--- title: How to get your wholesale bakery customers to pay on time Metadescription: The escalation sequence trade suppliers use for late payment, from terms and invoice dates to a credit hold, and which steps Wholesale Handler covers. author: Dan Edwards author_role: Founder author_url: https://danedwardsdeveloper.com author_linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-edwards-developer published: 2026-08-26 --- Token estimate: ~2,100 # How to get your wholesale bakery customers to pay on time Trade suppliers treat late payment as an escalation sequence rather than a persuasion problem - terms agreed before credit is extended, an invoice carrying explicit dates, reminders on a fixed cadence, then commercial consequences. Applying the same sequence to every account is what makes it work, because a cafe paying twenty suppliers pays the ones whose position in the queue is clearest. Wholesale Handler covers the invoice itself; the chasing and the consequences are run from your own diary. By **[Dan Edwards](https://wholesalehandler.com/about)**, Founder. ## Agreeing the terms before extending credit Food service runs shorter terms than most trades. Net 7, Net 14 and Net 15 are ordinary where the goods are perishable and the cash turns over quickly, and COD (cash on delivery, paid by the driver's arrival rather than invoiced) is ordinary for a new account. The common shape is graduation. A new cafe starts on payment at delivery, moves to Net 15 after a few payments arrive on time, and reaches Net 30 once the account has held for a season. The buyer side reads the same way round: restaurants expect to start at COD and earn terms. Wholesale Handler holds no per-customer payment term and no credit limit, so the term for each account lives in your own records and on the invoice rather than in a field that enforces it. ## Putting an explicit date on the invoice State the invoice date and the due calendar date, not the term name. A buyer reading Net 15 has to find the invoice date first and then count from it. A buyer reading Due 12 March has the answer. Accepted payment methods, the bank details and a number to call about a query belong in the same block. Wholesale Handler prints an Invoice information block on every invoice you send. It is free text, set once under Settings, and it is where the bank account, the terms and the query contact go. There is no due date field in Wholesale Handler, so the date is either written into that text or worked out by the customer from the date the invoice was sent. ## Invoicing the week promptly A collections problem often starts before anyone chases anything - an invoice that went to the wrong contact, a delivery that was not billed, a term that does not match what was agreed. Wholesale Handler collates processed orders into one draft [invoice](https://wholesalehandler.com/articles/how-invoices-work-on-wholesale-handler) per customer, and a second batch of orders joins the draft that is already open rather than starting a rival document. Friday's job is checking a draft rather than assembling one from delivery notes. Updating stops when the invoice is sent, so the check happens before rather than after. ## Chasing on a cadence, not from memory The standard sequence is a reminder before the due date, a message on it, a short follow-up in the first week, a phone call and a firmer written note around thirty days, a formal demand around forty-five, and a decision at sixty to ninety days. The timing matters less than the sameness. A fixed sequence applied to every account is one you can hand to someone else, defend when a buyer objects, and notice the gaps in, none of which is true of chasing from memory. Where a customer names a date they will pay, that date is written down and followed up on the day itself. Wholesale Handler sends no payment reminders and has no overdue bucket, so the chasing is a diary job. Aging runs from the date the invoice was sent, which makes an invoice outstanding rather than overdue. [Seeing who has not paid](https://wholesalehandler.com/articles/how-to-know-which-wholesale-customers-havent-paid-you) covers working that list. ## Removing the doubt about whether it arrived A customer looking at their invoice in Wholesale Handler can declare that they have sent payment. The declaration is its own status - it does not mark the invoice paid, because only you can do that once the money lands - and both moments are stored separately, so the wait between the claim and the clearance is on the record. If the money cannot be found, Record bank check notes that you looked. It changes no status, the customer sees nothing, and it carries a 24-hour cooldown because transfers settle overnight. Disputing the declaration after that sends the customer a written email and puts the invoice back to owing on their side, with no badge and no accusation on their screen. One thing to know before relying on it: Wholesale Handler does not email you when a declaration arrives. You see it on opening the invoice. ## Charging for lateness Trade practice is one to two percent a month after a grace period of five to ten days, written into the terms before it is ever charged. A clause that appears for the first time on a late invoice is an argument rather than a fee. Wholesale Handler has no late-fee calculation. What it has is the adjustment line: a charge added to the next draft invoice with your own description on it, which is where a fee agreed in the terms is applied by hand. ## Stopping supply last Refusing to supply until the account clears is the strongest step short of legal action, and it needs to be a right your terms already reserve rather than one you assert on the day. A hold is lifted on the balance clearing, and often on a partial payment with a dated plan for the rest. It also costs business where the customer has another bakery to call. Collections agencies and legal action sit below it for the same reason, and both carry their own cost - an agency takes a percentage of what it recovers, and a court claim has a fee and your time in it - so on a small debt the recovery can cost more than the debt. Wholesale Handler has no credit limit and no account block, so a stop is something you say and hold to rather than something the system applies. ## Q&A **Q: Does Wholesale Handler send automatic payment reminders to wholesale customers?** A: No. Wholesale Handler has no due date field and no reminder schedule, so chasing runs from the invoice list at a time you choose. It does not tell you when a declaration of payment arrives either - that shows on opening the invoice. **Q: What payment terms do wholesale bakery customers usually get?** A: Shorter than most trades, because the goods are perishable. COD (cash on delivery) is normal for a new account, Net 7 to Net 15 for an established one, and Net 30 where the account has run for a season without a problem. Wholesale Handler has no per-customer term field, so the term is stated on the invoice rather than enforced by the software. **Q: Where do I put my payment terms and bank details for wholesale customers?** A: In the Invoice information field in Wholesale Handler settings. It is free text that lands on every invoice you send, which is the usual home for bank details, the payment term, and a phone number for invoice queries. It applies to every customer rather than per account. **Q: Can I charge a late fee on a wholesale invoice in Wholesale Handler?** A: Yes, by hand, and not on the invoice that ran late. A sent invoice cannot be changed in Wholesale Handler, so the fee goes on the next draft as a charge adjustment line with your own description. Nothing calculates the figure or applies it on a schedule, and an adjustment cannot take the invoice below zero. **Q: What happens when a bakery customer says they have paid but the money is not there?** A: The declaration sits as its own status in Wholesale Handler rather than marking the invoice paid, so nothing settles until you confirm it. You can record a bank check, which logs that you looked without telling the customer anything, and then dispute the declaration, which emails them and returns the invoice to owing.