Here is a sentence that appears in thousands of freelance contracts and almost never gets pushed back on:
Invoices are payable within ninety (90) days of receipt.
Read it as the client's finance team reads it: "We hold the contractor's money for a quarter." You have delivered the work. They have it. You are financing their use of it, interest-free, for three months. If they pay late, longer. If you are a one-person business, that is not a payment term; it is a loan you did not agree to make, at a rate of zero.
What it actually costs
Suppose you bill $8,000 a month and every client pays Net-90. At any moment you are owed roughly $24,000 you have earned and cannot spend. If you cover the gap with a credit card or a line of credit, you are paying interest on the client's cash-flow preference. If you cover it by not paying yourself, you are paying it in stress.
Compare Net-30 with a 50% deposit: you hold $4,000 before you start, and the balance arrives a month after delivery. Same client, same work, a fraction of the exposure.
Why long terms are negotiable
Long payment terms usually come from a template, not a decision. Large companies default to Net-60 or Net-90 because their accounts-payable process is built around it, and the person hiring you often has no idea what the contract says about payment. That makes it one of the easier terms to change, if you ask specifically and early.
The people who lose this negotiation are the ones who never have it.
Four asks, in order of how often they work
- A deposit. "I ask for 50% up front and 50% on delivery." Deposits are so normal in freelance work that many clients expect them. For long projects, 30% up front with the rest on milestones is common.
- Net-30. "Could we make invoices Net-30? That is our standard term." Notice the phrasing: your standard, not a request for a favour. If they cannot do 30, ask what they can do, and trade it for a bigger deposit.
- A late fee. "Overdue invoices accrue 1.5% per month." You may never collect it, but its presence changes how the invoice is prioritised, and it gives you something to waive in exchange for prompt payment.
- Milestones. For anything longer than a month, break the fee into milestone payments tied to deliverables. Nobody is ever more than one milestone out of pocket.
Watch for the conditional payment
Worse than a long payment term is a conditional one:
Payment shall be due upon Client's acceptance of the Deliverables, which acceptance shall be in Client's sole discretion.
That is not a payment term at all. The client decides whether the work is finished and therefore whether you are paid. Ask for an acceptance process with a deadline: the client has five business days to raise specific objections, after which the deliverable is deemed accepted and the invoice is due.
State laws that may help
Some states and cities have passed freelance payment protection laws. As of this writing, New York State and Illinois, for example, both have laws commonly called "Freelance Isn't Free" acts that require written contracts above a threshold and set payment deadlines with penalties for late payment. Whether one applies to you depends on where you and the client are and on the size of the engagement, so ask an attorney licensed in your state. Knowing such a law exists is often enough to make the payment conversation shorter.
The script
Most of this fits in three sentences in your reply to the draft contract:
Two small changes on payment, if that works: a 50% deposit on signing with the balance Net-30 on delivery, and a 1.5% monthly late fee on overdue invoices. Everything else in section 6 looks fine.
Specific, polite, forwardable to legal. Clients often accept this.
Freelancer Shield is built to flag payment terms longer than 45 days, conditional payment and missing deposits or late fees, quote the clause, and suggest the ask. It is not legal advice, but it will make sure you have the payment conversation before you sign rather than ninety days after. Review a contract.
This article is general information for US freelancers and is not legal advice. Laws vary by state; confirm anything important with an attorney licensed where you work.