What to Do When a Commercial Electrical Invoice Is Not Paid
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Call Us 0433 462 902 Send your Online EnquiryA commercial electrical invoice is the last piece of a job that is already finished. The board is on, the certificate is lodged, and the client has gone quiet. This is for the contractor, not the householder: what to keep with the file, when one reminder is enough, and when the account should leave your office.
The purpose of this article is to discuss:
- What belongs in the job file
- When a reminder has done its job
- A practical 60-day cutoff
- What to stop doing in-house
- Commercial and strata jobs
How a Sydney contractor handles an unpaid commercial electrical invoice
1. Keep the job file complete before you chase anyone
A chase without the job papers is just a phone call. Before you write to the client, the file should hold the quote they accepted, the invoice, and the certificate for the work.
In NSW, when electrical work is completed, your electrician provides a uniquely numbered Certificate of Compliance for Electrical Work. NSW Fair Trading's guidance says the same thing: after the work, the electrician provides that certificate. Keep your copy with the invoice. A builder who says the job was never finished has a harder time saying it when the certificate number is on the email.
Photos of the finished switchboard upgrade, the meter, or the point of attachment belong in that same folder. So does the purchase order or the variation the site manager signed. You are not building a legal brief. You are stopping the conversation from starting at zero.
2. Send one clear reminder, then stop rewriting it
One plain email is enough for a slow payer. Name the invoice number, the site, the amount, and the date it was due. Attach the certificate. Ask for a payment date, not a general update.
A second note a week later is fair if nobody answered. A third version of the same email, written by the electrician who should be on the next job, is how the account starts to cost more than it is worth. The person who did the work is the wrong person to keep drafting reminders.
3. Treat 60 days as a practical cutoff, not a legal one
A reminder and a phone call are enough for a slow payer. They are not enough once the account is past 60 days and the work has already been certified. Hand the file to a debt collection agency in Sydney that recovers business-to-business invoices, and stop spending electrician hours on it.
That 60 days is a workshop rule, not a deadline written into NSW law. Some contracts say 14 days. Some builders pay on their own cycle and call it normal. The point of a cutoff is that your office picks one and keeps it. Past it, the file moves. It does not sit in a sent folder while the next job starts.
4. Take the account off the electrician's day
Every hour a Level 2 electrician spends retelling a job to an accounts clerk is an hour not spent on the next board, the next connection, or the next callout. The people who can describe the work are also the people the client will try to renegotiate with. Move the file, and let the recovery firm ask for the money.
Hand across the invoice, the accepted quote, the certificate, and any written promise to pay. Do not hand across a stack of text messages and expect someone else to reconstruct the job. If a variation was never written down, say so. A clean gap is easier to work with than a guessed one.
5. Use the same file for commercial and strata work
A body corporate or a managing agent pays on a different rhythm from a homeowner, and the papers are the same. The work order, the invoice, and the certificate still have to match. Our strata electrical program issues dated certificates to the owners corporation and the agent for that reason. If the agent says the invoice does not match the order, the certificate and the photos settle it faster than another phone call.
FAQs
What should I attach when a commercial electrical invoice is unpaid?
The accepted quote, the invoice, the Certificate of Compliance for Electrical Work, and any signed variation or purchase order. Photos of the finished work help if the client says the job was incomplete.
Is 60 days the legal limit for paying an electrician in NSW?
No. Sixty days is a practical cutoff for your own office, not a statutory due date. Your contract sets the payment terms. The cutoff is the point where you stop chasing the account yourself.
Can I withhold the compliance certificate until I am paid?
Do not use the certificate as a bargaining chip. The certificate records that the work was done. Your copy stays on the job file with the invoice, and that file is what you hand on if the account stays open.
Who should chase the invoice, the electrician or the office?
The office, and then a recovery firm if the cutoff has passed. The electrician who did the work should not be the person rewriting reminder emails between jobs.
Does this apply to a strata or body corporate invoice?
Yes. The managing agent still needs the invoice to match the work order and the certificate. The same file you would send for a builder is the file you send for an owners corporation.
Keeping commercial work paid with Sydney Electrical Service
We issue the certificate on the job and keep the papers that belong with it. If you need the work itself done by a licensed crew, talk to Sydney Electrical Service. Our Level 2 electricians handle the network side and the certificate in the same visit, and you can send your online enquiry if you would rather we call you back.