The Payment Conundrum

A Tongue in Cheek Presentation ©Dinesh Bareja under Creative CommonsVer. 1.0 / Sept 2010

The Payment Conundrum

A practical treatise on how to cope when faced with situations when clients expect you to work for love and fresh air

conundrum (noun): a riddle whose answer is or involves a pun; a question or problem having only a conjectural answer ; an intricate and difficult problem


Background

This has been put together by a distressed and hassled self.

I quit my job as I was not getting my paycheck in time and when I walked, I walked away from seven months dues.

So I started my own consulting practice and thought I would meet decent people who would respect my professional services and pay me but some of these guys turn out to be carpetbaggers, freeloaders and what-have-you of the first order

Unfortunately I met some of my countrymen who are settled overseas and they are the rich-cousin syndrome afflicted people who will do you a favor when they make a payment / remittance


This is not me in the picture

They think it is me !


Why Me !

• Why do my clients, debtors just give me the runaround

• Maybe people assume that I can work for “love and fresh air”

• Or that my dues can be “payable-when-able”• Am I hardballing them when I ask for my

check• If not, then…. • How come I am always the fall guy


Who Da Fall Guy ? …. Me !

Why are you always talking about money, dude ! –a customer’s refrain

Because , I…..• asked for the

payment• talked about

professional commitments

• reminded them about their commitment


Clichéd-excuses • These are what you always hear ! Can’t these guys be

a bit more creative !

• Your invoice is with Finance… (you know how they are!)

• The payment will be made by the end of the week … (which week ? which month ? which year ?)

• I shall pay you when we get the payment from the client (their client ! life is such a bitch - you slog so someone else can make money so as not to pay you. Exploitation may be an apt adjective )


Clichéd-excuses • We shall give you good business and need you to this

pro-bono … (oh yea. Find another sucker)• We are a God fearing company and always meet our

commitments (when they meet you in the after-life !)• Don’t worry your money is not going anyplace, just

continue with the good work you are doing … (@#$&% freeloader! i am still in square one)

• We are a multi-million dollar organization and your payment will be made … (when)

• The Director / signing authority is not in town … (is your paycheck delayed too !)


If Only This Was True

But it’s not


Solution for Sanity

• Shoot ‘em with blanks they scare easily (try it)

• Discuss MONEY MATTERS - boldly, candidly, transparently, shamelessly like a miser, like a beggar, like a leech


Now we’re at the right place !So, let’s get down to the business of retaining one’s sanity. Remember the opponent is just so full of bravado and no substance.BELIEVE ME ! THIS STRATEGY – IT WORKS !!


The Strategy Of Terms & Conditions

• The following slides carry a few suggestions to help retain one’s sanity in the face of adverse payment situations and some advice to proactively avoid such situations

• Acceptance and practice of our suggestions and plans are at your own risk. We are already in s^!& and do not need anyone else’s !


The Strategy Of Terms & Conditions• Do not feel shy to insist for acceptance of your terms• Jointly discuss payment terms with Finance,

Purchase and Delivery teams• Set clear milestones for payment linked to delivery

dates (and make sure you deliver on time)• Negotiate to receive 90% during the project • Extract high percentages in the earlier stages (for

example 30% on kickoff, M1-25%, M2-20%, M3-15, Signoff-10%)

• DO NOT leave more than 10% for “final sign-off” (it may never happen)


• Beware - they will say corporate payment terms are 30 days after receipt of invoice (make sure you send your invoice in time else you have yourself to blame)

• Remember that your terms are payment within 7 days from submission of invoice

• You should suggest the submission of an ‘advance invoice’ to meet their 30 days corporate payment terms – it will work. They will make it work (if they need you )



• Charge interest for delayed payments – this is nice to say but not easy to implement unless you are a Fortune 500 company yourself, but, make sure to mention this on the invoice and in your terms of business

• Make sure you tell them VERBALLY that you “may” be forced to stop work if payment is delayed

• Do not make an idle threat, if the milestone payment is delayed, slow down the delivery, and at a critical stage – stop your delivery !!

• This is the most risky part of your contract – use a gun loaded with blanks and … read on…



• Calculate the risk / reward and the customer’s attitude – if both suck then you are simply being scre^^3d – walk away !!!

• Walk away and you live stress free, you will meet a better client and you will have saved your skin.

• Finally remember the customer is in love only in the starting phase of the contract so extract all concessions in those stages – no honeymoon lasts long !



• If you are a buyer who has been short-changed and want a straight-as-a-bat vendor for Information Security services – call me.

The Last Word For The Good-Guy Customer


• If you have been similarly shafted and have some strategies to share please feel free to send them in and this slide deck can always be updated

• If you have horror stories to share about vendors, buyers, partners etc just drop me a line – maybe I shall start a website dedicated to the freeloader client types

The Last WordFor Other Suckered Vendors


Your feedback / comments are welcome and you can do this right here on slideshare or use the form put up at http://bit.ly/PaymentCon

Feedback…


Dinesh BarejaLinkedIn: http://in.linkedin.com/in/dineshbarejaBlog (India): http://infosecgallery.blogspot.comBlog (InfoSec): http://securambling.blogspot.com

Credits

Copyright and Disclaimer

This document is a creation of Dinesh Bareja at Open Security Alliance (OSA) and is released in the public domain under Creative Commons License (Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 India) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/in/.

Disclaimer: The practices listed in the document are provided as is and as guidance and the author(s) do not claim that these comprise the only practices to be followed. The readers are urged to make informed decisions in their usage. This document has been prepared for general public distribution and the ideas and concepts presented are conceived with our personal inputs. The contents of this proposal are prepared specifically for use be people who are looking to inject some humour in themselves while someone else’s system screws them. Organization and freeloaders wanting to use this document may do so and are urged to change and respect professionalism and recognize that mortals need more than love and fresh air to survive. You are welcome to provide feedback to the author using the contact information provided in this document or visit www.opensecurityalliance.org

http://www.opensecurityalliance.org/


A Commercial Plug

• Feel Free to skip this slide as I am advertising myself

• Dinesh Bareja is an independent consultant working in the Information Security domain, providing services for ISMS, BCP/DR, GRC, VA/PT, AppSec, Cloud and more

• Knowledge services undertakes industry white paper and documentation assignments

• Challenging work is welcome ! And he also does some pro-bono work.

The Payment Conundrum

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Transcript of The Payment Conundrum