The short answer
- New cafes pay by card or bank account on file. Four of the seven roasters below ask for one at setup.
- Terms are earned, and short. Net 7 to Net 15 (7 to 15 days to pay) is the common range. Longer terms come after a record of paying on time.
- Write down what happens when an invoice is late, with the day it happens: reminder, pause, card charged. Then do it the same way every time.
- Let your software send the reminders. Shopify, QuickBooks Online and Square all send them for you. The five emails below are ready to paste in.
- Late fees only if they are in writing first. Limits vary by state. Ask your attorney.
Why this is worth an hour of your week
You pay for green coffee, bags, labels and wages on time. When a cafe pays late, you are lending them that money for free.
It is common. In Intuit's 2026 survey of small businesses, 59% had invoices 30 or more days overdue, and businesses with unpaid invoices were owed $17,700 on average (Intuit QuickBooks, 2026 Small Business Late Payments Report, read September 25, 2026). Xero's data puts the average US small business at 29.3 days to get paid, and 8.5 days late, in the June 2026 quarter (Xero, late payment guide, dated August 19, 2026, read September 25, 2026). Neither number is about coffee. They are about everyone, which is the point: late is the default unless you design against it.
What seven roasters actually publish
These are real wholesale terms, quoted from each roaster's own page. We found nine roasters whose pages state their payment terms plainly and used seven. We left out Coffee Crate (it bills when the coffee ships, with no card required, but we could not confirm where it is based) and Shearwater Coffee Roasters (cash on delivery, but its terms page dates from 2016).
| Roaster | New accounts | Standard terms | When it is late |
|---|---|---|---|
| PT's Coffee Roasting Co. Topeka, KS | Credit card required on setup | Pay on delivery (COD), check, or Net 15 "may be granted" | 18% APR finance charge; no new orders filled until payment is received |
| Ungrounded Coffee Roasters South Londonderry, VT | Valid credit card on file | Card or pay on delivery (COD); accounts in good standing may ask for 7, 15 or 21 days | May add 2.5% interest on overdue invoices (no period stated); orders may be held until the balance is cleared |
| Ruby Coffee Roasters Wisconsin | Card or bank account (ACH) on file for every new customer | Net 7 default; Net 15 on request; Net 30 after "a timely payment history is established" | 30 days overdue: charged to the card on file. 90 days: sent to collections |
| Cherry Coffee Fort Worth, TX | Payment details saved when the account is set up | Net 14, charged automatically: "We process payments every Monday!" | Not stated (the card is charged, so there is little to chase) |
| Ember Coffee Co. Big Lake, MN | Not stated | Net 15, or pay by card when ordering with a 3% card fee | "If an invoice is going to be late, call us before it is late." |
| Try-Me Coffee Roasters New Orleans, LA | Pay at checkout by card | Other terms only after 3 months of steady orders, for high-volume or recurring accounts | Not stated (paid up front) |
| Twin Valley Coffee Wholesale Elverson, PA | Pay online by card, or at pickup | Net 30 "after products have been delivered or picked up" | Not stated |
Four patterns stand out.
- A card or bank account on file comes first. PT's, Ungrounded, Ruby and Cherry all ask for one when the account opens. Try-Me and Twin Valley take payment at checkout or pickup. A new cafe has not earned credit yet, and nobody pretends it has.
- Net 30 is the exception. Only Twin Valley makes it standard. Ruby offers it after "a timely payment history is established". Everyone else sits at 7 to 21 days, or card.
- Terms are earned. Ruby, Try-Me and Ungrounded all start short and loosen once a cafe has paid on time.
- "Late" has a written consequence. PT's stops filling orders. Ungrounded may hold them. Ruby charges the card on file at 30 days overdue and sends accounts to collections at 90. Writing it down means you never decide it in the moment, with a nice owner on the phone.
What Net 30 really costs you
A cafe that orders every week is always holding some of your coffee it has not paid for yet. The rule of thumb: weekly order value × (days until you are paid ÷ 7). That is the cash you are carrying for that one cafe, all the time.
Here it is with made-up numbers: a cafe buying 20 lb a week at $12 a lb, so $240 a week. On Net 30, that cafe always owes you about four weeks of coffee, around $1,030. Put in your own numbers.
| Terms | Cash you carry, one cafe | Ten cafes like it |
|---|---|---|
| Card charged at order | $0 | $0 |
| Net 7 | $240 | $2,400 |
| Net 15 | $510 | $5,140 |
| Net 30 | $1,030 | $10,290 |
| Net 30, paid 8.5 days late | $1,320 | $13,200 |
Move ten cafes like that from Net 30 to Net 15 and about $5,100 of your own cash comes back to you, and stays back for as long as the terms hold. That is a bag order, a month of rent, or a new grinder. It starts with one honest conversation per cafe. If you have not priced your wholesale per pound yet, how to price wholesale coffee does that first.
Write it on one page
Most payment trouble starts with terms that were said, not written. This sheet covers what the seven roasters above cover. Fill in the brackets, cut what you do not use, and have your attorney read it before a cafe signs. It is a starting point, not a contract, and not legal advice.
WHOLESALE PAYMENT TERMS: [Your roastery] Effective [date]. Have your attorney read this before a cafe signs it. 1. NEW ACCOUNTS The first [3 months / 6 orders] are paid by card or bank account kept on file, charged when the order ships. 2. TERMS YOU CAN EARN After [3 months] of on-time payment: Net [7 / 15]. Terms count from [the order date / the delivery date]. A card or bank account stays on file as a backup. 3. HOW TO PAY Pay link on every invoice (card or bank transfer). Bank transfer (ACH) preferred. [Card fee, if any: ___] 4. REMINDERS We email [3] days before the due date, on the due date, and at 7 and 14 days late. 5. IF AN INVOICE IS LATE [14] days late: a week's notice that orders will pause. [21] days late: new orders pause until the balance is paid. [30] days late: we charge the card or bank account on file. Late fee: [none / ___, as your attorney advises] 6. IF SOMETHING IS WRONG Tell us within [7] days of delivery and we fix it first. Short on cash one month? Call before the due date: [phone]. Signed (cafe): ____________ Date: ______ Signed (roastery): ________ Date: ______
Two details matter more than they look. Say when the clock starts (Shopify counts from the day the order is placed; Shopify Help Center, payment terms, read September 25, 2026). And name the person at the cafe who gets the invoice. The barista who orders is rarely the person who pays.
The reminder schedule
Five touches, the same for every account. The first one goes out before anything is late, because most late invoices are forgotten, not refused.
| When | What goes out | Tone |
|---|---|---|
| 3 days before it is due | Email 1: a heads-up with the pay link | Friendly. Most late invoices are forgotten, not refused |
| The due date | Email 2: due today, with the pay link | Short. "If it's on its way, thank you" |
| 7 days late | Email 3: past due, and an offer to fix anything wrong | Direct. Ask for payment this week |
| 14 days late | Email 4: a week's notice before orders pause | Firm and kind. Offer a call and a plan |
| 21 days late (your number) | Email 5: orders paused, per your terms. Then a phone call | Plain. State what happens next |
Every email carries a pay link. A link means paying takes one tap, from the phone the owner already has in their hand. Xero says its customers who take online invoice payments "get paid up to twice as fast" (Xero, invoice payment times guide, dated August 20, 2026, read September 25, 2026). That is Xero's claim about its own customers, not an independent study, but it matches common sense.
Five invoice reminder emails to copy, from heads-up to past due
Short, warm and specific. Use them as templates: swap the brackets. Each one gives the amount, the invoice number and the link, so the cafe never has to dig.
Email 1: three days before it is due
Subject: Invoice [#] for [Cafe] is due [Friday] Hi [Name], Quick heads-up: invoice [#] for your [date] delivery ([amount]) is due on [due date]. You can pay by card or bank transfer here: [pay link] Thanks for pouring our coffee. [Your name], [Roastery]
Email 2: the due date
Subject: Invoice [#] is due today Hi [Name], Invoice [#] ([amount]) is due today. Here is the pay link: [pay link] If it is already on its way, thank you, and please ignore this. [Your name]
Email 3: seven days late
Subject: Invoice [#] is 7 days past due Hi [Name], Invoice [#] for [amount] was due on [due date] and still shows open on our side. Could you pay it this week? [pay link] If something was wrong with the order or the invoice, reply and tell me. I will fix it today. [Your name]
Email 4: fourteen days late
Subject: Invoice [#]: a week before orders pause Hi [Name], Invoice [#] ([amount]) is now 14 days past due. Our terms pause new orders when an invoice is 21 days late, so I wanted to give you a full week's notice before that touches your [Tuesday] delivery. Pay here: [pay link] If cash is tight this month, call me at [phone] and we will set a plan. I would much rather do that than stop your coffee. [Your name]
Email 5: orders paused
Subject: Orders paused for [Cafe] until invoice [#] is paid Hi [Name], Invoice [#] ([amount]) is now [21] days past due. As our terms say, new orders for [Cafe] are paused until it is paid. Pay here and your next delivery goes straight back on the schedule: [pay link] [If you keep a card on file: Our terms also let us charge the card on file. We will do that on [date] unless we hear from you first.] If something is wrong, or you need a plan, call me at [phone]. I would like to get your coffee moving again. [Your name]
And a text, for the owner who never opens email
Hi [Name], it's [Your name] from [Roastery]. Invoice [#] ([amount]) is [7] days past due. Pay link: [pay link]. If anything's wrong with it, just tell me and I'll fix it.
After Email 5, pick up the phone. By then it is a conversation, not a reminder.
Let your software send them
You probably already pay for a tool that sends reminders by itself. Turn it on, paste the emails in, and stop writing them by hand.
| What you need | Shopify (B2B) | QuickBooks Online | Square Invoices |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automatic reminders | Up to 5, set on the due date or up to 30 days after | Up to 3, set up to 90 days before or after the due date | Yes; you choose the dates (the page does not state a limit) |
| A reminder before the due date | No (the earliest is the due date) | Yes | Yes |
| Charge a saved card when due | Yes, with Shopify Flow (free) and Shopify Payments; saved US bank accounts too | Not covered in the pages we read | On recurring invoices, with a card on file |
| Automatic late fees | Not covered in the pages we read | Yes, added to overdue invoices for up to six months | Not covered in the pages we read |
| Fee when a cafe pays an invoice | Your Shopify Payments rate (varies by plan) | Card 2.99%; bank (ACH) 1%, $1 minimum | Card 3.3% + 30¢ on the free plan (2.9% + 30¢ on paid plans); bank (ACH) 1%, $1 minimum ($10 cap on paid plans) |
If you sell wholesale on Shopify
Shopify's wholesale tools (it calls them B2B) come with the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans since April 2, 2026 (Shopify changelog, read September 23, 2026). Payment terms can be none, Net 7, 15, 30, 45, 60 or 90, due on fulfillment, or a fixed date on a single draft order (Shopify Help Center, payment terms, read September 25, 2026). You can set up to five reminders, from the due date to 30 days after (Shopify Help Center, deferred payments, read September 25, 2026). There is no reminder before the due date, so send Email 1 yourself or from your email tool.
Shopify's page on its reminder action says reminders go to the company's main contact (Shopify Help Center, read September 25, 2026). Make that the owner or the bookkeeper, not the barista who places orders. The full wholesale setup is in Shopify B2B for coffee roasters.
If you invoice from QuickBooks Online
Automatic reminders are up to three, scheduled up to 90 days before or after the due date (Intuit help article, updated August 5, 2026, read September 25, 2026). That covers Email 1, Email 3 and Email 4. Automatic late fees are there too, added to overdue invoices for up to six months, and only to invoices that go overdue after you turn the feature on (Intuit help article, updated August 3, 2026, read September 25, 2026). Only turn that on if the fee is in your signed terms.
If you invoice from Square
Square lets you set automatic reminders and choose the dates. On recurring invoices there is a setting, "Allow automatic payments with card on file", so a saved card is charged on each scheduled date (Square Support, create and send invoices, read September 25, 2026). For a cafe with a fixed weekly order, that is Cherry Coffee's every-Monday model without any chasing.
Want the reminders running without you?
First name and email. You get our starter plan by email, and Sheraz reads every reply himself. Tell him what you invoice from today.
Where the tools stop
Reminders are the easy part. Three things still land on you:
- One list of who owes what. When some cafes order through Shopify, some get a QuickBooks invoice and one pays cash at the door, no single tool has the whole picture. Month end becomes an evening with a spreadsheet.
- The pause. Your terms say orders stop at 21 days late. Something has to tell whoever packs the Tuesday orders that this cafe is on hold, and tell them again when it pays.
- The judgment call. A cafe that is late for the first time in two years needs a different message from one that is late every month. Software sends the same email to both.
That gap is where we come in: one morning list of who owes what, reminders in your voice from your own email, and a card on your phone to approve anything before it sends. We have not built this for a client yet; wholesale accounts paying late is how we would do it, step by step.
Questions roasters ask
What does Net 30 mean for a wholesale coffee order?
The cafe has 30 days to pay the invoice. When the 30 days start depends on your terms: the order date, the invoice date or the delivery date. In Shopify's wholesale (B2B) tools, net terms count "from the day the order is placed" (Shopify Help Center, payment terms, read September 25, 2026). Write your start date into your terms so nobody argues about it later.
Is Net 30 standard for wholesale coffee?
Not among the roasters we read. Of seven roasters' published wholesale terms, only one (Twin Valley Coffee Wholesale) makes Net 30 its standard. The rest charge a card, want payment on delivery, or give 7 to 21 days, and some offer longer terms only after a record of paying on time (roasters' own pages, read September 25, 2026). Seven pages is a small sample, not a survey. See the table above.
Should I charge a late fee on wholesale invoices?
Only if it is written into terms the cafe agreed to before the order. Nolo's guide to late fees says "you must spell out the terms in advance and in writing" and that fees must stay "within the limits set by the laws in your state" (Nolo, via AllLaw, updated October 16, 2023, read September 25, 2026). Two roasters above publish one: PT's charges an 18% APR finance charge and Ungrounded says it may add 2.5% interest on overdue invoices, with no period stated. This is not legal advice; ask your attorney what you may charge where you are.
Should cafes pay by card or by bank transfer?
Bank transfer (ACH) costs you less. On an invoice, QuickBooks Payments charges 2.99% for a card and 1% for ACH with a $1 minimum (Intuit rates page, stated accurate as of September 18, 2026). Square charges 3.3% + 30¢ for a card on its free plan (2.9% + 30¢ on paid plans) and 1% for ACH with a $1 minimum (Square fees page, read September 25, 2026). On a $300 invoice that is about $9 to $10 by card and $3 by ACH. Ember Coffee Co. passes a 3% card fee on to cafes that pay by card when they order (their page, read September 25, 2026).
Can Shopify charge a cafe's saved card when the invoice is due?
Yes, but not by default. Shopify Flow, a free app on the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans, has an action that "charges a customer's vaulted credit card or debits a vaulted bank account for an order with payment terms" (vaulted is Shopify's word for saved), run from the "Payment schedule is due" trigger. It needs Shopify Payments, and a saved bank account only works when both you and the cafe are in the US (Shopify Help Center, Flow pages, read September 25, 2026).
A good cafe is always a little late. What do I do?
Talk to them before you change anything. Ask when in the month cash is easiest for them, and move their due date there. If that does not fix it, shorten their terms or move them to a card charged automatically, like Cherry Coffee's Net 14, charged every Monday (their page, read September 25, 2026). Ember Coffee Co. asks cafes to "call us before it is late" (their page, read September 25, 2026). Put that line in your own terms: it turns a late invoice into a conversation.
Can I stop shipping to a cafe that owes me money?
It is your policy to set, and roasters do publish it. PT's reserves the right not to fill new orders until payment is received, and Ungrounded may hold orders until the balance is cleared (their pages, read September 25, 2026). Write your rule into your terms with the exact day it starts, and give a week's notice before it happens (Email 4 above). This is not legal advice.