Kay,

I learned this the long and hard way over the years having lost 10's of thousands of dollars.. You really have to check your recievables every friday and see who is running behind and then get on the phone with them.

Some times its a simple thing that accounting never got your invoices because the production department never forwarded them (then you start sending your invoices directly to the accounting department) as well as attaching it to the search you send in. 

Or they tell you that their "policy" has now changed to 45 days or 60 days, then you have to make a decision whether you are willing to accept their new "policy."

Personally I think its a really bad sign if this is the case, huge difference between paid 30 days versus 45-60. To me it screams "our clients aren't paying us" and that is not your problem because its not something you can control, however you can control having huge losses of money personally by chosing not to work for someone who goes that far out.

I also have a policy that I never do more than $300 worth of wor, for a new client, when I see a check for the $300, then I accept more work. Why $300? Because thats all I am willing to eat, it won't drive me into insolvency. And I never accept work from brand new companies. I was approached by some brand new title company in PA, I ask them for references they said they couldn't provide any as they had just opened their doors, I told them I didn't feet comfortable taking their work, then was told "there are laws that demand we have reserves, etc.." and I just laughed and said sure there are, doesn't mean they get followed now does it? Geez look at all the blogs on SOT about the criminality in title companies!

You just have to sit down and put policy in, in your company and stick with it. It can't be an emotional decision, its business, its about your groups and your personal survival, period.