Customer payment terms - Cargoflow Support

Summary

The Payment terms tab of the customer record sets three things: when it pays, how many credit days it has and its billing currency. The first one matters most, because it does not only decide when the invoice falls due: it also decides whether the customer gets one invoice per operation or a single one per month.

Before you start

Permission: Configure Clients (Admin and Superadmin).
Module: the terms only take effect if the warehouse has the billing module.
When to set them: before the customer generates its first charge. If it came from a won quote, they already carry what was quoted.

The fields, one by one

The tab has a single form, Client payment terms, with its Save payment terms button. Saving shows «Payment terms saved.»

Field	Required?	Accepts	If left blank
When this client pays	Yes	Per transaction, On arrival, On departure or Monthly.	Starts on «Per transaction».
Credit days (net)	No	Whole number from 0 to 365.	The invoice is due on its base date.
Billing currency	No	3-letter code (MXN, USD); saved in upper case.	No currency of its own (see below what that means).

When this client pays

Option	How many invoices	Credit days count from
Per transaction	One per operation (a receipt, a shipment, a job).	The invoice date (that of the operation’s last charge).
On arrival	One per operation.	The date of the invoice’s first receiving handling charge.
On departure	One per operation.	The date of the invoice’s last shipping handling charge.
Monthly	A single one per closed month, with the whole month: handling, accessorials, overtime and storage.	The last day of the invoiced month.

If an «On arrival» or «On departure» invoice has no charge of that type, days count from the invoice date.

Credit days

They are added to the base date to work out the due date. The invoice stores the days and shows them as its terms; the invoice template prints them as «Net» followed by the days. With 0, the invoice is due on its base date.

Billing currency

It is the customer’s currency. It is filled in from the quote currency when the customer comes from one, and it is the currency used for the customer’s exclusive services.

Important: despite its name, this field does not convert or set the currency of invoices. Each charge carries the currency of its rate (the customer’s or the catalog’s), and the invoice takes the currency of its charges; charges in different currencies always go on separate invoices. If you want to bill in dollars, that customer’s rates must be in dollars (under Advanced on each rate).

What happens next in billing

Invoice generation (every night at 2:30, or when someone clicks generate in billing) groups pending charges according to this tab. See Generate invoices.
Monthly customers: the current month’s charges stay in the unbilled pool until the month ends; the first generation of the next month produces the full-month invoice. A late charge for a month already invoiced is added to that invoice while it is still open (not voided or exported to accounting).
Minimum and maximum charges from the rates are calculated on the invoice, as an adjustment line. For monthly customers the minimum and maximum of daily storage apply once a month; for others, those daily storage limits are not applied (those of storage charged at shipment are).
Collections: the due date drives the aging in receivables. See Collections and payments.
Existing invoices: keep the terms they were created with. Changing the tab only affects new invoices.

The full journey, from quote to payment, is in From quote to first invoice.

Examples with dates

Sample Imports, «Monthly», 30 days. In August it has 6 receipts, 9 shipments and daily storage. Nothing is invoiced during August. In the early hours of 1 September one invoice is created with all of August’s charges; it is due 31 August + 30 days = 30 September.

Southern Logistics, «Per transaction», 15 days. A shipment closes on 10 September with handling charges and an accessorial. That night an invoice dated 10 September is created, due on 25 September.

Test Customer, «On arrival», 7 days. A receipt confirmed on 3 September creates its receiving handling charge; that operation’s invoice is due on 10 September, even if it is generated later.

Special cases and limits

Consolidating invoices: when several invoices of a customer are consolidated, the new one falls due from its own date plus the customer’s credit days. See Consolidate invoices.
Switching to monthly: charges already invoiced are not regrouped; only pending ones are grouped by month.
Mixed currencies: a monthly customer with rates in two currencies gets two invoices a month, one per currency.
No billing module: the tab saves, but has no visible effect.

Best practices

Set the terms on setup day, before the first charge.
Use «Monthly» for customers with lots of small operations: one invoice a month instead of fifty.
Enter credit days even when they are 0: it makes it explicit.
Set the currency on the customer’s rates, not only here.

Troubleshooting

A monthly customer has no invoice this month.

As expected: the current month is invoiced when it closes. Its charges are in the unbilled pool.

I set «Billing currency» to USD and the invoice came out in pesos.

The invoice takes its charges’ currency. Change the currency of the customer’s rates (Advanced) for new charges.

The due date is not what I expected.

Check «When this client pays»: with «On arrival» and «On departure» the base date is the handling charge’s, not the invoice’s.

The credit days are rejected.

Whole numbers from 0 to 365 only.

Frequently asked questions

What if I switch from «per transaction» to «monthly» mid-month?

What was already invoiced stays as it is. Charges still pending and new ones are gathered into the month’s invoice when it closes.

Can I invoice a monthly customer before the month closes?

Not with automatic generation: the current month is always deferred. If you need a one-off invoice, create it as a manual invoice in billing.