Case study · A Paid Right NZ engagement
Overdue invoices dropped sharply.
A husband and wife running a successful refrigeration and air conditioning business.
By Mel Curwood. More than 25 years working across New Zealand business, and nearly a decade helping trades, contractors and blue-collar businesses get paid in full, on time, every time. Over 350 of them.
Two problems, neither of them about how well they did the job. Big brands and manufacturers set the payment terms, ran them out sixty to ninety days, refused to fill in paperwork and used small technicalities to delay, while their business carried the cost of the work upfront.
The second was quieter and cost as much. Urgent breakdowns get booked by whoever is standing there, not by the person who pays. Invoices were redirected to another person, another department, another entity, and clubs and franchises often had nobody clearly responsible at all.
What changed
So the work was structural. Fifty per cent upfront on large jobs, and a call-out fee payable on the day for urgent breakdowns. An accept button in the quoting software, so the customer actively approves the work, with the terms of trade linked in the acceptance email.
Two onboarding forms instead of one - a short one for householders, a full one for businesses carrying the account details and a personal guarantee. And one question asked before anything gets scheduled: who are we invoicing, and are they authorised to approve this?
What it made possible
Overdue invoices dropped sharply. Disputes and last-minute invoicing confusion went with them, and the business stopped funding large corporates out of its own working capital. And they became willing to turn down clients who would not work to their terms, which is the part most owners find hardest and only becomes possible once the structure is there to fall back on.
Deposits and payment schedules, terms accepted before the work starts, and knowing who is invoiced: these are what the Paid Right Accelerator builds, block by block.