A trade business does not usually fail because the work dried up. It fails because £14,000 of finished work is sitting in other people's accounts while the merchant, the van and the tax bill all want paying this month.

Profit is an opinion until the money lands.

Structure the payments before the job starts

Nearly every payment problem is decided before you pick up a tool, by what you agreed and how clearly you said it.

Take a deposit

A deposit does two things: it covers the materials you are about to buy with your own money, and it tells you the customer is serious. Somewhere around 20–30% is normal for a domestic job with a real materials bill. For a job that is almost all labour, a deposit matters less.

Say what the deposit is for, and say what happens to it if they cancel. In writing, before it is paid.

Stage the rest

On anything running longer than a week or two, split the price into payments tied to visible progress — first fix, second fix, completion — rather than to dates. Progress is something you can both look at. A date is an argument waiting to happen.

The aim is simple: never be more than one stage out of pocket. If they stop paying, you stop working, and the most you have lost is one stage.

Put your terms on the quote

Not a contract from the internet. Five lines on your own quote will do:

  • what the price covers, and what it does not
  • the deposit, and when the balance is due
  • the payment stages, if there are any
  • how long they have to pay — 7 or 14 days for domestic work
  • that extras are priced and agreed before they are done

When they accept the quote, they accept those terms. That is the moment your position is strongest, and it costs you nothing.

Invoice properly, and immediately

The single biggest cause of slow payment is slow invoicing. An invoice sent the day you finish gets paid sooner than one sent a fortnight later, when the job is no longer fresh and the pleasure of it has worn off.

Make it easy to pay: bank details on the invoice, a clear total, the job described the way the customer would describe it, and the due date written as a date rather than "30 days".

When it goes past the due date

Chasing is a process, not a mood. Keep it even and keep it in writing.

  • The day after: a short, friendly message. Assume it was overlooked, because usually it was.
  • A week after: a call, followed by an email confirming what was said and when they promised to pay.
  • Two weeks: a formal reminder, with the invoice attached again and a stated date by which you expect payment.
  • Thirty days: a final notice saying what you will do next, and a date. Then do it.

Every message stays polite. Politeness costs nothing and keeps you in the right if it ever goes further.

What the law gives you

Here is the part most tradespeople do not know, and it depends entirely on who the customer is.

Working for another business

If your customer is a business — a builder, a contractor, a landlord company, a shop — the Late Payment of Commercial Debts legislation applies. When an invoice is late you can charge:

  • statutory interest, which is 8% above the Bank of England base rate, running from the day after payment was due; and
  • a fixed sum for the cost of chasing it — £40, £70 or £100 depending on the size of the debt; and
  • reasonable costs of recovering the debt beyond that fixed sum.

You do not need it written in a contract. It applies unless you agreed something else. Most trades never claim it, and a single line on a reminder — that statutory interest is now running — moves more invoices than another polite email.

Working for a householder

That legislation does not cover consumers. With a domestic customer you rely on the payment terms in your own quote, so those five lines matter more here, not less. Include a late payment charge in your terms if you want one.

If it still does not get paid

The small claims route is designed to be used without a solicitor, online, for a modest fee that you can add to the claim. Before that, a letter saying you intend to start a claim, with the figures set out, is often the last step needed.

For larger sums, or where the job is disputed, take proper advice first.

The habits that prevent all of this

  • Price and agree extras before doing them. "While you're here" is how a £3,000 job becomes a £4,200 argument.
  • Confirm the variation by message. A one-line text with a price, and a "yes" back, is enough.
  • Know your ageing. At any moment you should be able to say what you are owed, by whom, and for how long.
  • Stop working for a bad payer. The customer who paid late twice will pay late a third time.

How Nule helps

  • A quote that becomes a job when it is accepted, with the terms attached to it.
  • Invoices raised from the finished job, so nothing done gets left off.
  • What is owed, what is overdue and by how long, without opening a spreadsheet.
  • The tax on what you have actually been paid set aside as you go.

The job is not finished when you pack the van. It is finished when the money clears.

This is general information about how payment works in the UK, not legal advice. For a large or disputed debt, get advice specific to your situation.

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