--- title: "When a client suspends projects: protecting existing invoices" canonical: https://www.billabex.com/en/blog/client-project-suspension-existing-invoices/ lang: en alternate: https://www.billabex.com/fr/blog/client-suspend-projets-proteger-factures.md alternates: fr: https://www.billabex.com/fr/blog/client-suspend-projets-proteger-factures.md en: https://www.billabex.com/en/blog/client-project-suspension-existing-invoices.md de: https://www.billabex.com/de/blog/kunde-setzt-projekte-aus-rechnungen-schuetzen.md es: https://www.billabex.com/es/blog/cliente-suspende-proyectos-proteger-facturas-ya-emitidas.md it: https://www.billabex.com/it/blog/cliente-sospende-progetti-proteggere-fatture-emesse.md nl: https://www.billabex.com/nl/blog/klant-pauzeert-projecten-facturen-beschermen.md pl: https://www.billabex.com/pl/blog/klient-wstrzymuje-projekty-zabezpiecz-wystawione-faktury.md pt: https://www.billabex.com/pt/blog/cliente-suspende-projetos-proteger-faturas.md updated: 2026-11-13 index: https://www.billabex.com/llms.txt --- # When a client suspends projects: protecting existing invoices “We are freezing all projects until further notice.” That message changes a supplier’s delivery schedule immediately. It does not explain what happens to invoices already received, completed work awaiting billing or purchases committed for the next stage. If the supplier responds with one blanket instruction, such as stopping all reminders or demanding every remaining amount, it may treat several different problems as one. First establish the facts. Is the customer reducing investment, disputing a service, reorganising purchasing or reporting an inability to pay? These explanations can overlap. Management needs to distinguish them sufficiently to make decisions while preserving visibility over existing receivables and ongoing commitments. The legal references below concern commercial relationships under French law and French collective proceedings. ## Read exactly what has been suspended Retain the original message, its author, date and scope. A project manager may be stopping one workstream while purchasing is only freezing new orders. A general internal instruction may also have been forwarded without explaining how it affects commitments already signed. Request an appropriate written confirmation: which agreements, which work packages, what effective date and who decides the financial consequences? The first exchange does not need to produce perfect legal wording. It needs to stop production, sales and accounting from attaching incompatible meanings to the same sentence. Do not alter invoices at this stage. The [contractual amount still to collect](https://www.billabex.com/en/blog/agency-backlog-versus-cash-receipts/) remains distinct from work that might no longer be performed. A reduction in order backlog does not by itself establish that open receivables have disappeared. Record uncertainty where it exists rather than adjusting the figures to make the project look closed. ## Make four lists supported by different records Separate issued invoices, completed work not yet invoiced, future services and committed costs. This classification does not determine the eventual accounting or legal treatment. It identifies the questions that require assessment and prevents one negotiation from obscuring another. For invoices, retrieve the agreement, evidence of delivery or acceptance, remaining amount and due date. For unbilled work, identify the milestone completed and the billing condition. For future services, distinguish firm orders from options. For committed costs, retain supplier purchase orders and the terms governing changes or cancellation. A supplier may have an undisputed invoice to collect, a partially completed milestone to discuss and an expense that can still be avoided. Those require separate conversations. A document labelled “project balance” should not mix completed service fees, estimated future work and an unestablished compensation request without showing the categories. The label otherwise suggests a certainty that the underlying figures do not support. ## A fictional example for the decision meeting Suppose an agreement is worth €50,000 excluding VAT. A first stage worth €15,000 has been paid. A second stage worth €20,000 is complete, invoiced and unpaid. The final €15,000 stage has not begun when the customer announces a budget freeze. The report therefore shows €20,000 of open invoices and €15,000 of future services, both excluding VAT. It does not automatically present €35,000 as an invoice currently payable. If €3,000 of subcontracting has already been committed for the final stage, show that exposure separately. Its existence alone makes it neither a receipt nor an established customer receivable. Management can then pursue the existing invoice according to the contractual position, negotiate the future stage and assess options with the subcontractor. These figures solely illustrate the reasoning. They imply no recovery rate, actual customer behaviour or Billabex result. Any eventual compensation requires its own basis and record rather than being silently added to the invoice balance. ## Do not turn a signal into a financial diagnosis A project freeze is a signal to investigate. It may reflect a management change, budget allocation or cash difficulty. An available contact, an acknowledged invoice and a specific transfer date mean something different from a refusal to communicate or an official notice of collective proceedings. Ask the customer’s accounting team to confirm how already-issued invoices will be handled. Review recent payments, unfulfilled commitments and disputes actually expressed. A rumour should not become a statement of fact in the account record because that statement will influence everyone who subsequently contacts the customer. Where justified, consult the [official Bodacc commercial notices](https://www.bodacc.fr/pages/annonces-commerciales-recherche/) for the correct legal entity. Check its identification number, the nature of any judgment and its date. Finding no notice does not prove that the customer has sufficient cash. It only records the result of that particular search, which is one part of the evidence available. ## Assess your own performance obligations separately The customer can request a pause, but your business must also decide what it may or must continue. [Article 1219 of the French Civil Code](https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/article_lc/LEGIARTI000032041509) permits a party to withhold performance where the other party’s non-performance is sufficiently serious. That requires an assessment of the facts and agreement. [Article 1220](https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/article_lc/LEGIARTI000032041503) concerns anticipatory suspension where future non-performance is manifest and its consequences sufficiently serious, with prompt notification required. It does not create an automatic entitlement to disconnect a service whenever a customer delays a project. Have the appropriate decision-maker assess any proposed suspension, especially where it affects a critical service or entrusted data. A payment reminder should not improvise a technical threat to obtain a response. A proportionate decision identifies its basis, scope and conditions for resuming work, allowing the delivery team to act on something more precise than general concern. ## Confirmed collective proceedings require a different route The position changes when a judgment is confirmed. [Service Public Entreprendre states a general two-month period for filing claims after publication of the opening judgment in Bodacc](https://entreprendre.service-public.gouv.fr/vosdroits/F22359). Special provisions apply, including rules for some secured creditors and geographical situations. Check the period applicable to the actual file instead of copying a default date into the task list. That deadline explains why pausing reminders must never become pausing oversight. Give the documents and relevant dates to the person responsible for the proceedings. Claims arising before and after the opening judgment require appropriate classification. Issuing a new invoice date does not artificially transform the origin of an older claim. Do not suggest that filing guarantees recovery. It allows the creditor to assert the claim within the relevant framework. Continuation of the agreement and payment arrangements then require assessment with the competent insolvency officeholders and advisers. The existing commercial contact may remain useful, but cannot alone determine the treatment of the entire matter. ## Give the customer a coherent response One owner coordinates the file. Production knows the instructions for ongoing work, accounting knows which invoices to track, and sales knows what it is authorised to negotiate. A proposed [payment schedule](https://www.billabex.com/en/blog/payment-schedule/) remains separately documented from an amendment affecting the project itself. Subsequent [invoice follow-up messages](https://www.billabex.com/en/blog/tips-for-following-up-on-unpaid-invoices/) should reflect the common position: a precise amount, the relevant document and the next decision expected. This avoids a customer receiving a payment demand from one team while another casually implies that every financial question will wait until the project restarts. The [Billabex agent](https://www.billabex.com/en/product/agent/) can support tracking the conversation. Management retains decisions about contractual continuity, concessions and matters requiring special handling. An accurate account record gives those decisions a defensible basis while keeping the customer dialogue specific and usable.