Payment terms and due dates - Cargoflow Support

Overview

Two client settings govern their collections: when they pay and their credit days. The first also decides how their charges are grouped: one invoice per operation or a single one a month. Together they calculate each invoice’s due date, which drives the overdue mark and receivables aging.

Before you start

Permission to edit clients (Super Admin and Admin by default).
If the client came from a quote, they already have the quoted terms.

The Payment terms tab

In Commercial › Clients, open the client and go to Payment terms:

When this client pays — Per transaction, On arrival, On departure or Monthly. Required; defaults to Per transaction.
Credit days (net) — 0 to 365. Empty = the invoice is due the day it is issued.
Billing currency — see Currencies; it doesn’t decide the charges’ currency.

Click Save payment terms: “Payment terms saved.”

The four options

Option	How it is invoiced	Credit runs from
Per transaction	One invoice per operation (receipt, shipment, special job, day of daily storage)	The invoice date
On arrival	One invoice per operation	The group’s earliest arrival (date of the receiving handling); if the invoice has no receiving handling, the invoice date
On departure	One invoice per operation	The group’s latest departure (date of the shipping handling); if it has none, the invoice date
Monthly	A single invoice per client per closed month, with everything in the month	The last day of the month

On Monthly, the current month’s charges stay pending until the month ends; the first run after the 1st builds the previous month’s invoice. The monthly invoice carries a service period (first to last of the month) and no document reference.

What date the invoice carries

Not the day it is generated: the date of the latest charge in the group. A shipment that left on the 10th and was invoiced in the early hours of the 11th is dated the 10th. A monthly invoice carries the date of the month’s last charge. A manual invoice carries the date you enter.

How the due date is calculated

Due date = the date credit runs from + credit days.

Per transaction, 15 days: an invoice of September 10 is due on the 25th.
Monthly, 30 days: the September invoice is due October 30 (September 30 + 30).
Manual invoice: always the invoice date + credit days, regardless of the terms.
Consolidated: recalculated with the client’s credit days.

Credit days are copied onto the invoice when it is created: changing them later on the client doesn’t move the due date of invoices already issued.

When an invoice is overdue

An invoice is marked Overdue (in red on the list and the detail) from the day after its due date, as long as it is not paid. The list’s Overdue only filter takes pending or partial invoices with a balance and a due date before today.

In Receivables, aging is measured from the due date: Current, 1–30, 31–60, 61–90 and 90+ days. See Collections: payments and receivables.

Tip: a voided invoice with a past due date still shows the Overdue mark on its detail. It doesn’t count in receivables or in the overdue filter: ignore the mark.

Changing a client’s terms

It applies to invoices generated afterwards; issued ones keep their due date.
Moving to Monthly mid-month: what was already invoiced per operation stays that way; what is pending for the month will be grouped at month end.
Leaving Monthly: pending charges are invoiced per operation on the next run.

Example with the four terms

A receipt of September 2 and a shipment of September 12 for the same client, 15 credit days:

Per transaction: two invoices; the receipt’s (dated the 2nd) is due the 17th, the shipment’s (dated the 12th) is due the 27th.
On arrival: same for the receipt; the shipment’s, without receiving handling, is due the 27th.
On departure: the shipment’s is due the 27th; the receipt’s, without shipping handling, the 17th.
Monthly: one September invoice with both, generated in the early hours of October 1, due October 15.

Best practices

Enter the terms when setting up the client, before their first operation.
Use Monthly for clients who want a single document a month: it avoids consolidating by hand.
Record payments the day they arrive: the overdue mark is only reliable if payments are up to date.

Troubleshooting

The invoice was due the same day it was issued.

The client has no credit days entered.

A monthly client has no invoice for the current month.

That is correct: it is built when the month ends.

I changed the credit days and invoices keep the old due date.

The change only applies to new invoices.

FAQ

Can I change an invoice’s due date?

There is no field to edit it. If it is essential, void the invoice, fix the client’s terms and generate again.

Does the system tell the client their invoice is overdue?

No. There are no automatic collection reminders: use Receivables for your follow-up.