You delivered the edits three weeks ago, and the agency has already presented them to its client. You ask about the ₹22,500 balance on your invoice and the reply is: "We'll pay when our client pays." Nobody said that when the work was urgent.
If you are freelancing for agencies in India, you will hear this line at some point. The risk in it lands on whoever sits at the bottom of the chain, and that is you. Below are four questions to ask before you say yes, wording to copy into your quote, and replies for when the line shows up after delivery.
What "pay when paid" really means for you
Take the politeness out and it means this: you are lending the agency money.
You did the work, the agency delivered it under its own name, and its client now owes the agency while the agency owes you, so "We'll pay when our client pays" ties those two debts together and hands you the risk of both.
Look at what you get in return for that loan.
- No interest. You wait for free.
- No end date. An agency's client can take months.
- No say. You can't chase the end client. You probably can't even email them.
- No news. You won't know if the client paid, part-paid or disputed the work.
The agency is risking its margin. You are risking your whole fee.
That doesn't make every agency a villain. Plenty of small agencies feel the squeeze themselves. But their cash flow is theirs to plan. It becomes yours only if you agree to it in advance.
Four questions to ask before you accept agency work
Ask these before you quote. All four fit in one message.
- Who is my client on paper? The agency or the end brand? Your invoice goes to one of them. That is who you will be asking for payment.
- What is the due date, in days from my invoice? "After the campaign" is not a date. "15 days from invoice date" is.
- Is my payment tied to yours? Ask it plainly. If the answer is yes, you want to hear it now, not after delivery.
- Is there an advance? Even 30% changes how much you are lending.
Copy this and change the numbers:
Hi Kavya, happy to take this on. Before I send the quote, four quick things so there are no surprises later:
- Should I invoice your agency or the end client?
- I work on payment within 15 days of my invoice date. Does that work for you?
- Is my payment dependent on your client paying you? If it is, I'd like to know now.
- I take 50% in advance to block the dates. Is that fine?
How they answer tells you a lot. "15 days is fine, send the quote" is a good sign. "Don't worry, we'll sort it out" is not an answer. It belongs with the other client red flags Indian freelancers keep hearing.
If the advance is where they push back, I have separate replies for a client who refuses an advance.
Wording that ties payment to your invoice date
Put this in the quote, not in a phone call.
Payment terms
50% advance before work starts. Balance within 15 days of my invoice date.
My client for this work is [agency name]. Payment is due on the dates above and does not depend on when [agency name] is paid by its own client.
For a small job with no formal quote, send the WhatsApp version and wait for the reply:
Confirming before I start: ₹45,000 for 6 edited reels. ₹22,500 advance now, ₹22,500 within 15 days of my invoice. This is payable by [agency name] and is not linked to your client's payment. Please reply YES and I'll begin.
Some agencies will say pay-when-paid is their policy. If you still want the work, ask for a cap:
I understand your payment depends on your client. I can work with that if there is an outer limit: balance payable when your client pays you, or 45 days from my invoice date, whichever is earlier.
A cap turns an open-ended loan into one with an end date. If you are unsure how many days to ask for, I go through the options in freelance invoice payment terms.
Get the terms accepted, not just sent
Terms the agency never replied to leave you arguing about what was said. Terms it accepted give you a date to point at. This is the one place Riffit helps, and since I built it, treat the next paragraph as a claim from the seller.
On the Riffit dashboard you create a quotation with your line items, and the advance and due date written into the terms. The agency opens a link, then accepts with one tap or asks for changes. Each revision stays as a version under the same quotation number, so there is one record of what you agreed, and both plans include unlimited quotations. Once the agency accepts, you can turn the quotation into an invoice on the dashboard and bill it in parts, advance first.
For larger work, you can convert the accepted quotation to a contract, which the agency signs with a one-time code, and Riffit creates a separate audit-trail certificate, structured to address the Section 65B (Indian Evidence Act) / Section 63 (BSA) requirements. This is not legal advice. You get 3 contracts free for life, and unlimited contracts on Pro.
It cannot make an agency pay. It gives you a dated record of the terms, and that is all.
Write the advance and the due date into a quotation the agency accepts in one tap. The free plan has no quotation limit.Try Riffit freeWhen they say it after the work is done
This is the harder case, because the work is already delivered. Stay in writing and ask for a date.
If you agreed terms in writing
Hi Kavya, understood that your client is late with their payment. The terms you accepted on 4 September were 15 days from my invoice date, and they were not linked to your client's payment. INV26-027 for ₹22,500 was due on 28 September. Which date this week will it be paid?
If you agreed nothing either way
Hi Kavya, this is the first I'm hearing that my payment depends on your client's. We didn't agree to that when I took the project. I worked for your agency and my invoice is to your agency. I'm happy to be reasonable on timing. What date can you commit to?
If they really can't pay it all now
I understand cash is tight. Two options from my side: ₹12,500 now and ₹10,000 by 20 October, or the full ₹22,500 by 10 October. Which one works for you?
If the date keeps moving
Hi Kavya, INV26-027 is now 30 days past due and the date has moved twice. I'm pausing the next batch until this is paid. I'll pick it up the day the payment comes in.
Three rules sit behind all four replies.
- Ask for a date, not a payment. "Please pay" gets "will do". "Which date?" gets a date or a reason.
- Keep it in writing. After a call, send one line confirming what was said.
- Don't deliver the next batch on the promise of the last one. New work is the only thing you still control.
Part-billing shrinks the loan
You can't always remove pay-when-paid, but you can make the loan smaller.
Say Kavya's agency wants a ₹90,000 batch of 12 reels from you: one invoice at the end means you are lending ₹90,000 for as long as their client takes, so split it instead:
- ₹27,000 advance before you start
- ₹36,000 when the agency approves the first six
- ₹27,000 before you hand over the final files
Now you are never waiting on more than one stage. If the second part isn't paid, you stop before doing the third.
Each milestone should end in something the agency can see and approve. The mechanics are in how to invoice a project in milestones.
Udyam registration and the 45-day limit
A caution before the legal part: it is as of October 2026, the rules change, and I am not a lawyer, so confirm all of it with a CA or lawyer before you rely on it.
Under the MSMED Act, a buyer must pay a registered micro or small supplier within the period agreed in writing, and that period cannot be longer than 45 days from when the work is accepted. With nothing agreed in writing, the limit is 15 days. A buyer that pays later than that cannot claim the amount as a tax deduction until it actually pays. All of this depends on you, the supplier, having Udyam registration before you did the work, and the MSME ODR portal takes delayed-payment cases. I go through what registration changes in more detail in the corporate payment terms post.
A sole proprietor can register on Udyam as a service enterprise, free and online, but it only covers work you supply after you register, so it is worth doing before the next job, not during a dispute. Ask a CA whether it suits your kind of work. I won't tell you a portal will get your money back, because people who have tried it describe mixed results.
If you hold a Udyam registration, put the number on your quotes and invoices, and agree your due date in writing either way.
When it is still worth saying yes
Sometimes the honest answer is yes, take the work. I would say yes when most of these are true.
- The agency has paid you on time before, more than once.
- There is an advance that covers your basic cost of doing the job.
- The pay-when-paid part has a cap in days.
- The amount at risk is one you could wait 90 days for without borrowing.
- The work is worth having for its own sake, and you have priced the wait into the fee.
If none of those are true, the agency is asking you for a loan with no repayment date.
FAQ
It means your payment depends on a payment you have no control over. In practice you are lending the agency your fee with no end date. Ask for a due date in days from your invoice instead.
Accept only if you can cap the risk. That means an advance, a cap such as 45 days from your invoice date, and an agency that has paid you on time before. Without those, you are lending your whole fee for an unknown period.
State the advance, the balance due date in days from your invoice date, and the agency as your client. Add one line saying payment does not depend on when the agency is paid by its own client. Get it accepted in writing before you start.
Reply in writing, point to the terms you agreed, and ask for a specific payment date. If you agreed nothing, say that you worked for the agency and your invoice is to the agency. Pause further work until the invoice is paid.
No. Riffit cannot make anyone pay and does not detect payments. It lets you send a quotation with the advance and due date stated, which the agency accepts in one tap, so the agreed terms are on record.