Net 30 spread because trade suppliers sold goods to shops and waited a month for the till to turn over. It was a credit term between businesses with inventory, not a law of freelancing. Most people typing it onto a design invoice copied it from the last PDF they saw. That is how a default nobody picked became the thing you are now late against.
This guide is about which term to choose. The sentences you paste onto the invoice live in the payment terms wording examples. Do not mix the two jobs. Choosing Net 15 and then wording it like a poem still gets you paid slowly.
What the evidence can and cannot say about faster payment
I am not going to invent a statistic that 'Net 15 gets you paid 40% faster.' I have not run that study, and the blog posts that quote one rarely link a dataset. What I can say from the way invoices actually move: a nearer date is easier to put on a list, and a date that misses a client's payment run waits for the next one regardless of what you wrote.
Shorter terms help when the payer is a person who pays the PDF in front of them. They do less when the payer is a system that batches suppliers on a calendar you do not control. If you want a number, measure your own last twenty invoices. Average days from send to payment, split by the term you used. Your ledger is a better source than a stranger's infographic.
Due on receipt
Due on receipt means the invoice is payable when they get it. It works on small, finished jobs, on the final half of a project you already took a deposit for, and on clients who pay the same day as a matter of habit. It signals inexperience when it is the only term you have ever used, the amount is large, and you have no deposit, because it reads as 'I need this money tonight' even when you meant 'please do not sit on it for a month.'
If you use it, add a calendar date. 'Due on receipt, and no later than Tuesday 9 June.' Otherwise a careful accounts person will ask what receipt means, and a careless one will file it under whenever. The due date calculator will turn the phrase into that Tuesday so you are not counting on your fingers.
Net 7 and Net 15
For most freelance work with individuals, studios, and small companies, Net 7 or Net 15 is the useful middle. Long enough to feel like a normal bill. Short enough that the project is still in their head when the money leaves. Net 7 suits a completed gig under a few thousand, especially if you already have a relationship. Net 15 suits a monthly retainer's invoice or a project milestone.
Write the date, not only the label. Net 15 from an invoice dated 1 June is 16 June if you add 15 days to the invoice date. Say 'due Tuesday 16 June' on the PDF. Weekend dates should be moved on purpose, to Friday or Monday, and written that way. Do not leave 'Net 15' sitting on a Saturday and hope they share your definition of a business day.
Net 30, when it is actually required
Net 30 is genuinely required when you sell to a larger company whose accounts payable cycle is built around it. They onboard vendors at Net 30 or Net 45. Your PDF will not override their vendor master. Fighting the cycle with red text does not get you into Thursday's payment run. Asking, before you start, 'what terms are already in your system?' does.
If they require Net 30, protect yourself somewhere else. A deposit. A smaller first milestone. A start date that waits until the deposit clears. Net 30 on a $20,000 build with nothing up front is you lending them the production cost. Net 30 on the second half, after a 50% deposit, is ordinary.
Net 45 and Net 60
Accept these when the client pays them reliably and the fee includes the wait. A simple way to see the cost: if you could have had the cash on day 15 and you will have it on day 60, you floated 45 days. On $8,000 that is not a tragedy for a studio with savings. It is a problem if payroll depends on it. Price the float by raising the fee, or by refusing the term.
Some countries cap how long a large buyer may take to pay a smaller supplier. Those caps vary, and they are not a substitute for a deposit. This is general information, not legal advice. If a procurement portal forces Net 60 and forbids deposits, decide whether the logo is worth the loan. Do not discover the answer in week seven.
Deposits and split payments
A deposit is an alternative to arguing about net terms. Half to book the work, half on delivery, due on receipt. Or 40/30/30 across three milestones, each with its own date. The client still gets a schedule. You are not financing the entire job on faith.
Split payments also fit retainers. Bill on the 1st, due on the 15th, for work in that month. Or bill the month ahead. Either is clearer than a Net 30 invoice sent on the last day for work you finished three weeks earlier. The payment terms generator can hold the sentences. You still have to pick the shape.
Which term for which client
| Client | Term that usually fits | Protect yourself with |
|---|---|---|
| A person, or a tiny studio | Due on receipt or Net 7 | A deposit on anything over a week's work |
| A small company you know | Net 15 | The date printed on the invoice |
| A new client, any size | Deposit, then Net 15 on the balance | Do not start on a promise |
| A larger company with a payables cycle | Their cycle, often Net 30 or EOM+30 | A deposit or a smaller first milestone |
| Enterprise or public sector | Net 45 or Net 60 if you accept it | A higher fee, or a no |
| A client who has paid late twice | Shorter than last time, plus a deposit | Pause work when the last invoice is open |
How to change terms without a negotiation
Do it before the next job, in the estimate, not in a surprise invoice. One sentence: 'Invoices on this project are Net 15 from the invoice date, due on the calendar date printed on the PDF.' If they want Net 30, you can say yes and move 10% of the fee into a deposit. You do not need a speech about cash flow. You need a structure you can live with.
Do not change terms on an invoice they have already received. That feels like moving the goal after the kick. The next document is the one that changes. If they are mid-project and already late, the remedy is a reminder and, if your contract allows, a pause. It is not a retroactive Net 7.
Why the calendar date beats the label
Labels invite interpretation. Dates invite a payment run. 'Net 30' can mean 30 days, 30 business days, or the next cycle after 30 days, depending on who is reading. 'Due Thursday 23 July' means Thursday 23 July. Put the label in the terms block if their vendor form needs it. Put the date next to the total, where a human looks.
End-of-month terms are the version larger companies actually use. EOM means the last day of the invoice's month. EOM+30 means 30 days after that. An invoice dated 4 March on EOM+30 is not due on 3 April. It is due 30 days after 31 March. If you do not calculate that, you will remind them during a window they still call 'not due.' The calculator handles EOM and EOM+30 so you can print the real day.
A worked month, so the labels stop being abstract
Take an invoice dated Monday 1 June. Due on receipt means 1 June. Net 7 means Monday 8 June. Net 15 means Tuesday 16 June. Net 30 means Wednesday 1 July. Net 45 means Thursday 16 July. Net 60 means Friday 31 July. Net 90 means Sunday 30 August, which you should move to Monday 31 August if you do not want a weekend due date, and then print Monday on the PDF. This page counts the invoice date as day zero and adds the term. Some accounts teams count the invoice date as day one and land a day earlier. The printed date ends that argument.
Now the same 1 June invoice on end-of-month terms. Plain EOM is Tuesday 30 June, the last day of the invoice's month. EOM+30 is 30 days after 30 June, which is Thursday 30 July. That is not the same as Net 30, and it is not the same as 'about a month.' If you remind them on 2 July, you are early on an EOM+30 bill, and they will be right to say so. Larger companies use this shape because the payment run is tied to month end, not to the Tuesday you felt like sending the PDF.
Cash flow is the reason the label matters, and you can price it without a fake statistic. A £6,000 invoice on Net 15 is money you can plan around in the same month. The same invoice on Net 60 is two months of you funding their payables. If your own costs for that job were £2,000 paid to a contractor on delivery, Net 60 means you are lending them that £2,000 plus your time. A deposit of 40% (£2,400) on booking, and the rest on Net 15, puts the contractor cost back on their side of the ledger. That is a structural choice. It is not a personality trait.
Deposits, retainers, and the term you can actually live with
A deposit is not a payment term. It is a way to make a longer term survivable. Net 45 with 50% up front is a different deal from Net 45 on the whole fee. When a client says their system cannot do Net 15, believe the system and change the structure. Ask for the deposit before you start, then let the balance follow their cycle. You are not 'being difficult.' You are matching their constraint without lending them the whole job.
Split payments work the same way on a longer project. 40% to start, 30% at a midpoint you can point at, 30% on delivery, each with its own invoice and its own printed date. Three smaller invoices on Net 15 often arrive faster than one large invoice on Net 30, because each one fits a payment run and none of them waits for the project to be 'done' in a way nobody defined. Number them in sequence. Do not reuse a number if you cancel the middle one.
For a brand-new client, I would not open on Net 30 just because it looks standard. Due on receipt or Net 7, plus a deposit, tells you quickly whether they pay. For a client who has paid you four times on the date you printed, Net 15 is a fair default and Net 30 is a concession you can afford. For a company that has told you, in writing, that suppliers are paid 45 days from month end, accept that or decline the work. Do not accept it and then send surprised reminders on day 16.
Write the decision down next to the client, not only on the PDF. 'Acme, EOM+30, 50% deposit, confirmed 2 March.' The next invoice then starts from a note, not from whatever you remember Net 30 to mean. If you cannot explain the term in one sentence to the person who will chase it, the term is too vague to print. Vague terms are how due dates become arguments, and arguments are slower than transfers.
Late fees, if you use them, should start from the date you printed, after whatever grace you wrote down. The wording belongs in the late fee guide. The choice of term belongs here. Pick the term on purpose, print the date, and stop inheriting Net 30 from a PDF you did not write.