Resources › Getting paid

Customers Not Paying? How to Get Paid On Time as a Tradie

By Luke Tadich · The Tradie Owner

You know the feeling. The job's done, the client's happy, they shook your hand on site and said they'd get it sorted this week. Six weeks later you're still checking your bank app every morning like it owes you an apology. Meanwhile your subbies want paying, the fuel card's due, and you're the one wearing the gap.

Here's the thing nobody tells you when you start out: getting paid isn't a collections problem, it's a set-up problem. By the time you're sending a follow-up text three weeks after completion, you've already lost. The fight for on-time payment is won or lost before you ever pick up a tool on site.

Stop financing your customers' jobs

Every dollar you spend on materials and labour before you're paid is a loan. You're the bank, except you didn't charge interest and nobody signed a loan agreement. Most tradies who are busy but broke aren't bad at trade work — they're accidentally running a finance company on the side, for free, for people who don't even say thanks.

The fix starts with a simple rule: you never fund a job out of your own pocket further than the client has committed to it. That means deposits, progress claims, and terms that are written down before the angle grinder comes out of the van.

Build the terms in before the job starts

This is the boring bit, and it's the bit that actually matters. Every quote or contract you send should spell out, in plain English, when money changes hands:

• A deposit before you start — typically 10–20% for smaller jobs, capped by law in some states for domestic building work (check your state's building and consumer affairs rules before you set the figure, it's not the same everywhere in Australia).
• Progress claims tied to milestones, not to dates — slab down, frame up, lock-up, practical completion. Money follows the work, not the calendar.
• A final payment on completion, due on a fixed number of days, not left open to whenever suits the client.
• A late payment clause — interest or a flat late fee after the due date, stated up front so it's not a surprise you spring on them later.

Say it out loud on the phone or at the kitchen table when you win the job, don't just bury it in fine print. Something like: 20% to lock in the start date, 40% at lock-up, and the balance on handover, seven days to pay. Most decent clients will just nod. The ones who flinch at that conversation are telling you something important before you've spent a cent of your own money finding out the hard way.

Use progress claims on anything over a week or two of work

If a job runs longer than a week or two, one invoice at the end is a mistake. Break it into claims that match real stages of the work. Not only does this protect your cash flow, it gives the client confidence — they're paying for what's actually built in front of them, not writing a blank cheque and hoping.

For commercial and larger residential work, most states have security of payment legislation (it goes by slightly different names — Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act in NSW, QLD, VIC and others). It exists specifically so tradies and subbies get paid on time, with a fast adjudication process if a payment claim is disputed or ignored. Learn the basics for your state. It's a legal right you're probably not using, and it moves a lot faster than small claims court.

The follow-up system: take the emotion out of it

Chasing money feels awkward because we make it personal. It isn't. It's an admin process, and the best operators run it like one — same cadence, same wording, every time, no exceptions for how nice the client seemed.

1. Day of due date — a friendly automated reminder (invoicing software does this for you). No drama, just a nudge.
2. 3 days overdue — a short, polite text or email from you personally, flagging the invoice was due and asking when it'll be sorted.
3. 7–10 days overdue — a phone call. Not a voicemail essay, a direct question: what's stopping this getting paid today? Listen to the answer, it usually tells you whether it's a cash problem or a stalling problem.
4. 14+ days overdue — a formal written notice referencing your contract terms, the late fee if you have one, and your next step (security of payment claim, debt collector, or stopping further work).

Put dates in your calendar the moment an invoice goes out, so the follow-up happens on schedule whether you're flat out or not. The businesses that get paid fastest aren't the ones with the scariest debt collector — they're the ones who follow up like clockwork, every single time, so clients learn there's no benefit in dragging their feet with you specifically.

When to stop work on site

This is the conversation tradies hate having, and it's the one that saves businesses. If a progress claim goes unpaid past its due date, you are entitled to down tools until it's settled — assuming your contract says so, which is exactly why you write it in up front. Downing tools isn't burning the relationship. Continuing to work for free is what actually burns your business.

I've had to make that call. It's uncomfortable for about ten minutes and then it's just business. A client who genuinely can't or won't pay for work already done was never going to pay for the work you haven't done yet either — better to find that out early, with less of your money on the table.

The real fix is upstream

I built and scaled a trade business from the tools up, and the biggest single change to our cash flow wasn't a better debt collector — it was fixing the front end. Better contracts, real deposits, progress claims that matched the work, and a follow-up system that ran itself. Chasing money is what you do when the set-up has already failed. Get the set-up right and there's a lot less chasing to do.