ABSS Books · Settings

Payment terms

A payment term is a name and a number of days, such as Net 30 with 30 days. You keep the list here. Books offers it on customers, vendors and documents, and uses it to work out due dates. One term is the default.

Who it's for: Admins, and anyone whose role includes Payment Terms
Where to find it: SettingsPayment terms
What you need: The Admin role, or the Payment Terms permission: View to open the screen, and Create, Edit or Delete for those actions

Payment terms walkthrough

Coming soon

What you can do here

Keep one list of payment terms, each with a name and a number of days.
Start with the terms Books gives you, and add your own.
Choose the default term that fills in when no other terms apply.
Mark a term Inactive to take it out of the pickers without deleting it.
Edit or delete a term you added, as long as it is not in use.

Before you start

How to open Settings: Choose the Settings gear icon in the top bar. It opens All settings. Payment terms is under Setup and Configuration. The screen itself is titled Payment Terms.
The Admin role or the Payment Terms permission: Admins always see Payment terms. Other roles need the View permission for Payment Terms, which sits under Other Settings on the role. Adding needs Create. Editing, setting the default and changing the status need Edit. Deleting needs Delete. Icons you cannot use are greyed out.
The terms you already have: Check the list first. Add a term only when the existing ones do not cover it, because every name must be different.

Note: A new company starts with ten terms. Five are system generated and cannot be changed: Due On Receipt, Advance, After Dispatch, Due end of the month and Due end of next month. The other five are yours to change: Net 15, Net 30, Net 45, Net 60 and Net 75. Due On Receipt is the default until you choose another.

If you also use ABSS CRM, this is the same list, and it works the same way there. See Payment Terms in ABSS CRM.

Add a payment term

A payment term is a name and a number of days. You add it in a small window, without leaving the list.

Open the Add Payment Term window
Go to Settings → Payment terms and choose Add Payment Term.
Enter the Name and the Days
Both are required.
Choose Save
The window closes and the new term joins the list as Active. Cancel closes the window without saving.

Name: Required. For example Net 30. It must be different from every other payment term you have.
Days: Required. The number of days until payment is due, as a whole number of 0 or more. For example 30.

Set the default term

The default term is the one a new document starts with, and the one that fills in when the customer or vendor you pick brings no terms.

Find the term in the list
It must be Active.
Choose the Set as Default icon
It is the crown icon in the Action column. The Default tag moves to this term, and the term that was the default before becomes an ordinary one.

Edit, deactivate or delete a term

The list shows every term, a page at a time. Everything you can do to a term is in the Action column of its row.

Name: The name of the term. The default term has a blue Default tag beside its name.
Days: The number of days set on the term.
Status: Active or Inactive.
Action: Four icons on each row: Edit, Set as Default, Mark as Inactive or Mark as Active, and Delete.

Edit: Opens the Edit Payment Term window. Change the Name or the Days, then choose Save.
Mark as Inactive, Mark as Active: Books asks you to confirm, for example: Are you sure you want to mark "Net 45" as inactive? Choose Yes. An Inactive term is no longer offered in the Payment Terms pickers.
Delete: Books asks: Delete this payment term? This cannot be undone. Choose Yes to delete it, or No to keep it.

What you can do depends on the kind of term:

Term	Edit	Set as Default	Change status	Delete
A term you added	Yes	Yes, while it is Active	Yes	Yes
A system generated term	No	Yes	No	No
The default term	Yes, unless it is system generated	Already the default	No	No
An Inactive term	Yes	No	Yes, back to Active	Yes

Warning: A term that is in use cannot be deleted. Mark it Inactive instead, so it is no longer offered on new work.

See where payment terms are used

A term does nothing on its own. It is there to be picked on a customer, a vendor or a document.

Where	What happens
Customers and vendors	The Payment Terms field on the Branch tab of the record. With Branch Wise Payment Terms on, each branch has its own Payment Terms.
Settings → Credit limits & payment terms	The Payment Terms picker in the sales block and in the purchase block. It sets the company default for customers and for vendors, for the whole company or branch by branch.
Sales documents	The Payment Terms field on Quotes, Sales Orders, Delivery Challans, Invoices and Recurring Invoices. It fills in from the customer when you pick them.
Purchase documents	The Payment Terms field on Purchase Orders, GRPO, Bill and Recurring Bills. It fills in from the vendor when you pick them.
Due dates	On an invoice, a GRPO and a bill, the Due Date is worked out from the Payment Terms. It is worked out again when you pick different terms, and you can still change the date yourself.

When Books works out a Due Date, it starts from today and reads the term like this:

Payment term	Due Date
Due On Receipt, Advance or After Dispatch	Today.
Due end of the month	The last day of this month.
Due end of next month	The last day of next month.
Any other term	Today plus the Days on the term. Net 30 gives a date 30 days from today. A term with 0 days is due today.

For the forms themselves, see Customers, Vendors and Credit limits & payment terms.

Rules to know

The rules behind this screen, in one place.

Topic	Rule
Who sees it	Settings → Setup and Configuration → Payment terms. You need the Admin role or the View permission for Payment Terms.
System generated terms	Due On Receipt, Advance, After Dispatch, Due end of the month and Due end of next month. They cannot be edited, deleted or marked Inactive. Hover over a greyed-out icon and Books says it is system generated and cannot be modified. Any of them can still be set as the default.
Starter terms	A new company also gets Net 15, Net 30, Net 45, Net 60 and Net 75. You can change these like any term you added.
One default	Only one term is the default at a time. A new company starts with Due On Receipt. Setting another term as the default moves the Default tag to it.
Default term	Only an Active term can be the default. The default term cannot be marked Inactive or deleted. Make another term the default first.
Unique name	Two terms cannot share a name, whatever the capital letters. Books shows: A payment term with this name already exists for this company.
Days	A whole number, 0 or more. Days cannot be changed once the term is used on a document. Books shows: Days cannot be edited because this payment term is already used in existing documents. The name can still be changed.
Deleting	Blocked while the term is in use, for example on a customer, a vendor, an order, an invoice or a bill, or as a default under Settings → Credit limits & payment terms. Books shows: This payment term cannot be deleted because it is used in existing records.
Inactive terms	Only Active terms are offered in the Payment Terms pickers.
ABSS CRM	If your company also uses ABSS CRM, both products work from the same list of payment terms.
View-only mode	If your plan period has ended and Books is view-only, Add Payment Term and every icon in the Action column are greyed out.