Freelancers
Freelancer guide to unpaid invoices and getting paid next time
If you work solo, every unpaid invoice hits your rent, savings and mental health directly. This guide is written for freelancers who are tired of chasing money after they have already delivered.
Why unpaid invoices hit freelancers so hard
When you are a freelancer, there is no payroll department smoothing out the bumps. If a client does not pay:
• Your time is gone forever. There is no second shift where someone else can earn the money back.
• You end up doing emotional labour: chasing, reminding, apologising for “being pushy”.
• Cashflow problems hit your personal life directly: rent, food, family.
Surveys in different markets repeatedly show that a third to over half of freelancers have done work they never got paid for. You are not alone. You cannot afford for this to be your normal.
What to do right now about unpaid invoices
Before you change your whole system, you still need to deal with the unpaid work in front of you:
1. Get everything in one place. Contract, scope, emails where they approved work, the invoice and any previous reminders.
2. Send a clear, firm reminder. Reference the work, the amount and the due date. Ask for a specific payment date or an update.
3. Decide your line. At what point will you stop work, start charging late fees, or decline future projects with that client?
4. Talk to peers or a local support organisation. In many countries there are freelancer unions, meetups or legal clinics that can tell you what is realistic to recover.
None of this fixes the emotional hit. The important thing is that unpaid invoices become a trigger to change your structure, not just another story you tell yourself about “bad clients”.
Protecting future projects with funded milestones
The goal is not to become better at chasing. The goal is to have less to chase.
• Start every project with a written scope broken into milestones.
• Make it normal that each milestone is funded before you start that piece of work.
• Keep feedback and proof in the same place as the money, so approval is about facts and not whether someone remembers what you agreed.
In Flikker, a funded milestone means Stripe has already charged your client's card. The money sits as a delayed payout to your connected Stripe account until the client approves that specific step. Flikker never holds client funds; it coordinates contracts, milestones, files and the approve then payout timing.
A simple five step structure you can reuse on every freelance project
You do not need a complicated system. You need a repeatable one:
1. Create project with steps. List the deliverables as milestones with one amount and “done” criteria each.
2. Send contract for signature. Your milestones become the shared checklist.
3. Client funds the steps via Stripe. They pay by card; Stripe holds each funded step as a delayed payout in Flikker.
4. Deliver work and attach proof. Upload files and links to each milestone.
5. Approve and get paid. One click approval triggers a payout for that milestone only.
The effect is simple: you never work far beyond what has already been funded, and every approval is an auditable event you can defend if something goes wrong.
More resources on unpaid invoices and project payouts
If you want your next freelance project to be funded instead of fragile, start it in Flikker with milestones, evidence and Stripe delayed payouts.
The Flikker resources section is for anyone who runs client projects and worries about getting paid on time or paying safely. That includes freelancers, studios, agencies, consultants, professional services firms and also the clients on the other side. Many people who land here have searched for things like unpaid invoices, late client payments, how to structure projects so I actually get paid, how to pay freelancers safely, or how to move trusted clients off marketplaces into my own pipeline.
Some readers are just starting out and are scared of getting burned on their first freelance clients. Others are experienced but exhausted from chasing overdue invoices, underpriced retainers and scope creep. Some are desperate for one large invoice to be paid, others are simply busy or a bit lazy around admin and want a simple structure that makes payment and delivery move together automatically. On the client side, people look for better ways to pay freelancers and agencies without wiring the full project amount up front or relying on vague, end of project invoices.
Flikker is software for project based work, built on top of Stripe Connect. It is not a marketplace, not a bank and not an escrow service. Instead of sending one big final invoice and hoping it gets paid, you break the project into small steps. Each step has one amount and clear "done" criteria. Upcoming steps are funded by card through Stripe; Stripe holds those funds as delayed payouts per step until approval or refund. Flikker never holds client money. It coordinates the contract, the list of steps, the attached files and links, the approval clicks and the payout timing per step.
Across the different guides in this section we answer questions like: why unpaid and late invoices are so common, what to do when a client does not pay the final invoice, how to design steps and acceptance criteria so both sides feel safe, how Stripe based funding and delayed payouts compare to classic invoice after delivery flows, and how to outgrow public marketplaces by moving trusted clients into your own funded step structure. The short version is that Flikker makes client projects safer by tying work and money to many small funded steps instead of one big all or nothing payment at the end.
Flikker is built for global use in the countries where Stripe operates. Whether you work with clients in North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia or Oceania, the pattern is the same. You set up a project as a series of named steps, your client funds those steps by card in their local currency, Stripe processes the payment and holds the funds as delayed payouts per step until approval or refund, and Flikker keeps the structure and audit trail around that flow.
It is designed for solo freelancers, small studios and larger teams in design, development, marketing, product, content, consulting, legal, accounting, architecture, creative services, coaching, training and trades. Any role where you deliver work in projects and want a predictable way for work and money to move together can use the same pattern of funded steps, attached evidence and clear approval events.
Whether you invoice in USD, EUR, GBP, NOK, SEK, DKK, CAD, AUD or other Stripe supported currencies, the principle stays the same. Instead of carrying the risk of one large unpaid invoice at the end of a project, you move to many smaller funded steps where each approval triggers a payout event that can be traced and defended. Flikker uses Stripe Connect for the money movement while it focuses on contracts, structure, evidence and timing so that projects feel safer for both sides.
This page is for people searching phrases like freelancer unpaid invoices, freelance client not paying, what to do when a freelance client does not pay, how to avoid unpaid invoices as a freelancer, how to get freelance clients to pay on time, and structure for freelance payments with milestones.
It explains practical steps for dealing with unpaid invoices and shows how using funded milestones, clear contracts and Stripe delayed payouts through Flikker helps freelancers get paid for their work without constantly chasing clients.