Payment terms and due dates

Most invoices are paid late for a boring reason: nobody was told clearly when they were due. "Net 30" is jargon, "payable on receipt" is not a date, and an invoice with only an issue date leaves the client's accounts department to guess — and they will guess in their own favour, which is the next payment run.

Write a date, not a phrase

Whatever terms you have agreed, put the actual due date on the document: not "30 days", but the day it falls on. It removes every ambiguity in one stroke — whether the clock started at the invoice date or at delivery, whether the days are calendar or working, whether the month has 30 or 31. The app calculates the due date from the issue date and your terms and prints it, so the client sees a day rather than an arithmetic problem. Keep the terms line as well if it explains the date, but the date is what gets paid.

What the common terms mean

Net 30 means the full amount is due 30 days from the invoice date. Net 15, net 60 and net 90 work the same way with different numbers, and longer terms are common when invoicing large organisations — often not negotiable, and worth knowing before you price the work. "Due on receipt" means immediately, which in practice means the next payment run. "2/10 net 30" is an early settlement discount: two per cent off if paid within ten days, otherwise the full amount at thirty. Whether an early payment discount is worth offering is arithmetic: two per cent for twenty days early is an expensive way to borrow if you do not need the cash.

Make it easy to pay you

A due date only helps if paying is frictionless. Put the bank details on the invoice, state the reference the client should quote, and use the invoice number as that reference so incoming money matches without detective work. If you take more than one payment method, list them in the order you prefer. And send the invoice to the person who pays it rather than the person who hired you — in anything larger than a small business these are different people, and an invoice sitting in the wrong inbox is not late, it is invisible.

Late payment, and what is worth writing

Stating what happens after the due date is normal and mildly effective: a late payment charge, interest, or a reference to the terms agreed. What that clause is actually worth depends on your jurisdiction — many countries have statutory rules on commercial late payment interest, sometimes with a floor that applies whether or not you wrote anything, and sometimes with limits on what you can impose. So write the clause, keep it simple, and find out what your national rules give you before you rely on the wording. In practice the thing that gets invoices paid is not the clause; it is a clear due date, a correct reference, and a polite reminder a few days after.