Customer account types and payment terms

Summary

Customers fall into two account types: Standard (pay on collection — invoice due immediately) and Account (extended payment terms — e.g. Net 14 days). Service Advisors can request an upgrade to Account; an Owner or Manager approves or rejects the request. Each Account customer can also have a per-customer payment-terms override.

Account status flows directly into invoice due dates, so getting it right is part of credit control.

Prerequisites

• Anyone with customers.create can request an account upgrade. Service Advisor and above have this.
• The customers.approve_account_type permission is required to approve, reject, or change account-customer payment terms. Owner and Manager have this. Service Advisor does not.
• Customers default to Standard when created.

Steps

Read the account status

On the customer’s detail page, the Account Status card shows:

• Standard badge — pay on collection (0 days).
• Account badge — extended payment terms with the effective number of days shown.
• Upgrade Pending badge — a request is waiting for approval, with the requester and date.

The customer list also shows an Account Status column, with All / Standard / Account filter buttons at the top.

Request an account upgrade

1. Open the customer’s detail page.
2. Click Request Account Upgrade in the Account Status card.
3. Confirm.

The request is logged. The customer’s badge shows “Upgrade Pending”. You can cancel your own request from the same card if needed.

Approve or reject a pending request

1. Go to Customers → Account Requests, or open the customer’s detail page (the inline approve/reject controls also appear there).
2. For each request:
   • Approve — optional notes. The customer flips to Account immediately, with payment terms set to the org-wide account default (configured in Settings → Finance).
   • Reject — required reason. The request is closed; the customer stays Standard.

Configure org-wide default payment terms for Account customers

1. Go to Settings → Finance → Invoice Settings.
2. Set Account Customer Payment Terms (days) — defaults to 14.
3. Save.

This is the default applied to newly approved Account customers. Standard customers are always 0 days (pay on collection) — not configurable.

Override payment terms for a specific Account customer

1. Open the Account customer’s detail page.
2. In the Account Status card, edit the payment terms field (Owner/Manager only).
3. Save.

The override applies only to that customer. Setting 0 is a valid override (still Account, but billing as if Standard).

How invoice due dates resolve

When you create an invoice, the due date is calculated from:

1. The customer’s per-customer override (if set, including 0).
2. Otherwise the org-wide Account default for Account customers.
3. Otherwise 0 for Standard customers.

The invoice form shows the resolved terms underneath the due date field — for example “Payment terms: Net 14 days (Account customer)” or “Due on collection (Standard)”.

If you backdate the invoice and resolved terms = 0, the due date equals the invoice date (not today).

Notes

• One pending upgrade request per customer at a time.
• Approvers are notified through the Account Requests nav entry counter — there is no email or SMS notification in this version.
• The legacy “is_account_customer” boolean from Techman imports is migrated to the new account-status system. Imports continue to work as before.
• Approved Account customers store their payment-terms override as null until you explicitly set one — this means they automatically pick up changes to the org-wide Account default.

Troubleshooting

Problem: Customer says their invoice was due immediately when it should have been Net 14. Cause: The customer is still Standard, or their per-customer override is set to 0. Fix: Open the customer detail page. Check the Account Status badge and the effective payment terms. If they are Standard, request and approve an upgrade. If they are Account but the terms look wrong, check for a per-customer override.

Problem: I cannot find the Account Requests page. Cause: Your role does not have customers.approve_account_type. Fix: Ask an Owner.

Problem: Request Account Upgrade is greyed out. Cause: The customer is already an Account customer, or there is already a pending request. Fix: Check the Account Status badge. If a request is pending, wait for the approver, or cancel it from the card.

Permissions

• customers.create to request an upgrade. Service Advisor and above have this.
• customers.approve_account_type to approve, reject, or override per-customer payment terms. Owner and Manager have this.