Clients should do their best to see that developers are paid on a timely basis. Developers, for their part, should understand that slow payment is an unfortunate fact of life and make their effort to plan for it.

For example, imagine that a developer is scheduled to deliver the Alpha version of the website on January 1, with a term of 30 days for the payment. The developer, assuming that the payment will take two weeks to process (which is how long it might take in a small company), expects and plans to receive payment in mid-January. In this case, though, the client takes one week to evaluate the Alpha version and determines that it does not qualify as Alpha. The developer takes two weeks to correct it, by which time it is the end of January. The milestone is approved a few days later, and the invoice is submitted for payment. It takes one week to amass the correct signatures, and the invoice finally arrives in the accounting department in mid-February. The accounting department holds the invoice for several weeks, according to an unwritten policy. The developer finally receives payment in mid-March, two months later than planned.

Small developers usually depend heavily on their individual clients. If a corporation withholds or delays payment, intentionally or inadvertently, it can have a serious and magnified effect on a small developer. This impact is sometimes difficult to appreciate by those within the corporate confines. A single delayed payment of sufficient size...