Money Runaround and Allowance Docking

Collecting from clients has to be one of the worst aspects of being self-employed. It's not bad when times are good and money comes in at regular, or at least semi-predictable, intervals. When times are tough, it's simply nerve wracking.

Remember the big, bad project? That's the project where I averaged 50 hours per week on that job alone, in addition to the work I did for other clients. That's also the same project that, during the final week, I put in almost 70 hours of client-billable time.

I still haven't been paid for the job, even though the invoice was sent due on receipt. When I spoke to their A/P (accounts payable) clerk last week, he told me he was going to send the check out right away. I called yesterday and wasn't able to reach him, so I e-mailed the organization's president. She e-mailed a reply saying she'd get back to me, but when I didn't hear back this morning I decided to call again.

I called the A/P clerk this morning and was told the check hadn't been sent because the president hadn't given the okay to pay the invoice.

WTF?

I left two voice mails for the president (one at her office and one on her cell phone) explaining the problem. I reminded her that we had gone to considerable effort and expense to deliver a completed project on the substantially-shortened deadline, and that we'd really appreciate prompt attention to our invoice.

I wish that this were our only payment woe, but it seems that FosterEema's new contract is likely going to take the full 30 days to pay. When we signed the contract, the client said that they'd "try" to pay sooner, but that they wanted the extra wiggle room since they use a bookkeeper to pay all their bills, and she works part-time. We found out yesterday that the bookkeeper is on vacation, so nothing can be paid until she returns at the end of the month.

Likely our next check will come from our main client, who usually pays us around the middle of the month. So, unless we want to break our rule of credit card spending, or borrow from our savings account that contains our estimated tax payments, we'll have to figure out how to make due with $60 cash, plus my $61 leftover allowance, and the remaining $3.73 in our checking account.

Oh yeah, and we forgot we are supposed to host a July 4 party.

Danielle isn't here, and I'm tempted to take back the $20 allowance check I left on her desk. I'm tempted to use the excuse that since she's lost the use of her cell phone for several weeks, we should not have to pay for it. She lost her phone shortly before school let out because she had a meltdown, and didn't get it back on schedule because she punched me. She had it for only a few days before we confiscated it again in response to Father's Day, when she threatened to call 911 and report us for abusing her. Given her most recent explosion over being asked to clean her stinky room, there are currently no plans to give her the phone back any time in the foreseeable future.

So, we certainly have a valid argument for docking her allowance. We shouldn't have to pay for her phone when her behavior has been so bad she's not allowed to have it.