Tomás Cano Binder, CT Spain Local time: 22:19 Member (2005) English to Spanish + ...
Clarification
Dec 21, 2011
Loek van Kooten wrote:
Tomás, sorry, you can read "invoices" as "debts". It doesn't matter: even if an invoice has not been written yet, the debts can still be claimed.
Although it was ages ago (I can hardly remember what I looked like, although I know for sure that I had a lot more hair), I worked for a couple of years in accountancy for the Spanish branch of an international corporation.
Even if from the ethical and business points of view you do owe someone a job they did for you, from the accountancy point of view no debt exists until you have entered the invoice in your books.
From a fiscal/accountancy point of view, the agency did not have any liabilities towards the original poster at the end of 2010. If such liabilities were not recorded in 2010 (as a result of an invoice received before the end of their fiscal year), the company cannot change their records and official books now. They can however honour their business debt by accepting an invoice for FY 2011, which they can pay with no problem whatsoever. No tax authority will have any problem with that.
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Annamaria Amik Romania Local time: 23:19 Member (2008) Romanian to English + ...
Sure they can pay - if you invoice now
Dec 21, 2011
Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote:
They can however honour their business debt by accepting an invoice for FY 2011, which they can pay with no problem whatsoever. No tax authority will have any problem with that.
Not 100% sure about your last sentence, Tomás, because there is a rule (I am not so familiar with) that services must be invoiced by the 15th of the following month - however, it is possible that the regulation adds "unless otherwise agreed", so I am not quite sure about this.
That being said, nothing prevents them from paying now if you invoice now! I had an agency (within the EU) that didn't pay me for a small EUR 10 job in 2008 because they presumably couldn't make "such a small payment" - a stupid excuse. Anyway, they sent another small job two years later, and I reiterated our issue with that outstanding amount. We cancelled the old invoice and reinvoiced it in 2010 and they paid.
If your client is so scrupulous about accounting, why weren't they scrupulous enough to insist on receiving your invoice? Surely the uninvoiced services they received from you must be recorded in their top-notch, cream-of-the-crop management system...?
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Katalin Horvath McClure United States Local time: 16:19 Member (2002) English to Hungarian + ...
Invoice now
Dec 21, 2011
Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote:
They can however honour their business debt by accepting an invoice for FY 2011, which they can pay with no problem whatsoever. No tax authority will have any problem with that.
I agree.
Send an invoice with today's date. They will be able to deduct it as an expense as usual, for 2011 (if they pay before the end of the year).
They obviously did not deduct this expense for 2010, so they paid income taxes on the entire amount they received from their end client. Now, they can deduct it and pay less taxes this year.
If they are proper business people, they would see no problem with this. They already used your work (which was not paid for, so they technically did not own it, they may have breached copyright, too), so it is proper to make every effort to settle the debt.
If for administrative reasons they can't accept an invoice with a 2010 date (which is quite logical), they should allow you to submit an invoice now.
Katalin
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Oksana Zoria Ukraine Local time: 23:19 Member (2011) English to Russian + ...
Better hurry up
Dec 22, 2011
Katalin Horvath McClure wrote:
Send an invoice with today's date. They will be able to deduct it as an expense as usual, for 2011 (if they pay before the end of the year).
... and do it now, before Christmas, just not to leave it for the next year!
BTW, did you manage to invoice them for all the jobs you did this year? Better check it now, before 2012:)
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Alex Lago Spain Local time: 22:19 Member (2009) English to Spanish + ...
You need better software
Dec 22, 2011
Mikhail Kropotov wrote:
I use invoicing software, which is rather effective, but for some clients it still takes me about 3-4 minutes per job (on average).
You need to use better software then, I also have to enter those details and unless it's a new clients and I have to enter all their data I can issue an invoice in less than a minute. If I have to enter a new clients data it might take me 2 minutes to issue the invoice.
Mikhail Kropotov wrote:
This also helps me avoid sending 50-70 invoices per year to this customer, which would be very hard to keep track of both for them and for me.
We obviously have different approaches here also, no matter how many invoices I issue my software keeps perfect track of them and lets me know if they have been paid or if they are overdue.
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philgoddard United States Local time: 15:19 German to English + ...
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Dec 23, 2011
They should be grateful that you've taken so long to invoice them.
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