Glossary · Payment terms
Cash on delivery (COD)
Cash on delivery means payment is made when the goods or services are delivered, not before and not on credit.
With COD terms the customer pays at the point of delivery — to the driver, on collection, or before the delivered work is handed over. Payment is no longer literally in cash: card, bank transfer and payment links all count.
COD sits between cash in advance and credit terms. The supplier carries the cost of producing the goods or doing the work, but never lets them go unpaid.
It fits physical goods better than services. For service firms the nearest equivalent is releasing the deliverable — the final files, the report, the signed-off build — once the final invoice is paid.
Example
A print shop delivers €1,200 of brochures COD. The client pays by card on the doorstep, and the boxes are unloaded once the payment clears.