Billing & Ethics
Billing & Ethics
Written by Jim Monday, 26 January 2009 15:35
In order to better acquaint our (current and future) customers with our billing practices, below is itemised the various factors that are used when calculating charges and handling invoices, including late fees. If you have any questions about the information listed (or not listed here), please Contact Us to voice your concerns.
The following document outlines:
Standard
Time is accrued in 15 minute increments. Any work done over a 15 minute increment will automatically be charged the next full 15 minute increment. Example: a 50 minute job will be billed as 60 minutes. The only exception to this rule is on-site work (see below).
On-site considerations
In the case of on-site calls, there is a half (1/2) hour pre-charge. This means that if service to the client is addressed in under a half (1/2) hour, the client will receive an invoice charge of half (1/2) hour. Any services rendered past the initial half hour will accrue with the standard time accruement technique.
Invoicing
Home Support
Invoices are created as needed upon customer request. Receipts are given on completion of job, and payment is expected either via credit card or in cash
Business Services
Contract customer Invoices are drawn up at the beginning of each month and notifications of new invoices are done via email only when time has accrued in the month prior. Notifications are sent to the project contact(s).
File Formats
Invoices are sent in Portable Document Format (.PDF). If you do not have a PDF reader, you can download and install the reader
free of charge directly from the Adobe website:
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Payments
Please do not send cash in the post. Payments should be done online unless otherwise specified.
Grace Period
The grace period on any outstanding balance is 1 month from the time of email notification of invoice posting.
Payment of invoice balances must be made within the defined grace period as failure to send payment within a timely manner will result in a 25% late fee against the outstanding balance(s).
Typically, if a payment has not been received by mid-month in which the invoice has been issued, a courtesy email or call *may* be made to ensure that you received your notification. Do not expect to ALWAYS get emailed / called. This is due to past issues with some client mail not being received in which case a resend of the original notification is done.
Please note that there are no grace period extensions due to missed emails or calls.
Late Fee
Definition
If the balance of any invoice is not received within the designated 1 month grace period, a 25% late fee will be added to the total of the outstanding balance and will appear on the following months invoice.
This fee may be changed at any time at the discretion of Sec IT. Active clients (those with service activity within the past 6 months) will be notified at least 2 weeks prior to the fee change. This page should be consulted for current late fee percentages and calculations.
Calculations
In the case of partial payments, the late fee will be applied to the unpaid balance(s). This fee will appear on your next month's invoice and will be recalculated every invoice cycle against the total unpaid balance from the month(s) prior including any prior late fees. In other words: for each 1 month interval that the unpaid portion of your balance is delinquent, an additional 25% will be applied to the outstanding balance(s). Example:
 |  | 1 month delinquent=balance+(balance x 25%)1 | |
| 2 months delinquent=balance+((balance+late fees1) x 25%)2 | ||
| 3 months delinquent=balance+((balance+late fees1+late fees2) x 25%)3 | ||
If a fee is left unpaid for greater than 3 months grace period, the debt will be passed to debt collectors at the discretion of Sec IT.
Clients are advised to mail out all payments at least 1 week before the end of the month to keep their accounts current and avoid any additional fees.