Net terms for food and drink suppliers
Cafes, delis and restaurants order every week and pay when they remember. Terms Due keeps the orders flowing and the invoices paid.
Frequent orders, thin margins
When a buyer orders weekly, four or five invoices can be open before the first one is due. A buyer in trouble can run up a month or more of stock before anyone notices. A credit limit sized to two or three weeks of orders stops that early.
Kitchen owners run their business from their phone, so text reminders with a pay link get paid far faster than emails to an inbox nobody checks during service. And because margins on food and drink are thin, one unpaid month from one cafe can wipe out the profit on ten good ones.
What goes wrong
- Weekly invoices pile up faster than monthly payment runs clear them.
- The owner orders; a bookkeeper pays, on a different day, from a different inbox.
- A cafe that is struggling keeps ordering because the food has to arrive.
- Nobody wants to be the supplier who stopped the delivery.
- Disputes about a short box of something perishable hold up a whole invoice.
Before and after
Before
- Five open invoices per cafe at any time, and no idea of the total.
- Reminders by email to accounts@, read fortnightly.
- The first sign of trouble is a month of unpaid deliveries.
- Stopping supply is a phone call nobody wants to make.
With Terms Due
- A limit of two to three weeks of orders per cafe, checked on every order.
- A text to the owner's phone on the due date, paid between tables.
- A hold at 7 days late, lifted the moment they pay.
- Stopping supply is a rule the buyer agreed to, applied by the app.
Suggested starting settings
| Setting | Suggested | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Terms | Net 15 or Net 30 | Shorter terms suit weekly ordering; Net 7 for new accounts |
| Default limit | Two to three weeks of orders | Caps exposure at a few deliveries |
| Grace period | 7 days | A week late on a weekly account is already two more deliveries |
| Reminders | Text on the due date and at 7 days; email alongside | The owner has the phone; the bookkeeper has the email |
| Collection | On, from saved cards | Removes the payment run from the equation |
| Statements | Monthly | For the cafes with a bookkeeper |
Worked example
The deli that was about to run up a month
Northgate Deli orders $700 a week on Net 15 with a $2,100 limit. In week three a payment is missed. By week four they have $2,100 open and try to order $700 more. Checkout stops: over the limit and 7 days late. The owner sees the message, taps the link and pays the oldest invoice from his phone. The order goes through ten minutes later. The supplier's exposure never went above three weeks, and nobody made a call.
| Weekly order | $700 |
|---|---|
| Limit | $2,100 (3 weeks) |
| Maximum exposure | $2,100 |
| Time to resolve | 10 minutes |
Questions
Can I use Net 7 or Net 15 instead of Net 30?
Yes. Shopify offers Net 7 and Net 15; set it on the company location. Shorter terms suit weekly deliveries.
What about disputes over a short delivery?
Pause reminders for that invoice while you sort it, issue a credit for the shortfall, and let the balance follow the normal schedule.
Do cafes mind texts about invoices?
They prefer them to emails they do not read. Say in your trade terms that you may text about the account, and every text has a way to opt out.
Related
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A practical process for chasing unpaid B2B invoices: timing, tone, channels, when to stop supplying, and reminder wording you can copy.
Read moreCredit holds
Put Shopify B2B companies on credit hold automatically when an invoice is overdue or they pass their limit. New orders are blocked at checkout until they pay.
Read moreCoffee roasters
For coffee roasters supplying cafes and restaurants on Shopify: weekly orders on short terms, limits sized to a few deliveries, text reminders and holds.
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