!!, Looks like it's going to be a small claim against the MD!!

B*st*rds!

[Ian Rochester]

Got letter through the post this morning, they've gone into voluntary liquidation!!

Didn't even have an incling that there were problems, we've been working for them for over 3 years on a 3 times weekly clean.  They were on a standard 30 day payment terms and always paid spot on 30 days.   In hindsight I suppose the first bell should have rang when they queried the September invoice on a very minor point (1 hrs labour), we resolved that, issued new invoice and were promised it would be paid at the end of November with the October invoice, never happened. 

We've now worked all of November and are unlikely to get paid for any of it.

Double B*st#rds!!

My wife does all our accounts, credit control, accounts receivable, etc, normally everything is under control, we know who owes, what they owe, when it's due etc and statements or letters are sent out at 30 days and every 7 days thereafter.   However, this was totally out of the blue and it makes you wonder who else that we deal with is having problems.

We run with a constant outstanding debt of between £40-50K, I would hate to think that there are going to be any more like this.

[jems]

we have a large builders contract with the bill about £15k to £20k pcm payment 60 days but profiyt margins good