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I did a consulting job for my old boss with who I have a good relationship. He contracted me to do some work for him at an agreed upon hourly rate. I completed the project two months or so ago but he has been emailing back and forth with some additional minor questions. I haven't head from him in a couple of weeks.

It isn't a ton of money but I paid someone to do some of the more tedious parts of the job, so I am out a couple hundred dollars and a pretty big chunk of time. I would like to do more jobs like this in the future and would also liked to be paid. I know he is just busy and he isn't trying to get one over on me. What is the best way to email him to ask for payment while not hurting my chances of him to hiring me in the future. I was going to write:

"Dear [Name],

If you do not need anything else from me for this project I would like to discuss my payment."

I am uncomfortable sending that email but do know what to write.

EDIT: I do not have the hourly rate in writing but I know he will pay me I am more concerned with coming off as rude. I have not sent him an invoice.

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  • hourly rate Do you have this part in writing (including email etc.)? Do you have (or "can make") a detailled list of tasks including their duration and other costs?
    – deviantfan
    Jul 14, 2016 at 20:47
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    Have you sent him anything resembling an invoice?
    – brhans
    Jul 14, 2016 at 20:50
  • He said I will pay you $X an hour for this project and I said I could do it Y hours. He was fine with that, I just need a nice way to ask for payment. I know this sounds silly but we didn't talk a lot about money growing up so I get uncomfortable when talking about my own compensation.
    – user18101
    Jul 14, 2016 at 20:54
  • You don't have a contract with him, you haven't sent an invoice to him, and you're wondering why he hasn't paid you? Send an invoice ASAP.
    – PeteCon
    Jul 14, 2016 at 23:25

2 Answers 2

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Attached please find the invoice for the project we worked on. I greatly enjoyed this project and hope we can work on more in the future.

You can also include a line asking when payment will be made, but depending on how comfortable you are that may be better to put in a follow up letter.

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Have you submitted an invoice? I would work up an official invoice for the work and send it to him or the correct party. it is entirely likely that he may not even know you have not been payed, he could have expected you to submit the paperwork to their accounting department.

If you have invoiced and have not received payment then you should have something pointing you twords who is in charge of this kind of things and it can not hurt to write:

*Dear Bob, Hope we can work together soon, I am contacting you in regards to INVOICE# XXXXXX for $999.99. Would it be possible to recive an update on the status of payment on this invoice? If additional paperwork or other resources are needed on my side please feel free to contact me at XXX-XXX-XXXX and I will be happy to do anything necessary to escalate.

Hope to hear from you soon, Alex Spooner*

If you still don't receive a response You can send another request detailing the expected payment date based on your remittance information from the contract or invoice.

Dear Bob, Hope all is well with you. I am contacting you again in regards to invoice XXXXXX for $999.99. Reviewing the invoice it should have been remitted in full by xx/xx/xx yet I still show the balance in full. Is there additional information that was needed on my part to help fufill payment. Hope to hear from you soon, Alex Spooner

Then if you still do not hear back, not a company I might want to do work for in the future, you should cut the end and see if you can get payed or file a claim. If you have a contract and an invoice, you should go for it. If you have neither, everything above is null, get a contract and invoice it next time.

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