Net terms for coffee roasters
Cafes order beans every week and pay when they can. Terms Due keeps your wholesale accounts to a few deliveries' exposure and chases without you.
Who your buyers are
Independent cafes, restaurants, bakeries, offices and the occasional hotel group. Weekly or fortnightly orders of a few hundred each, placed from a phone between services by the owner or head barista. Cafes are busy, cash-tight and loyal, and a good one will be a customer for years. A struggling one will run up six weeks of beans before it says anything.
Because orders are frequent and small, trade credit for a roaster is many small loans rolling over constantly. The controls need to be automatic or they will not happen.
What goes wrong
- Four or five invoices open per cafe with no running total.
- The owner orders; a part-time bookkeeper pays, later.
- Beans delivered to a cafe that is a month behind because the espresso machine cannot wait.
- Equipment on loan to a cafe that owes for the coffee.
- Chasing thirty cafes by hand on a Friday, every Friday.
Before and after
Before
- Net 30 on weekly orders, so a month of beans is always open.
- Reminders by email, read at the weekend.
- Deliveries continue because stopping them is awkward.
- A failed cafe owes six weeks and a grinder.
With Terms Due
- Net 15 with a limit of three deliveries.
- A text to the owner's phone on the due date, paid at the counter.
- Orders held at 7 days late, lifted on payment.
- Exposure capped at three weeks of beans.
Suggested starting settings
| Setting | Suggested | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Terms | Net 15; Net 30 for hotels and offices | Short terms suit weekly deliveries |
| Default limit | Three deliveries' worth, $600 to $1,500 | Caps the loss at three weeks |
| New cafes | First month on a card | Many cafes are new businesses |
| Grace period | 7 days | A week on a weekly account is already another delivery |
| Reminders | Text at 0 and 7; email at -3 and alongside | The owner is on the phone |
| Collection | On | Cafes with a saved card never think about it |
Worked example
Three deliveries, then a conversation
A roaster supplies a cafe $450 of beans a week on Net 15 with a $1,350 limit. The cafe misses a payment. By the third week it has $1,350 open and 7 days late, and the next order is stopped at checkout. The owner texts back 'paying now', pays the oldest invoice from the link and the order goes through. Exposure never exceeded three deliveries. Before the app the same cafe had once reached $3,600 before anyone mentioned it.
| Weekly order | $450 |
|---|---|
| Limit | $1,350 (3 weeks) |
| Peak exposure, before | $3,600 |
| Peak exposure, after | $1,350 |
Questions
We lend equipment to wholesale accounts. Can Terms Due track that?
Not the equipment itself, but a manual hold with a note on the company is a good way to stop beans shipping to a cafe you need to collect a machine from.
Can subscriptions or standing orders be on terms?
If they are placed as orders on terms in Shopify, yes, each one is an invoice with a due date and is checked against the limit.
Is Net 15 the shortest term Shopify offers?
Shopify offers Net 7 as well, plus due on receipt and due on fulfilment. Net 15 suits most weekly accounts; use Net 7 for new ones.
Related
Food and drink wholesale
For food and drink suppliers selling to cafes, delis and restaurants on Shopify: weekly orders on terms, credit holds and text payment reminders.
Read moreCredit limits
Set a credit limit for each Shopify B2B company. Terms Due checks open balance plus the new order before checkout, so no buyer runs up more than you agreed.
Read moreChasing unpaid invoices
A practical process for chasing unpaid B2B invoices: timing, tone, channels, when to stop supplying, and reminder wording you can copy.
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