Blog · Appraisers

Getting Paid by AMCs: How to Follow Up on Unpaid Fees

AppraiseQ team · 5 min read · 31 October 2026

Most appraisers do not lose money to AMCs that refuse to pay. They lose it to fees that slip through the cracks: a payment that covered four orders when you delivered five, a report that was paid at the original fee instead of the approved increase, or an order completed in a busy month that nobody ever paid and nobody noticed. Each one is small. Over a year they add up.

The fix is not confrontation. It is bookkeeping that tells you, at any moment, which orders have been paid and which have not, and a calm follow-up routine for the gaps. This post lays out both.

Why AMC fees go unpaid

When a fee is missing, the cause is usually ordinary. Knowing the common causes helps you ask the right question instead of a vague "where is my money?"

• Lump payments. Many AMCs pay in batches, so one deposit covers several orders. If the remittance detail is incomplete or you never look at it, one missing order is invisible.
• Payment held for a revision. Some clients hold payment until a revision is cleared, and the release does not always happen automatically.
• Fee changes not carried through. An approved fee increase, trip fee or rush fee may be agreed by email but never reach the AMC's billing system.
• Invoice or W-9 issues. A missing or outdated W-9, banking change or invoice requirement can pause payment without anyone telling you.
• Simple error. Wrong vendor ID, wrong amount, or an order that was closed in the AMC's system before it was marked payable.

Check each AMC's vendor guidelines for how and when they pay, what they need from you to release payment, and who handles billing questions. Policies differ widely and change over time.

Build an order-level payment record

You cannot follow up on what you cannot see. The core of the system is a record of every completed order with its expected fee and whether it has been paid. A simple version looks like this:

The numbers above are an illustration, not typical fees. The point is the "Gap" column. Every order with a non-zero gap past the AMC's usual payment window is something to look into.

Matching lump payments to orders

When an AMC sends one payment for many orders, matching takes a few minutes but it is where most missing fees are found. A reliable method:

1. Open the remittance detail (the payment email, the portal's payment history, or the ACH addenda your bank shows).
2. For each line, find the order by order number first, then by address if the number is missing.
3. Record the amount paid against that order, not just the total against the AMC.
4. If the remittance has no detail, match the oldest unpaid orders whose fees add up to the deposit, and mark them "matched by amount" so you know they are an assumption.
5. Anything left unmatched on either side is your follow-up list.

If you do this every time a payment arrives, it stays a five-minute job. If you let three months of deposits pile up, it becomes an afternoon of detective work, which is why many appraisers give up on it. Tools that read payment emails can do most of the matching for you; the AppraiseQ tracker, for example, matches lump payments to orders from the payment emails you forward and shows earned, paid and an estimate of what each AMC still owes.

Ageing: knowing when to act

Not every unpaid order is late. Group your open balances by how long ago you delivered the report:

• 0-30 days: usually normal. No action unless the AMC's stated terms are shorter.
• 31-45 days: check the AMC portal for payment status and any holds.
• 46-60 days: send a polite written follow-up listing the specific orders.
• Over 60 days: escalate to the AMC's vendor management or accounts payable contact, and keep a written record.

Adjust these windows to each AMC's actual payment terms. The value is in having any consistent rule, so you follow up on time instead of when you happen to remember.

How to follow up without burning the relationship

A good payment follow-up is short, specific and easy to act on. The person reading it probably did not cause the problem and wants to close it quickly. Include:

• Your name, company and vendor ID with that AMC
• A list of the unpaid orders: order number, address, submission date, fee
• Any partial payments already received
• The total outstanding
• A clear ask: confirm status, or tell you what is needed to release payment

Avoid long explanations, emotion, or threats about turning down future work. If you decide to stop working with a client, make that a business decision separate from the collection email. We have a ready-to-use format in asking an AMC for outstanding payments, with a statement template.

Prevent the next gap

Following up fixes the past. A few habits reduce how often you need to:

• Get fee changes in writing on the order itself, through the portal's fee-change process if one exists, not just in a phone call.
• Keep your W-9 and banking details current with every AMC, and note when you last sent them.
• Record the fee at acceptance, not after delivery, so the expected amount is never in doubt.
• Review payments monthly, even when you are busy. Ten minutes a month beats an afternoon each quarter.
• Watch for patterns. If one AMC regularly pays late or short, that belongs in your decision about how much of their work to take. See earnings by client for how to weigh that.

A note on records and taxes

Your payment records also feed your year-end bookkeeping. Keep the remittance details and your follow-up emails for each AMC. How long to keep them, and how to treat unpaid fees for tax purposes, is a question for your accountant, not a blog post.

The short version

Track every order's expected fee, match each payment to specific orders as it arrives, age the gaps, and follow up in writing with a specific list once an order passes the AMC's normal payment window. Most unpaid fees are mistakes, and mistakes get fixed quickly when you point at them clearly.