Getting paid
Net terms
How many days after invoice a client is allowed to take before paying. Net-30 is healthy; Net-60 and beyond means you are financing the client.
What it means
Net terms set the payment deadline: "Net-30" means payment is due 30 days after the invoice date, "Net-60" means 60 days, and so on. The number decides who finances the gap between the work being done and the money arriving.
Why it matters
Net-30 is a reasonable split of that burden. Anything longer means you complete the work, send the invoice, and then act as an interest-free lender to the client for two or three months. The clause to watch for is "pay-when-paid" (sometimes "pay-if-paid"), where the client only pays you once their own client pays them. That makes you a co-investor in a deal you have no visibility into, and it is enforceable in many places.
What fair looks like
- Net-15 to Net-30 from the invoice date. Net-30 is the common default for agencies and mid-size clients; smaller direct clients often pay faster.
- Terms are paired with a deposit (so the amount exposed to the delay is smaller) and a late fee (commonly 1.5% per month) so the deadline has teeth.
- No "pay-when-paid": your payment is not contingent on a third party you cannot see.
Related reading
For the full breakdown, see the blog post on Net-30 vs Net-60, and the benchmarks for typical terms by discipline.