Why negotiating payment terms is harder than paperwork when onboarding a new client
We asked 417 small and mid-sized vendors what makes taking on a new client most difficult. Paperwork was not the top answer. Negotiating payment terms or pricing ranked first, cited by 29.0% of vendors. Paperwork and compliance documents ranked second at 24.0%, exactly 5 points behind.
The remaining answers point to two broader issues. Payment delays and onboarding fees, along with negotiating terms, are all financial concerns. Together, they account for 53.0% of responses.
Paperwork, employee training, and learning a new portal are process-related concerns. Combined, they account for 45.1%. Money is the slightly bigger problem—and it is also the part of onboarding vendors can control the least.
Why payment terms are harder than paperwork
Paperwork is frustrating, but it follows a familiar process. A W-9, certificate of insurance, or license number has a clear answer. Once a vendor completes these forms for one client, completing them for another is mostly repetitive.
Payment negotiations are less predictable. Every client may have different expectations around deposits, payment schedules, and what happens if a project takes longer than expected. Vendors must negotiate each arrangement individually, often with unequal leverage.
These decisions also affect the vendor long after onboarding ends. The terms agreed to at the beginning determine how quickly the vendor gets paid. Weak payment terms can create the same late-payment problems that vendors identified as their biggest payment-related complaint elsewhere in the survey.
"90% of initial estimates should require a deposit up front to schedule and begin the work."Construction vendor, solo
Paperwork is still a major problem
Ranking second does not mean paperwork is no longer an issue. Nearly a quarter of vendors still identify it as the most difficult part of onboarding, and many want more automation.
"I'd like more automation in onboarding, so clients don't have to fill out so many forms every time."
-Construction vendor, 26 to 50 employees
The problem is not necessarily the forms themselves. Vendors want to avoid completing the same information repeatedly in different formats for every new client.
What this means
Negotiating terms and completing paperwork account for more than half of the challenges vendors face when onboarding a new client.
Better tools can reduce the paperwork burden through reusable templates, stored compliance documents, and portals that do not request the same information twice. Negotiations cannot be fully automated, but clearer defaults and greater visibility into typical client terms can help vendors negotiate with less uncertainty.
Onboarding friction is just one of six themes we found in the 2026 Vendor Payment & Portal Report. Want to explore the research further? Read the 2026 Vendor Payment & Portal Report, or review the summary of all six vendor payment findings.