Credit Management: #2 Configuring Right Payment Terms for Credit Control

Think about the last time you ordered something online and saw that little note at the checkout, "Pay on Delivery" or "Pay later".

It's simple, but it actually sets the tone. As a business owner, you know exactly when payment is expected.

Now, imagine a local printing shop that supplies business cards to offices around the town. Some clients pay immediately, while others take 30 days to clear invoices. If everyone pays on their own schedule, the shop's cash flow would become unpredictable overnight.

That's where Payment Terms become crucial. They define the rules for payment, set expectations upfront, and form the foundation of good credit management.

Why Setting up Payment Terms is Important? 

Payment terms are more than dates on an invoice. They are agreements that balance trust, flexibility, and financial control. They determine when payment is due, how it should be made, and what happens when the payment is delayed.

Setting up clear payment terms protects both sides of a transaction. Customers know exactly when payment is expected. On the other hand, businesses can forecast revenue, plan their expenses, and maintain a steady cash flow.

Even the best credit tracking system can't prevent delays or disputes when payment terms are vague or unclear.

Standard Payment Terms in Business  

While every industry defines terms differently, most of them follow familiar patterns. Let's look at the most common ones with examples to help you visualise them.

Immediate (Due on Receipt):

Payment is expected as soon as the invoice is issued. This is most popular in retail sales and one-time services.

For example, a freelance photographer delivers final photos and sends an invoice marked "Due on Receipt." The client pays immediately via card or online transfer.

Shot- Term Credits (Net 5/Net 7/Net10/Net 15):

These terms allow customers a short grace period to make payments. They are common in fast-moving businesses where the cash flow cycle is tight.

For instance, an event management company gives the office 10 days to pay after each event. This builds loyalty while keeping payments predictable.

Standard Credits (Net 30/Net 45/Net 60):

These are the most widely used payment terms in B2B sales. They give customers flexibility while ensuring the business has a steady cash inflow.

A software reseller issues invoices on Net 30 terms, giving customers a full month to pay while they plan their cash outflows.

End of the Month (EOM or Net 30 EOM):

Here, invoices are due a certain number of days after the end of the month they were issued. It simplifies accounting for customers handling multiple purchases.

Imagine a stationery supplier invoices schools throughout the month, but all payments are due 30 days after month-end, making bookkeeping easier for both sides.

Milestone or Progress-Based Terms:

Payments are linked to project stages rather than just dates.

A construction firm bills 20% upfront, 50% mid-project, and the remaining 30% at the end, ensuring steady cash while aligning with project delivery.

Downside of Improper Payment Terms 

Your payment terms directly influence your business's cash flow. To be precise, shorter terms improve liquidity but can strain customer relationships. Long-term improves customer flexibility but stretches receivables.

Setting up consistent and transparent payment terms helps businesses to avoid unpredictable gaps between invoices and payments.

Configure & Manage Payment Terms in Zoho Billing 

Defining and enforcing payment terms becomes easy when your billing system handles them automatically.

With Zoho Billing, businesses can:

• Set flexible payment terms per customer or invoice.

• Automate due date calculation based on chosen terms.

• Show the payment terms clearly on the invoices and email notifications sent to customers.

• Send automated reminders before and after the set due date.

• Apply a late fee based on the due date.

• Track receivables based on the ageing report to find customers with chronic delays.

By setting the right payment terms along with the automations, you can ensure that every credit sale has a timeline, every invoice is accountable, and every customer relationship is transparent.

A reasonable credit control starts not from cashing payments but from setting expectations early and managing them consistently.

Letting customers pay on credit is one side and allowing credits a threshold of credits is another leverage many businesses offer these days.

Up Next: Setting up Credit Limit for Customers. 

• Topic Participants

• Hari | Zoho Billing

  

• Sticky Posts

• Community Learning Series | Digest #5 — September 2020

  Dear customers, We're happy to bring you the September edition of our #CommunityDigest! Keep track of your subscription KPIs right from your smartphone: Last month, we enhanced our Android mobile app to help our customers get daily updates on their business health. We got to know from a lot of customers that this has made their job much more easier because they no longer have to keep a reminder to manually check on the previous day's revenue or activations. If you have not downloaded it yet, here's

• Community Learning Series | Digest #4 - August 2020

  Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. I'm happy to bring you the fourth edition of our #CommunityDigest with some brand-new updates from us. 1. Daily Business Updates (for Android users) The Zoho Subscriptions Android app has got a cool new update: You can now get a push notification to your smartphone that lets you know how many activations and cancellations have taken place, and what's the net revenue for the previous day. The best part is, you can tell the app when exactly you

• Community Learning Series | Digest #3 - July 2020

  Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. We're glad to bring you the July edition of our #CommunityDigest. New community members can view our previous newsletters here. This time, we have two major updates and three interesting topics for you: 1. Zoho Subscriptions Developer Community Since the inception of Zoho Subscriptions, our team believed that the recurring billing platform we provide should be able to offer an extensive API library that empowers businesses to automate most

• Introducing: Community Learning Series | Digest #1 - May 2020

  Dear customers, We hope you are staying safe and healthy. Helping businesses manage their customer subscriptions more efficiently has always been, and always will be, our goal at Zoho Subscriptions. We strongly believe this is possible if we grow together as a community and share what we know with each other. To nurture this shared learning experience, here is our brand-new Community Learning Series! ​ Welcome to the first edition of our digest! Each edition of our community digest includes guides

• Recent Topics

• Contacts per department

  Hello, Is it possible to limit Contacts to a Department? Thanks

• How to restrict user/portal user change canvas view

  Hi , I would like to restrict user / portal user change their canvas view because I hide some sensitive field for them. I dont want my user switch the canvas view that do not belong to them But seems Zoho do not provide this setting?

• Draft & Schedule Emails Directly in Bigin

  Greetings, I hope all of you are doing well. We're happy to announce a few recent enhancements we've made to email in Bigin. We'll go over each one in detail, but here's a quick overview: Previously, you couldn't draft or schedule emails in Bigin, but

• Collections Management: #3 Tackling Payment Failures

  Sam refreshed the dashboard. "Payment failed". Same customer. Same subscription. This is happening for the third time. He sends a usual email: "Your renewal payment failed again. Could you please check and retry?" A couple of days passed, and there was

• How can I convert a PST file to EML format?

  You’re asking how to convert a PST file to EML format. Doing this manually can be time-consuming and may cause data loss. Aryson PST Converter offers a reliable way to convert PST to EML. It preserves attachments, folder structure, and supports bulk conversion.

• How do I increase the email attachment size in Zoho CRM ?

  It looks like I'm limited to 10MB when sending an attachment using the email widget on a record in Zoho CRM. Is there a way to increase the size? Or can I use some other tool? From what I'm reading online, I'm maxed out at 10MB. Any insight would be greatly

• Custom Field in Zoho Projects pulling into Analytics

  We have a client that we have built our their new business process using Zoho Projects, and we have build a lot of custom fields with their their Projects where they are capturing specific data points that we want to be able to track and pull data, as

• Kiosk can't merge picklist or multiselect

  There is no ability to load a multiselect or picklikst field into a kiosk with the values that have been previously selected. So, I essentially have 3 unacceptable options: 1.)Load the value into a text string and include instructions like this: "Picklist

• WhatsApp Channels in Zoho Campaigns

  Now that Meta has opened WhatsApp Channels globally, will you add it to Zoho Campaigns? It's another top channel for marketing communications as email and SMS. Thanks.

• Zoho sign and creator error message {"code":9043,"error_param":"Checked by","message":"Extra key found","status":"failure"}

  Good day, I receive the error message: {"code":9043,"error_param":"Checked by","message":"Extra key found","status":"failure"} when running below code from creator to sign, void TestForSign(int ID) { //Fetch Template Details (Optional, for dynamic mapping)

• Download a writer template as .docx instead of .pdf.

  I have been trying to implement a feature to download a writer template as a .docx and got it working partly but it isn't good. Earlier I checked our code and I saw openurl("https://crm.zoho.com/crm/org121314/specific/Template.do?action=print&step=pdfPreview&id="

• Allow the usage of Multi-Select fields as the primary field on "Layout Rules"

  We want to force our users to enter some explanation strings when a multi-select field has been utilized. I can't understand the reason for the usage restriction of Multi-Select fields as a primary field. This is a simple "Display hidden mandatory field

• Ask the Experts 25: Experience the full spectrum of Zoho Desk’s autumn and spring releases for 2025

  Hello Everyone, We’re on the 25th episode of our ATE series! It's a true milestone in our live community interactions! It’s been an amazing journey since we started in October 2018. Zoho Desk has come a long way, evolving with the support of a wonderful

• WriterTh

  After every space Writer goes to capital letters mode in my Android tablet. The cap mode stays till the second letter is typed in the word then it comes to normal mode.

• Extract Archived Projects using Zoho Projects API

  In my organization we archive the projects when they are already completed, charged, invoiced, so that only those that are still pending process remain active. I need to access all projects (active and archived) from an external system, but the API v3

• Pincode based Product Restriction

  we have different types of products. 1) Very bulky items like plywood. 2) Too delicate items like glass These type of products we want to sell to local customers. Other products we want to supply all over India. There should be an option to restrict products

• Ask the Experts: Five-hour live Q&A session with Zoho WorkDrive product experts

  Have questions about WorkDrive 5.0? Let’s talk! We recently launched Zoho WorkDrive 5.0, packed with powerful updates to help your team work smarter, stay secure, and get more value from your business content. From content-centric workflows and AI-powered

• File upload support for subforms

  Dear All, Subforms help you add and track data related to your CRM records. We've always supported most of the commonly used field types in subforms, so as to cater to your business requirements. Now we're happy to extend support to file upload fields.

• Introducing custom lookup fields in the Tickets, Contacts, and Accounts modules

  Hello all, We are excited to announce a new enhancement that will empower you to further customize the Tickets, Contacts, and Accounts modules. Now, you will be able to create custom lookup fields in your Tickets, Contacts, and Accounts layouts for more

• Two factor authentication for helpdesk users

  The company i work for wants use the helpdesk site in Zoho desk, as a place for their distribution partners to ask question and look for information about our product. The things there is suppose to go up there is somewhat confidential between my company

• Circular record relationship in CRM

  Given there is a lookup in custom module Transactions creating a related list on the chosen Contact record. I. e. a lookup field on Transactions module points to Contacts. The related list on a Contact record can thus have have many transaction records.

• Contact data removes Account data when creating a quote

  Hi, Our customer has address fields in their quote layout which should be the address of the Account. They prefill the information, adding the account name - the address data is populated as per what is in the account - great. However when they then add

• Multi-currency and Products

  One of the main reasons I have gone down the Zoho route is because I need multi-currency support.  However, I find that products can only be priced in the home currency, We sell to the US and UK.  However, we maintain different price lists for each. 

• All new Address Field in Zoho CRM: maintain structured and accurate address inputs

  The address field will be available exclusively for IN DC users. We'll keep you updated on the DC-specific rollout soon. It's currently available for all new sign-ups and for existing Zoho CRM orgs which are in the Professional edition. Latest update

• Is it possible to pull the Zoho desk data into Zoho analytics in real time

  Hi - I am looking to add more dashboards and reports of Zoho Desk in analytics. I see there is a schedule to pull the data into analytics, but I'm wondering if there is an option to pull the data in real time instead of a specific interval?

• Enhance productivity with the revamped Zoho Sheet View

  Hello folks, For some time now, you've been able to use the Zoho Sheet View to quickly edit multiple records or to insert a batch of new records. Its tabular interface allows users to engage in these tasks productively. Despite this, the existing Sheet

• How to set value of dropdown field to variable

  For the life of me, I can't figure out why the following code won't set input.status to the previousSelection. Steps to reproduce: 1. Click input.complete 2. input.status dropdown updates from '1-Backlog' to '4-Done' 3. Click input.complete again to deselect

• [Product Update] TimeSheets module is now renamed as Time Logs in Zoho Projects.

  Dear Zoho Analytics customers, As part of the ongoing enhancements in Zoho Projects, the Timesheets module has been renamed to Time Logs. However, the module name will continue to be displayed as Timesheets in Zoho Analytics until the relevant APIs are

• Issue in Annual Leave

  We created a policy to credit 21 days at the Start of the Year An employee has taken 16 days of leaves thought the year, so we expect to see 5 Leaves remaining right? But Zoho People is Showing 12 Days of Leave Balance Available If we check the Leave

• [WEBINAR][MEA] Learn how to control your inventory and multi-channel sales with the Zoho Inventory & Zoho Books integration

  Hello there, We are hosting an exclusive live webinar tailored for businesses across the Middle East and African countries, where you'll learn how to take full control of your inventory and multi-channel sales while keeping your accounting perfectly in

• Less clicks, more connection – the usability edge of Zoho Desk

  Imagine joining a new workplace, eager to prove your skills, partner with peers, learn new tools, and build a strong foundation for your career. The standards you've set could drive pressure into your head. You now discover the organization is using Zoho

• Tip #3 Automating total item weight calculation for your sales orders in Zoho Inventory

  Hello, Hope the day is treating you well. Last week, we saw how we could automate the calculation of total shipping charges from numerous shipments for your sales orders and invoices. This week, we will see how you can automate the calculation of total item weight for your sales orders.  How does this work? First, you are required to capture the weight of all your items using a custom field. And when you create a sales order, you can either have the system display the individual weights for you or

• Why Format section gets disabled when we create Merge Template over PDF

  I need some assistance I have a Client who is going to give certificates to users who passes his exam. So, I am using mail merge but in ZOHO writer after I upload the PDF and create merge Template over PDF the format Section gets disabled. My problem

• Whatsapp Integration on Zoho Campaign

  Team: Can the messages from Zoho Campaign delivered through Whatsapp... now customers no longer are active on email, but the entire campaign module is email based.... when will it be available on whatsapp.... are there any thirdparty providers who can

• Big Things Just Dropped in the SalesIQ Universe: Top Upgrades You’ll Love in Nova’25

  Nova'25 has landed, and it’s packed with meaningful upgrades to help you engage smarter, work faster, and scale with ease. Whether you're into proactive messaging, smarter automation, or better admin control, there's something here for everyone. Here's

• How to calculate separate totals for Product Line Items filtered by category in Quotes?

  Hello! I'm working with Quotes in Zoho CRM and need help calculating conditional totals for line items. Current setup: I have two tables in my Quote template (Zoho Writer), both displaying Quoted Line Items Table 1 (top): Shows all products where Product

• I Need Help Verifying Ownership of My Zoho Help Desk on Google Search Console

  I added my Zoho desk portal to Google Search Console, but since i do not have access to the html code of my theme, i could not verify ownership of my portal on Google search console. I want you to help me place the html code given to me from Google search

• Zoho Desk API Documentation missing a required field

  We are trying to create a section using this information. Even after preparing everything based on that page, we still get an error. The error we get is this: {"errorCode":"INVALID_DATA","message":"The data is invalid due to validation restrictions","errors":[{"fieldName":"/translations","errorType":"missing","errorMessage":""}]}

• Fetch Subform values through a lookup of a lookup

  Hi, I'm having an issue fetching the values of a subform through a lookup field through another lookup field. The code works perfectly to show me the subform row ID, but the second I try to get any readable data, it says "Error occurred. Please contact

• Good news! Calendar in Zoho CRM gets a face lift

  Dear Customers, We are delighted to unveil the revamped calendar UI in Zoho CRM. With a complete visual overhaul aligned with CRM for Everyone, the calendar now offers a more intuitive and flexible scheduling experience. What’s new? Distinguish activities

• Next Page