One of the hardest things to deal with in private/independent practice is late payment (or failure to pay at all). I’m not recording this episode because I think I am an expert on it. I am recording this episode because I think it is something that gives us all lots of anxiety, makes us doubt ourselves a lot and generally feel gross. 
When I started out I had a fantasy that all the other psychologists and therapists in independent practice out there were managing to be 100% ethical, 100% compassionate and 100% successful in business all at the same time. In my head you were all literally 300% people. It is only from experience, and forcing people to have uncomfortable conversations with me over wine and coffee that I have realised that the reality is we all feel like we are failing on one of these metrics when certain thorny business issues come up.
I hope sharing my experience and thoughts in this episode will help some of you to come up with a procedure that you are happy with for dealing with late payments. Having a system that you simply repeat, even when emotions are running high, has made a big difference to me and, much to my suprise, I think it is actually better for clients too. 


In the first 12 months of my practice I got “ghosted” all the time. Someone would sign up for therapy, turn up to a couple of appointments and then disappear off the face of the earth, usually leaving an invoice outstanding. It was painful, made me feel like an awful therapist, made me worry for their welfare and meant that even when I was “fully booked” I could actually lose money. I’ve talked in a https://psychologybusinessschool.com/the-business-of-psychology/how-to-set-your-fees-in-your-psychology-private (previous podcast about how financial insecurity can impact on the quality of your work) and I noticed that whenever this happened the emotional and financial worry would have a huge impact on my ability to offer good therapy. 


So I decided to do something about this and consulted with a mastermind group that I was part of at the time. This was a very useful group which included people from a range of professions from retail, social media managers, website designers to accountants and writers. 


Have a clear DNA policyWrite a clear DNA policy including who you are going to contact and when (for more on this check out my https://psychologybusinessschool.com/the-business-of-psychology/6-key-policies-contracts-you-need-in-a-psychology-private-practice (episode on key policies for your practice)) 


Ask for upfront payment Get payment at the time of booking as often as you can - https://writeupp.com/default.aspx?refid=7168 (WriteUpp) is practice management software that allows you to add on a booking system that gets people to pay upfront for therapy sessions, https://calendly.com/ (Calendly )can also do this. Organisations are also used to paying for consultancy in advance and will negotiate with you if they need to change their terms so don’t be afraid to ask for upfront payment. 


Outsource late payment/financial follow upCreate a seperate email account (or hire a VA) called admin@yourdomainname.co.uk and make sure all emails relating to invoicing come from someone else (even if they don’t really). This helps preserve the therapeutic relationship and helps take some of the emotional heat out of the situation for both of you. Anecdotally I have also found insurance companies are more responsive to my assistant than to me. 


Set up automated late payment remindersIf you use accounting software like Xero, FreeAgent or QuickBooks, set up automated reminders to go out when invoices are overdue. If you don’t then make sure you set aside time every week to chase any overdue invoices. It should be as important as a client in your diary.


Consider payment plans for late paying therapy clients and companiesConsider payment plans. It is helpful to have a compassionately worded