Terms Due vs doing it by hand (or hiring someone)
Every wholesaler runs credit control somehow. The question is whether it is a person's job, a person's side job or a process that runs itself. Here is what each costs.
10 min
Typical time to find, write to and note one late invoice, each week it stays late
5
Messages in a complete reminder sequence, before the first phone call
14 days
The point most wholesalers pause orders, if someone remembers to
Three ways to run credit control
| By hand, as a side job | A credit controller | Terms Due | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who does it | The owner or office manager, on Fridays | A part-time or full-time hire | The app, daily; you make the calls |
| Cost | Hours, and the holds that never happened | A salary or day rate | Free up to 3 accounts, then from $49 a month |
| Reminders | When there is time | On schedule, by email and phone | On schedule, by email and text |
| Holds at checkout | Rare; editing terms by hand | Still editing terms by hand | Automatic |
| Collection from saved cards | By hand from the order, sometimes | By hand from the order | On the due date |
| Aging report | A spreadsheet, when updated | A spreadsheet, kept properly | Live |
| When it stops | Holidays, busy weeks, staff changes | Holidays, notice periods | It does not |
| Judgement calls | The owner | The controller | Still the owner, with the facts in front of them |
What by hand really costs
Nobody puts the owner's Friday afternoon on a budget line, so manual credit control looks free. It is not. The direct cost is the time: for a book with twenty-five late invoices at any moment, roughly four hours a week of someone's attention, every week. The indirect cost is larger and invisible: the orders that went through to accounts that should have been held, the reminders that went out a fortnight late because the week was busy, and the invoices that quietly aged past 60 days while everyone was dealing with something else.
The pattern is always the same. By hand works when there is time, and there is never time in the weeks that matter.
When hiring makes sense
A credit controller earns their keep when the book is large enough that judgement is needed every day: hundreds of accounts, large invoices, buyers with their own purchasing departments, disputes that need negotiating. They also bring the phone call, which no app replaces, and a feel for which buyer is in trouble before the numbers say so.
A good controller with Terms Due is better than either alone. The app runs the sequence and the holds, which is the part a person finds tedious and does inconsistently; the controller spends their time on the day-30 calls, the payment plans and the limit decisions. Many merchants find that a part-time bookkeeper with the app does what they thought needed a full-time hire.
Worked example
Sixty accounts, one owner
A fashion label's founder ran credit control herself: an export every Friday, reminders by email, and the occasional awkward call. It took most of an afternoon and slipped whenever a trade show or a drop got in the way. The aging report, when she made one, showed 40 percent of the book past due.
With Terms Due the Friday afternoon is gone. Reminders and holds run daily. The Monday email takes five minutes to read and lists the three accounts that need a call. Three months later the book is 18 percent past due, not because anyone chased harder but because every invoice was chased on the right day and two boutiques were held before they reordered.
| Hours per week, before | about 4 |
|---|---|
| Hours per week, after | about 0.5 (reading the email, making calls) |
| Share of book past due, before | 40% |
| Share of book past due, after | 18% |
The part a person should do, and the part they should not
Leave to the app
- Knowing which invoices are due this week.
- Sending the right reminder on the right day, by email and text.
- Applying and lifting holds.
- Charging saved cards on the due date.
- Keeping the aging report current.
- Working out late payment interest.
Keep for a person
- Deciding limits and terms for each buyer.
- The phone call at day 30.
- Payment plans and disputes.
- Deciding when to stop trading with someone.
- Reading the Monday email and acting on it.
Getting the hours back
Install Terms Due, set limits, turn on the default schedule and keep doing it by hand for a fortnight alongside. By the second Monday the email will have told you about everything you would have found on the Friday export, a few days earlier. That is usually when the export stops.
Questions
Will buyers notice the difference between an app and a person?
They notice that reminders arrive on time and say the same thing every month. Most prefer it; it is predictable, and nobody feels singled out.
Does the app make credit decisions?
No. It applies the limits and rules you set. Every hold and every charge follows from a setting you chose, and you can override any of them.
What if I already have a credit controller?
Give them the app. It removes the repetitive part of their week and gives them a live aging report and a timeline for every invoice to work from.
How long does setup take?
Most merchants are running within an afternoon: install, set a default limit, adjust a few companies, turn on the schedule.
Related
vs spreadsheets
The limits of tracking Shopify B2B invoices, due dates and credit limits in a spreadsheet, and when it is time to move to a net terms app.
Read moreEmail and text reminders
Send automatic email and text reminders for Shopify B2B invoices before and after the due date, with a one-tap pay link and firmer wording as invoices age.
Read moreHow Terms Due works
How Terms Due tracks balances, enforces credit limits at checkout, sends reminders and collects Shopify B2B net terms invoices, step by step.
Read moreStop chasing wholesale invoices by hand
Install Terms Due, set a credit limit for each buyer and let the app hold, remind and collect.
Install on Shopify