Set up payment terms

A payment term is your agreement about when an invoice is due — Net 30, Due on Receipt, End of Month, 2/10 Net 30. In SKU.io you define each term once, in one shared list, and then attach it to suppliers and customers. Everything that needs a due date reads it from there.

The same list serves both sides of your business, so each term also records who it applies to:

Applies to	Where you can pick the term
Purchasing	Suppliers, purchase orders, and supplier bills
Sales	Customers and sales orders
Both	Everywhere — the right choice for a plain term like Net 30

Before you begin

Requirement	Why it's needed
Access to Settings	Payment terms are configured there.
Permission to manage payment terms	Without it the Create Payment Term button is hidden.

Create a payment term

1. Go to Settings, open General, and choose Payment Terms. The list shows every term you already have, with its Applies To scope and Net Days.

2. Click Create Payment Term.

3. Give the term a Name your team will recognise — 2/10 Net 30, Net 45, Due on Receipt. This name is what appears in the dropdown on every supplier, customer, and order.

4. Add a short Description if the name alone doesn't make the deal obvious.

5. Set Applies to. Choose Sales for a customer-only term, Purchasing for a supplier-only one, or Both when the same deal runs in both directions.

6. Under Invoice Payment Terms, choose how the due date is calculated:

   Due Date Type	Due date lands on
   Due Immediately	The invoice date itself.
   Days After Invoice Date	Invoice date plus Net Days — this is what "Net 30" means.
   End of Invoice Month + Days	The end of the invoice's own month, plus Net Days.
   End of Next Month	The end of the month after the invoice month.
   Specific Day of Month	A fixed day of the month, set by Net Days.

7. Enter Net Days to match — 30 for Net 30.

8. For an early-settlement deal, fill in Discount Percentage and Discount Days. "2/10 Net 30" means 2% off if paid within 10 days, otherwise the full amount in 30 — so that's 2 and 10, with Net Days 30.

9. Click Save. The term is immediately available on suppliers, customers, and orders.

Set a default

Two checkboxes at the bottom of the term let it apply automatically when nothing more specific is set:

• Set as the site-wide default for POs when the supplier has no payment term
• Set as the default for sales orders when the customer has no payment term

Only one term can hold each default. Defaults are a fallback, not an override — a term set directly on a supplier or customer always wins.

Terms that can only be used for purchasing

Some options only make sense when you're the one paying:

• A Payment Schedule — staged milestones such as 20% on approval, 40% on shipment, 40% on receipt — which can raise vendor deposits.
• Consignment (pay on sale), where received stock stays supplier-owned until it sells.

Turn either of these on and the term becomes purchasing-only: Applies to is set to Purchasing and it stops appearing on customers and sales orders. If you need the same headline terms on the sales side, create a separate term for it.

What a term drives once it's set

• On a supplier bill, the due date and any early-payment discount.
• On a sales order, the payment due date shown on the order and used by Receivables to age the balance.
• Editing a term later does not move the due dates on documents that already used it. Each document keeps the terms it was created under, so history stays accurate.

Next steps

• Set a customer's payment terms and credit limit — put a sales term to work.
• Manage credit holds on sales orders — stop over-limit orders from shipping.
• Create and edit a supplier — attach a purchasing term.