# Payment Terms

The due-date rules every sales and purchase document offers, the four kinds of rule, and why only Net Days can be added more than once.

A payment term is a rule for working out a due date from a document date. Terms are shared across sales, purchases and contacts, which is why they live in General rather than under one module.

Go to **Settings > Payment Terms**. One tab, **All Terms**, holding every term with its status.

![The All Terms tab of Payment Terms in Inventory Settings, headed Payment Terms above the line Define the terms (like Net 30 or Due on Receipt) that set when a document's payment is due, with a blue Term button at the right. A table with columns TERM, STATUS and ACTIONS lists Due on Receipt, Net 14 Days, Net 15 Days, Net 20 Days, Net 30 Days carrying a Default badge, Net 45 Days, Net 60 Days, Net 90 Days, Due End of Next Month and Due End of the Month. Every row is marked Active.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/inventory/settings/payment-terms.png)

*One term carries the Default badge, and it is the one a document falls back to.*

## The four rules

- **Net Days**: Due a fixed number of days after the document date. The day count is yours to set, so this is the only rule you can add more than one of.
- **Due on Receipt**: Due the same day the document is issued.
- **Due End of the Month**: Due on the last day of the document month.
- **Due End of Next Month**: Due on the last day of the following month.

> **Note:**
>
> **Three of the four rules take no parameters**
>
> Because a second "Due on Receipt" would mean exactly the same thing as the first, a rule already in use is dropped from the picker. Net Days stays available however many you have, since 14 and 30 are genuinely different terms.

## Add a term

- **Go to Settings, Payment Terms.**
- **Select Term.**
- **Choose a rule.**

  Pick **Net Days** and enter the number of days, or choose one of the three fixed rules.
- **Check the name.**

  It fills itself in to match the rule, such as `Net 30 Days`, and keeps tracking the rule until you type over it. Type your own and it stays yours.
- **Select Save.**

## The default term, and inactive ones

One term is marked **Default** and is what a document falls back to when nothing else says otherwise. **Set as default** on the three-dot menu moves the badge. The default term is always active, so it is the one row with no deactivate option.

Every other term can be made **Inactive** rather than deleted. It stops being offered on new documents and stays readable on the ones that already carry it.

> **Tip:**
>
> **Set the term on the contact, not on every document**
>
> A customer or vendor carries a default payment term and every document they appear on inherits it. Changing terms for one customer is one edit on their record rather than a habit you have to remember.