Tip five: FOLLOW UP. When corporate customers that are in good standing don’t pay, 99% of the time it is simply because your invoice did not make it thru all the correct channels to be paid. The first invoice will always be the hardest to get paid because you are not in their system. Some companies won’t pay anything until they have a W9 for you on file so send one along with your very first invoice. Your first call for a past due invoice should be to your key contact and see what they can do to shepherd it thru the system. Often there is a sequence of approvals that is held up by one person and it just needs a bit of love to push it along. The next step if your invoice is still not paid is to call and ask for the Accounts payable department. Tell the AP contact that you are inquiring on an invoice you submitted and are calling to check to see if they are showing that in their system. Typically if it is they will tell you when it will be paid and if not they will ask you to send it to them and often they will help get the proper sign offs.
