reporters paying their proofreaders

[Linda]

Two questions:  1) How often should proofreaders bill reporters?    2)How long does it "normally" take for reporters to pay their proofreaders after receiving an invoice?  Thanks!

[Michele Savoy Parente]

Hi Linda,

I would say a proofreader/scopist usually bills once a month, but some bill through PayPal when the job is completed.  In turn, I would think a reporter should pay said bill by 30 days.

[Patricia Babits]

Mine bills once per month and asks to be paid within 15 days of receiving the bill.

[Marge Teilhaber (TILE hobber)]

I pay my proofreader either the night she sends me the corrections or the next day.  I prepare her bill and email it to her it with the payment info (date expected to arrive and confirmation number supplied by my bank as part of their online bill payment).  I have a template for her bill which makes it easy for me to note what day and time I sent her each section so I can pay her the proper rate for each section.  Or, if I'm lucky, I send her the whole job at one time and it's the same rate for the whole job.  Much easier for me but not always possible.  I have never written her a check and wouldn't expect either of us to give up whatever percent with paypal.  Online bill payment is the best thing ever!

[Michele Savoy Parente]

I so agree with you, Marge.  The PayPal charges take a big chunk of money.  I have one excellent scopist that uses PayPal.  I've suggested to her other means of me making payment, but it wasn't until she was doing her taxes and realized that she had about $400+ in PayPal charges that she decided not to use it anymore.

Several years ago, when work was really slow, I used to sell things on eBay.  This was before the economy tanked.  I was amazed at the stuff I would list that would sell.  I started a side business of selling things for other people.  Then eBay fees and PayPal's fees made it not worth the time.

[Marge Teilhaber (TILE hobber)]

Yeah, the last line of my post should read, "Online bank bill payment, which is free and most if not all banks offer, is the best thing ever."  You can set any person or organization up as a payee by giving name, address, and phone.   When you owe someone money, just log on, go to "bill payment," scroll down to the payee, write the amount, write some details of the payment in the memo portion, note the "pay by" date and confirmation number and record it where you record such things, and done.  

What a shame that eBay and PayPal fees make the effort not worthwhile.  I bought my first ThinkPad from Robert Bogutsky on PayPal but the second time, he asked me if I wouldn't mind paying him directly to save the fee and of course I didn't and he's now one of my payees.  Yes, I lost my credit card points because I always pay via credit card when using PayPal, but I certainly understand him wanting not to give up any of my payment to PayPal and so was happy to to comply.

[Michele Savoy Parente]

Thanks for that info, Marge.

I'm definitely going to pass along that information. :D

 

[Rhonda Hall Breuwet, RDR CRR CLR]

to be paying fees on PayPal, y'all must be checking the wrong boxes.  I pay a scopist through there, and I just check that it is money owed.  No fee.

[Janet]

I pay scopists through PayPal with no fee too.  I thought the same thing, Rhonda.

 

As long as the person sending the money is having it withdrawn from their bank account and chooses the personal tab, payment owed, there's no fee.

[Judy]

I think there might be a limit how much money you can send that way.  I'd been transferring money to my kids using the Personal tab with no fee to either of us and all of a sudden it's starting to charge a fee to ME to transfer to them. 

[Linda]

You spoiled me, Marge.   I sure was grateful for that quick payment of yours!!!   :)

[Marge Teilhaber (TILE hobber)]

It's more for me, Linda, that I do it that way.  I hate have loose ends.  I pay, email the invoice, print it for my tax records, note it in my 2012 taxes file under "proofreading" and put the invoice in my 2012 Proofreader envelope and DONE.   Very relaxing to not have that as another item on my to-do list.

[Kerry F]

I pay proofreaders within 30 days or sooner, when I can.  I have to wait usually at least 30 days for payment on my jobs.