Charging debtors interest???!

2% per annum or per month?

I think charging clients interest irritates them more than the good it does. If a client is a poor payer you would do better to consider getting paid before releasing documents.

If a client is a poor payer better to insist on payment up front or use a service whereby a thrid party pays you and allows the client to pay THEM by instalments. Premium Credit used to do this but I believe they require minimum of £50k invoices now.

Mark

OP has not given  us any idea of the amount or debtor days involved and that is important - materiality has to be judged

i dont like charging up front much either bit then i can be a little old school

I agree with others, after having tried it for a year or two back in the 90s, it's just not worth the grief.  In the majority of cases you calculate the interest after they have paid the bill then you send them bill for the interest (which in our case was <£20) and have another credit control balttle over months collecting that.

For really bad payers, where you are about to consider court action, we'd send the draft claim form to give them one final chance, and insist they pay the statutory interest, ie to avoid the court costs and hassle.

Better still, agree the fees up front, ie at the start of the year and give them 10-12 months to pay it off, that way you can see from the start if you are going to have trouble and can just not start or complete the work till they pay.