Payment terms are the sentence on your invoice that says when you expect to be paid. In practice that sentence decides when money lands, how much chasing you do, and whether you get paid at all. This guide covers the terms that work for a small business, the ones to avoid, and how to put them on every invoice you generate from chat.
Most freelancers write Net 30 and hope. The terms that actually get paid start from a trigger the client can feel: due on receipt for a deposit, Net 15 from the invoice date for the balance, or Net 30 from project completion. Whichever you choose, the due date must be unambiguous - write the exact calendar date the payment is due, not just a number of days, because "Net 30" leaves room for a client to count from when they opened it.
A due date buried in a contract is a debt nobody remembers. Every invoice should carry a visible terms line - payment due date, deposit already received, and what happens if it is late. When you generate an invoice from chat you control that wording, so keep it short and concrete.
The invoicing server mints a full invoice PDF from a chat message. Point your client at it and ask for terms at the same time:
# once - mint a free token, then paste the printed URL into your client
# https://mcp.zovo.one/mcp/connect
claude mcp add --transport http invoice \
https://mcp.zovo.one/mcp/invoice/t/<token>
Then in the same conversation: "Invoice Acme for the onboarding work, 50% deposit already paid, balance Net 15 from today, 1.5% per month late." The server turns that into a dated invoice with the terms printed where the client can see them. Ask it to add a Stop-work note on the balance line when the job is overdue.
Payment terms belong on the quote, not just the invoice. Agreeing the schedule before work starts prevents the single biggest argument in freelancing: the client who thought Net 30 started when they received the finished file. The quote server stores terms with the estimate so the invoice inherits them later. See how quotes capture payment terms.
Payment terms are a cash-flow improvement you will make. Put them on the quote, repeat them on the invoice, and enforce the date you set.
Net 30 means the full invoice amount is due within 30 days of the invoice date. It is the most common B2B term. Shorter terms like Net 14 or due-on-receipt get small businesses paid faster with little friction.
Yes, if the fee is stated in your payment terms before the work is done. Keep it simple and enforceable - a flat percentage per month or a fixed late charge - and apply it consistently to every overdue invoice.
For any engagement over a few thousand dollars or any fixed-fee project, take a deposit (often 30-50%) before starting. It filters out non-serious clients and funds the work. Write the deposit amount and refund rules into the quote and repeat them on the invoice.
State the terms in your prompt when you generate the invoice - for example: 'invoice Acme $4,200, Net 30, late fee 1.5% monthly, deposit already paid $1,500'. The invoice MCP server at https://mcp.zovo.one/mcp/invoice puts those terms on the PDF exactly as stated.
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Related guides: Chasing an unpaid invoice: aging, then the letter · Client statements and payment chasers from chat, aged as at any date you name