Due on receipt

Due on receipt asks for immediate payment. It suits one-off jobs, small amounts, customers without an account, and situations where the supplier doesn’t want to extend credit at all.

In practice, “immediately” is vague. Customers with an approval process will still take days or weeks, and there is no specific date to point to when you chase. If you need payment within a week, “due within 7 days”, with the date printed, works better than due on receipt.

Legally, what happens when an invoice has no agreed term depends on the country. Under German law, for example, payment is due immediately when no term was agreed, but statutory interest generally starts later; under the EU Late Payment Directive, interest starts 30 days after the invoice is received when no payment date was set.