Advice please - company I work for wanting to change when I get paid

Treacle1983

HAD MY MEETING NOW - thanks for the advice. Will be staying as getting paid three months in advance and have new written contract in place confirming 3 months notice by either party to cease the work or change terms.

I'm after some advice please.

BACKGROUND
I'm self employed and my main contract which is 40 hours a week gets paid quarterly in advance into my bank account

I take on 5 hours of other work a week as well as occasional other work and media work which is why i'm classed as self employed.

To start with my main contract paid me monthly in advance and this was agreed and I have a written contract which also confirms they'll give me 3 months notice should they wish to no longer use my services and i've agreed the same notice period in return.

Since May last year they asked if they could pay me quarterly OR go on their books as an employee. After looking into this I decided to stay self employed and get paid quarterly as I work from home and the tax and n.i benefits are in my favour this way

This quarterly pay is in advance as agreed with them in writing - so for instance i've just put in my invoice for may, june, july now and will get that paid mid week next week.

PROBLEM
My boss has got a bit funny with me when it comes around towards invoice time and payday and rather than in advance i'm getting paid about 1-2 weeks into the first month of the payment period. So for example my pay for may, june and july will be with me on the 8th of may.

I've started having to email and chase payment a little as it always seems a little late and we've got differing opinions on the 'in advance' bit

He also has concerns that i'm reliant on the 3 months money and always asking when it will be with me when it should last me the full 3 months.

He now wants to put the money into an eskrow account which would release the money to me monthly.

I'm not very happy about this - surely my personal finances have nothing to do with him and i'm entitled to enquire when to expect the money?

I have a phone conference with him tomorrow and would like some advice on how to word things as I really don't want my pay differently - I just want him to be a little more prompt and pay on time so I can organise my bills better and not have to keep moving the dates of direct debits.

CFC

If I employed a contractor I wouldn't be wanting to pay in advance, especially 3 months in advance. It harms cash flow and is also a risk in case you should fall sick or run off with the moolah and not deliver.

I suspect that is the real issue here which you might need to probe.

Funky_Bold_Ribena

Usually self employed people do the work first, and then invoice. On 30 or 60 day terms. I suspect his accountant has gone bezerk and he is trying to backtrack on the terms. At any point, they can renegotiate those terms so I suspect your quarterly in advance payments are a thing of the past now.