Payment terms are the cheapest tool you have for getting paid on time. Most quotes either skip them, bury them in PDF small print, or use language that does not hold up when it matters. Here are the four clauses that do.
1. Deposit
A deposit gets money in the door before you start. It also tells you something about the customer: people who refuse to pay a deposit are often the same people who go quiet at the final invoice.
What to ask for depends on the job size. A common range is 25 to 50 percent for jobs over a few hundred pounds, with the rest split into milestones or paid on completion. For materials-heavy work, some trades ask for the materials cost upfront and labour on completion.
Sample wording:
A deposit of 30% is payable on acceptance of this quote. Work will be scheduled once the deposit has been received.
Common mistake: agreeing to start work "and we'll sort the deposit next week." Once you're on site, the leverage to chase it has gone.
2. Payment timeframe
The clause that tells the customer when they have to pay you, in writing, before the work starts.
Most UK trades use 7, 14, or 30 days from the invoice date. Shorter is better if you can get it. For consumer work (a homeowner), 7 days is reasonable. For commercial customers (a builder, a landlord, a letting agent), 14 to 30 days is common but you can negotiate.
Sample wording:
Payment is due within 14 days of the invoice date. Invoices not paid within this period are subject to the late payment clause below.
Common mistake: not specifying a timeframe at all. Without an agreed deadline, the law steps in and sets one for you: 30 days from delivery or notice of the debt for business customers, whichever is later. Customers often default to even slower than that.
3. Late payment interest
UK law already gives you the right to charge interest on late commercial invoices, but most trades never use it. Having the clause in writing on the quote makes it harder for a customer to argue when you do invoke it.
For business customers, the law is on your side. The Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 gives you the right to charge statutory interest at 8% above the Bank of England base rate. On top of that, you can claim a fixed compensation fee for each late invoice. The fee depends on the size of the debt: £40 for invoices under £1,000, £70 for invoices up to £10,000, and £100 for anything above that.
For consumer customers (someone hiring you for work on their own home, for example) the statutory right does not apply. You can still charge interest, but only if you have set it out on the quote and the customer has agreed to it. A typical rate is 2 to 4% per month, set in advance. Courts will reduce anything higher if they think it looks punitive rather than compensatory.
Sample wording (business customers):
Late payment will accrue interest at 8% above the Bank of England base rate, plus statutory compensation, in line with the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998.
Sample wording (consumer customers):
Invoices unpaid after the due date will accrue interest at 4% per month, calculated daily.
For the full process of when and how to invoke these clauses if an invoice does go unpaid, see what to do when an invoice goes unpaid.
Common mistake: charging interest you never put in writing. The statutory right for business customers exists either way, but getting it in writing on the quote makes the conversation much easier.
It is also worth knowing that the rules around late payment look set to tighten. In March 2026 the government confirmed plans to legislate stricter rules, including a hard 60-day cap on business payment terms and mandatory statutory interest. These changes are not law yet, but they show where things are heading.
4. Stop-work clause
A short clause that says you can pause the job if an invoice goes unpaid. Useful on bigger jobs with staged payments, where a customer can otherwise let an interim invoice slide while you keep working.
Sample wording:
[Your business name] reserves the right to suspend work on this project if any invoice remains unpaid 7 days after its due date. Work will resume once the outstanding balance has been settled.
Common mistake: not using it. Once you have suspended work once or twice, customers learn that you are serious about deadlines.
Where the clauses need to live
A clause is only useful if you can show the customer agreed to it. The strongest position is terms on the quote itself, visible, and signed or digitally accepted before the work starts. Separately linked T&Cs can also work if the customer was clearly directed to them before accepting, but they are weaker. Verbal terms or terms buried in long emails are weaker still.
The reason is simple. The contract between you and the customer is formed when they agree to the quote. Terms introduced for the first time on an invoice, after the work has been done, are not part of that contract. You can still send them, but if the customer pushes back, the court will look at what was agreed at the start, not what was added at the end.
There is one exception worth knowing about. If you have a long-running relationship with a customer and have consistently used the same terms on every invoice over many jobs, courts may treat those terms as agreed by habit. But for every new customer, the safe answer is the same: the terms have to be on the quote, before the work starts.
If a dispute ever comes up, the first question anyone will ask is: how do you prove the customer agreed to these terms? The cleaner the answer, the better your position.
Before you send the next quote, check
- Deposit amount and timing are stated
- Payment timeframe is stated (7, 14, or 30 days)
- Late payment interest clause is included
- Stop-work clause is included for staged jobs
- The terms are clearly visible and the customer can demonstrably agree to them
Trame shows the deposit and payment timeframe on every quote, with the agreed timeframe carrying through to the final invoice.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a separate contract, or are payment terms on the quote enough?
For most trade jobs, terms on the quote are enough, provided the customer accepts the quote in writing before the work starts. A separate contract is worth having for larger jobs, longer projects, or anywhere scope is likely to shift. The key is not the format, it is whether you can prove the customer agreed to the terms before the work started.
Can I change my payment terms partway through a job?
Only if the customer agrees in writing. The terms are set when the quote is accepted, and changing them mid-job needs the same kind of agreement. If costs have risen or scope has expanded, the cleaner path is to issue a revised quote covering the new work and have the customer accept it separately. Verbal agreements to change terms are rarely worth what they cost when a dispute comes up.
What happens if the customer signs the quote but adds their own terms?
This is the "battle of the forms" problem. If a customer accepts your quote but writes back with their own conditions attached, the contract is not yet formed. The terms that apply are whichever set was the last to be agreed to without further changes. The safe response is to address any new conditions before the work starts, not to assume your original terms still apply.
Do payment terms still apply if the customer cancels the job?
Yes, and they should explicitly cover this. A good payment terms clause includes what happens on cancellation: typically that the deposit is non-refundable once materials have been ordered, and that work completed up to the cancellation date is invoiced in full. Without that, you may struggle to recover anything if the customer pulls out late.
Getting paid: full guide series
- Why UK tradespeople get paid late, and how to stop it
- How to write payment terms that actually get you paid (you are here)
- What to do when an invoice goes unpaid
- How to chase a friend or referral for payment
- How to send a letter before action for an unpaid invoice
Trame helps UK tradespeople get paid on time. Quotes, sign-off, and invoicing in one place.
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