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"Not that I'd do this, but I can at least see the appeal." I think everybody does. Me too, but still this is sending out the wrong message and could fire back.

If the client is not able to provide me with a certain level of trust, I will not work for her. In case the situation is fishy... like me having this strange feeling that the client is not as trustworthy as she seems, I invoice early and often. It is way more easy to bill five times for 2k, then to ask for 10k at once.

Quoting myself from another thread: When I have a new customer, I tell her that I will send an invoice after a few (10-20) hours of work. She will learn very early what results I can produce in those few hours and whether she likes working with me. I learn very early about her the willingness to pay. I then do my invoicing based on the results of that first test.

Usually I invoice my customers once per month. Some only, if they 'used' 50+ hours. It is all about trust. One customer wants an detailed explanation for every hour in the invoice, so I invoice often. Makes it way more easy for me to get my money. Another customer is very relaxed and just pays what I tell him. I invoice him twice a year.

You are very right about being paranoid that the trigger could misbehave somehow. Code contains bugs. Less code less bugs.