Asking a journal for extended payment period I am in this situation where I have submitted an article to a journal and it is likely that, after the minor revision that they asked me to do, the paper will be accepted for publication (I hope so...). The situation that concerns me is that it is also likely that the email arrives in the middle of institutional vacation, (Clarification: I am a PhD student at the university, and the university pays the publication fee for the article), which means that my institution will not be able to pay at the time of the request. There is no personnel in the corresponding department.

To clarify the timings: I expect that the "acceptance" email will arrive in the middle of August, and my institution is on vacation for all of August. We are most likely not able to pay until September. In case that this email arrives during August, how can I convey, politely and gently that we cannot send the payment due to institutional vacation period? Also, I would like to highlight the importance of the publication of the paper in the journal. As it has one of the highest impact factors on the field of engineering, concretely on Internet of Things and it is the last merit milestone to finish my thesis.

I would write something like...

"Dear Ms. ,

Our institution  is on institutional vacation period during August. Unfortunately, we will not able to emit the payment before the date you request. The department in charge is on institutional vacation too. Publishing this article in  is of utmost importance for us given the  is a renowned journal in the field of the Internet of Things and my current situation as a PhD Student. We would like to ask you for a payment extension until September. Meanwhile, I will be pleased to apply any suggestion of the editor.

Yours sincerely,

 on behalf of the authors of the manuscript.
"

It is the first time I am doing something like this, and I would be glad if you can provide some help.
Usually there is a payment window of 30 or 60 days for example, so if it arrives  mid-August then paying in September is not an issue. Journals have dealt with university accounts departments before.

If you are the one stressed as you have to have it published to complete then you may need to be patient, but the payment itself should not be an issue.

For one paper, it took 4 months for the journal to get paid - several polite communications (and they were nice and helpful on both sides...) but all got sorted.