Payment Terms for Customers: How Phasio Handles B2B Invoicing

Most manufacturing service bureaus work with two types of customers. New customers and one-off orders, where payment upfront makes sense. And established accounts — businesses you work with regularly, who pay on agreed terms after dispatch.

Those two relationships need different invoicing workflows. Phasio's payment terms feature handles both cleanly, with no manual document editing required.

GETTING STARTED

Payment terms are defined once in Finances > Payment Terms and then assigned to individual customers. Once assigned, the term appears automatically on every quote, order confirmation, and invoice generated for that customer.

Terms only apply to Account customers. Phasio distinguishes between two customer types: Pro Forma customers pay upfront by card before manufacturing begins; Account customers are established relationships who pay after dispatch, with a purchase order upload required at checkout and invoice payment available. You set the customer type on the customer profile, and switching a customer from Account to Pro Forma clears any assigned payment term automatically.

WHAT CHANGES FROM DAY ONE

Established accounts get consistent, automatic terms on every document. Define your terms once — Net 30, 45 days, 60 days end of month, or whatever your arrangement is — and assign them to the relevant customer. From that point on, every quote, order confirmation, and invoice generated for that customer includes the agreed payment terms without any manual steps.

Your new and one-off customers follow a separate flow. Pro Forma customers, which is the default for any new customer, are prompted to pay upfront by card at checkout. Invoice and purchase order options are hidden for them. You don't need to manage two separate processes or remember which customers get which treatment — the customer type handles it.

Payment terms are visible where they matter most. On the order detail page, the assigned payment term sits alongside the payment status so your team always knows the terms in context. When composing an order manually for an Account customer, the payment term is shown in the payment panel before you send.

Renaming a term updates it everywhere. If you adjust the name of a payment term — say, from "Net 30" to "30 days net" — it updates on every customer profile and every future document automatically. No retroactive editing.

WHY IT MATTERS

For a service bureau working with B2B customers, payment terms on an invoice are not optional. Your customer's accounts payable team needs to see them to process the invoice. If they're missing, the invoice goes back, the payment is delayed, and someone on your team spends time fixing a document that should have been right the first time.

Payment terms in Phasio remove that step entirely. The terms are set once against the customer account and appear on every document from that point forward. Your upfront-payment customers and your account customers are handled consistently without manual intervention at the document level.

For shops that are starting to formalise their B2B relationships — moving customers from one-off upfront orders to agreed account terms — the Account customer type also adds a purchase order step at checkout, which gives both sides a documented reference before manufacturing begins.