Guide
2026-10-22
Net 30 often starts when they receive the bill, not when you sent it
Emailing a project manager on Friday does not start a 30-day clock if accounts only counts a bill once it is in the portal.
Your invoice says due 30 days from the invoice date. Their policy says due 30 days from the date accounts receives a valid bill. Both sentences can be true, and you will still get paid on their sentence.
An email to the project manager on Friday at 4:40pm is not “received” if the manager forwards it Monday and the clerk enters it Tuesday. Their day 1 is Tuesday. Your day 30 and their day 30 are four days apart before any backlog.
Get a received date in writing
Ask for the voucher number, the portal ID, or the date the bill was entered. “Got it, thanks!” from the person who hired you is not a received date. Accounts did not say it.
If the portal rejects the PDF for a missing PO, the received date does not start until the corrected PDF is accepted. Fix the field the same day and ask them to confirm the new entry date. Every quiet day in between is added to the wait, and it is not lateness yet.
A calendar you can actually chase
Invoice emailed Friday 2 May. Entered in the portal Tuesday 6 May. Their net 30 ends Friday 5 June, not Monday 1 June. Put 5 June on the due. A reminder on 2 June reads as early to them and late to you. Send the check-in on 2 June only to ask whether it is on the 5 June run, not to call it overdue.
Call it overdue the first business day after the received-date deadline, and say which date you are using. “Portal entry was 6 May, so I have this as due 5 June. It was not in today’s payment. Which run is it on?”
Put the date where you will see it
On the JobPay due, use their date if you want the reminder to land when they can still add you to a run. Keep your original invoice date in the note so you remember what the PDF says.
If they will not tell you the entry date, chase the project manager for the forward, not the clerk for money. You are still in intake. Money language before intake is finished gets filed under “vendor does not know our process.”
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