Here repping enterprises, can confirm this is how things work. But we don't pay late out of malice. Often incompetence and apathy, sure, but we don't actively set out to cheat you guys.
We start our Net-X countdown clock at the very last moment, and typically that is when we start receiving the service (not when we agree to a deal). This seriously irks most vendors, but they seem to have been beaten down and conditioned over such a period as to just deal with it. Ultimately, the goal of an enterprise (or any business) is to have revenue that exceeds expenses, and a super simple way to maximize this on a periodic scale is to ensure your AR period is shorter than your AP period. Iirc, we're currently standardized on Net-45 for receivables, down to Net-30 whenever possible, and start negotiations with Net-90 for AP, usually getting down to Net-60. That extra 15-30 days makes a huge difference sometimes in positive cash flow. I don't endorse the behavior but it is what it is. Another "trick" to save money is to negotiate an annual contract into quarterly (or other periodic) payments. For one $1.5m/yr contract, for example, that saved us something like $200k/yr.
We pay by ACH whenever possible (it is cheaper and easier for us, by far, than writing checks), and part of our vendor qualification process includes getting bank details. We do write thousands and thousands of checks, though. :)
We start our Net-X countdown clock at the very last moment, and typically that is when we start receiving the service (not when we agree to a deal). This seriously irks most vendors, but they seem to have been beaten down and conditioned over such a period as to just deal with it. Ultimately, the goal of an enterprise (or any business) is to have revenue that exceeds expenses, and a super simple way to maximize this on a periodic scale is to ensure your AR period is shorter than your AP period. Iirc, we're currently standardized on Net-45 for receivables, down to Net-30 whenever possible, and start negotiations with Net-90 for AP, usually getting down to Net-60. That extra 15-30 days makes a huge difference sometimes in positive cash flow. I don't endorse the behavior but it is what it is. Another "trick" to save money is to negotiate an annual contract into quarterly (or other periodic) payments. For one $1.5m/yr contract, for example, that saved us something like $200k/yr.
We pay by ACH whenever possible (it is cheaper and easier for us, by far, than writing checks), and part of our vendor qualification process includes getting bank details. We do write thousands and thousands of checks, though. :)