Payment Terms

A payment term is a credit term you extend to a customer or accept from a supplier, expressed as a duration and a unit, for example 30 days or 2 months. When you put a payment term on an invoice or bill, ZyncLedger uses it to calculate the due date, and that due date is what drives the aging on your aging reports. The bookkeeper or accountant sets up the terms once, and everyone picks from the list.

How a payment term sets the due date

The due date is the transaction date plus the term's duration:

• Immediate (a duration of 0) makes the document due on its transaction date.
• Net 30 adds 30 days.
• A term in weeks adds that many weeks.
• A term in months or years moves the calendar forward by that many months or years. If the same day does not exist in the target month, the due date is that month's last day: 31 January plus 1 month is 28 February (29 February in a leap year).

The due date then places the amount in an aging bucket (current, then overdue by increasing periods) on the Customer Aging Summary and Customer Aging Detail reports, and the Supplier Aging Summary and Supplier Aging Detail reports.

Where payment terms are used

You pick a payment term on:

• Invoice
• Bill
• Bill Credit

Choosing a term fills in the Due Date, and changing the transaction date or the term recalculates it. You can still edit the due date by hand before saving. On the default templates, Payment Term is required on bills and bill credits and optional on invoices.

A GRN has no payment term or due date of its own. On the dashboard, the Payables and Supplier payments due cards work out when a GRN falls due from the supplier's Default Payment Term.

Defaults

Two defaults save you picking the term every time:

• Your own default. Under Settings → Defaults, set Default Payment Terms. This is a personal setting for your user, not for the whole business. It pre-fills the payment term on new Invoices, Bills, and Bill Credits.
• A customer's or supplier's default. Set a Default Payment Term on a customer or supplier. Choosing that customer on an invoice, or that supplier on a bill or bill credit, replaces your own default with theirs and recalculates the due date.

You can change the pre-filled term before saving.

Before you start

ZyncLedger seeds four payment terms for every new business, all active and approved: Immediate, Net 30, Net 60, and Net 90. Add more only if you offer terms these do not cover.

Access is controlled by the Payment Terms permissions in your user's permission profile, under Administration → Permissions (see Users, seats & permissions). There are separate switches to list, create, edit, delete, and approve payment terms.

Create a payment term

1. Open the Payment Terms list

   Go to Lists → Payment Terms. The list shows each term's Term name, Duration, Status (Active or Inactive, and Approved or Pending), and who created it.

2. Start a new term

   Select Add Payment Term. The Create New Payment Term panel opens from the right.

3. Name the term

   Type the Payment Term Name (required), for example Net 45 or 2 Months. Each name must be unique. The name is a label only; the duration below is what sets the due date.

4. Set the duration

   Enter the two fields that define the credit period:

   Field	What it does
   Duration Count (required)	The whole number of units of credit. Enter 0 for a term that is due immediately.
   Duration Unit (required)	The unit: Days, Weeks, Months, or Years. Defaults to Days.

   When the count is above zero, a Preview below the fields shows the term as it will read, for example 45 days.

5. Set the status flags

   Two checkboxes control whether the term can be used:

   Field	What it does
   Active	On by default. An inactive term stays for history but is not offered on new transactions.
   Approved	Off by default. A term is only offered for selection once it is both Active and Approved. Ticking this needs the approve permission. Once a term is saved as approved, the box is locked and cannot be cleared.

6. Save

   Select Create Payment Term. The term appears in the list and, once approved, in the payment-term dropdown on invoices, bills, and bill credits.

You can also add a term without leaving a transaction: open the Payment Term dropdown and select Add Payment Terms. The same panel opens, and the new term is selected on the transaction straight away if you saved it as both Active and Approved.

Import or export the list

If you have the create permission, the list also shows Import and Export. Export downloads the list as a CSV file. Import loads terms from a CSV file: you match its columns to Payment Term Name, Duration Count, Duration Unit, Active Status, and Approved Status, and choose whether to skip or update names that already exist.

Edit, deactivate, or delete

Select the edit icon on any row to rename a term, change its duration, or change its Active flag. Editing a term does not change the due date already saved on past invoices, bills, and bill credits; it only affects transactions you enter afterwards. To retire a term without losing history, clear its Active flag rather than deleting it.

Related

• Customers — set a default payment term per customer.
• Suppliers — set a default payment term per supplier.
• Invoice — where the term sets the customer's due date.
• Bill — where the term sets the supplier's due date.
• Payment Methods — the companion list for how money is received and paid.