Invoice timescales

Apologies if this has been covered before.

I am a sole trader and like most am having a hard time getting clients to pay my invoices on schedule. Do I have to give them 30 days for payment or can I reduce it to 15? I don't necessarily expect them to pay after 15, however, this way I could at least start chasing the money sooner.

No you dont. You can do cash on sale if you like but they may go somewhere else that do offer some sort of credit.

Cheers Paddy199, I don't mind giving people time to pay I just want to try and shorten the amount of unauthorised credit they are taking.

we put in a credit card machine, any new clients get NO credit, and it also helps when your looking to collect money, as the client mite say he's to get to the bank or post cheque and then just say you can save them the bother and that you take credit card....

Also, i had a client last week, that was spending 1000euro with me, and said he wanted credit, i was afraid to give him credit, so i asked him for money upfront and said, i can give him discount if he pays up front, and gave him the job for 950euro, most client that are going to pay will jump at a discount on paying up front