A payment checklist for the commissioning conversation
Influence IQ

Use these five prompts alongside your creative brief. This is a discussion
checklist, not a set of legal contract clauses. Fill it with the client's answers
and the agreed documents. Leave unresolved answers open. A historical payment
report does not supply the terms, payment dates or operational process for your
actual job.

Project: _________________________________________________________________
Date this checklist was reviewed: _________________________________________

1. Who is buying the work?

Contracting legal entity: _________________________________________________
Company number, where applicable: _________________________________________
Project contact: __________________________________________________________
Person responsible for invoice queries: ___________________________________
Report link and date consulted, if any: ____________________________________
Reporting period covered by that report: __________________________________
Answer still to confirm: __________________________________________________

2. What triggers each invoice?

Deliverable or milestone: _________________________________________________
Amount and currency: ______________________________________________________
Agreed point at which the invoice can be submitted: ________________________

Additional deliverable or milestone: ______________________________________
Amount and currency: ______________________________________________________
Agreed point at which the invoice can be submitted: ________________________

How production, creator fees and paid-media costs are handled, if applicable:
__________________________________________________________________________
Answer still to confirm: __________________________________________________

3. What are the invoice payment terms for this job?

Agreed number of days: ____________________________________________________
Event that starts the payment period: _____________________________________
Due date for each invoice, once known: _____________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
Any difference between the proposal and purchase order to resolve:
__________________________________________________________________________
Answer still to confirm: __________________________________________________

4. How does the invoice reach the right place?

Submission address or portal: _____________________________________________
Required purchase-order reference: ________________________________________
Named recipient: __________________________________________________________
Expected supporting documents: ____________________________________________
How receipt is acknowledged and the confirmation is retained:
__________________________________________________________________________
Where to check progress: __________________________________________________
Answer still to confirm: __________________________________________________

5. What happens if something needs attention?

Contact for a missing reference: __________________________________________
Contact for a disputed deliverable: _______________________________________
Contact for a payment query: ______________________________________________
How scope or schedule changes will be documented: _________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
Open items to review with the commissioning contact before work starts:
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________

Fictional worked example

The following commission, amounts and agreement are invented. They are not
observations from the register, typical fees, recommended terms or a forecast.
The terms come from the assumed agreement for this example, not from a client's
historical 30-day payment average. Another project could have a different
suitable arrangement.

Buyer: the named retailer entity. Its actual name and company number would be
recorded in the completed project brief, together with the project lead and
finance contact.

Work: three short product videos.
Fee: GBP 3,000.
Invoice milestones: GBP 1,000 at project start; GBP 2,000 on final delivery.
Term: 30 calendar days after receipt, as agreed in this fictional example.
Submission: the confirmed portal and purchase-order reference.
Questions: the named finance contact.
Receipt record: retain the invoice submission confirmation with the project.

Separate production commitment: the creator expects to pay an editor GBP 600
before the retailer's launch. Its timing belongs on the plan separately from
the client's payment. If the commitment precedes expected receipt of payment,
the creator can discuss timing, adjust production or explicitly decide how to
fund it; none of those choices follows automatically from the public average.

Open item: confirm the calendar dates before booking the editor.
The example does not invent dates, a portal address, a purchase-order number or
contact details to fill gaps in a real commission.
