How to stop a B2B company from ordering while an invoice is overdue

A company has an order on Net 30 payment terms that is 20 days overdue. This morning, it placed another order. If you sell wholesale on payment terms, you need a way to manage this situation. Here are the options in Shopify, from manual steps to checkout blocking.

1. Find who is overdue

In Shopify admin, go to Customers > Companies to find a company's orders.

2. Remind them

Send a payment reminder from the order using More actions, or use Shopify's scheduled payment reminders if available in your store. Reminders can prompt payment, but they do not block the next order.

3. Manually prevent new orders

• Remove payment terms from the location until the overdue order is paid. The buyer may still be able to place an order using another payment method, such as a card.
• Delay fulfillment: accept the order but wait to fulfill it until payment arrives. This does not prevent more orders from being placed.

Both approaches rely on someone noticing the overdue order, taking action and remembering to reverse the change later.

4. Block new orders automatically at checkout

A checkout rule can check whether a company has an order that is overdue by more than the grace period you set. For example, with a 7-day grace period, checkout is blocked when an order remains unpaid seven days after its due date. The buyer sees which order is overdue, how much is due and how to pay. When the overdue order is paid, the company can check out again without your team changing the checkout settings.

Decide these details before you turn on checkout blocking:

• Grace period: choose how many days after the due date to allow for a payment to arrive before blocking checkout.
• Exceptions: decide when your team can allow a specific order, for example for a seasonal order or a company that has agreed to pay.
• Message: tell the buyer which order is overdue, the amount due, where to pay and how to contact your team.
• Orders outside checkout: draft orders created by your team, POS orders and API orders do not go through the online checkout rule. Make sure your team can see when a company is blocked.