Two separate things

Payment terms decide when an invoice is due. They are set before anything is paid.

Payments are the money actually arriving or leaving, and matching it to the right invoice.

They get discussed together and they are different mechanisms. This article covers both, starting with terms because they come first.

Payment terms

A payment term answers: when is this due?

The simplest is a single due date — 30 days from the invoice.

Odoo also supports instalments: 30% on receipt, 70% at 60 days. When you use these, Odoo splits the receivable into separate lines with separate due dates.

Why that matters: your aged receivable report becomes accurate. Without split terms, an invoice with a deposit shows as fully overdue when only part of it is.

Set terms on the customer, not on each invoice. They carry across automatically and nobody has to remember.

Recording a payment

Three routes.

From the invoice. Open it, click Register Payment. Fast and it matches automatically.

From bank reconciliation. The bank statement line arrives, Odoo proposes the matching invoice, you confirm.

Directly, for anything not tied to a specific invoice — a deposit, a refund, a transfer.

The first two are the normal routes. Creating payments directly and matching them later is more work and produces more unmatched items.

Reconciliation

Reconciliation is matching money against invoices, so your receivable clears.

An invoice is not settled because the money arrived. It is settled when the payment is matched to it. Until then, your aged receivable still shows it outstanding.

Three ways money comes in:

Bank synchronisation. Odoo Enterprise connects to many banks and pulls statements automatically.

File import. Download a statement from your bank and upload it.

Manual entry. For small volumes.

Odoo then proposes matches. Most are obvious and you accept them. The rest need attention — and that is exactly where an accountant’s time should go.

Reconcile weekly, not monthly

The single most useful habit in this article.

A week of unmatched items is a small job — you still remember what the odd payment was for.

A month is an afternoon, and by then nobody remembers, so the unexplained items stay unexplained and roll forward.

Weekly reconciliation is not more work. It is the same work, spread out, done while it is still easy.

Partial payments

A customer pays part of an invoice.

Register what arrived. Odoo applies it and leaves the balance outstanding, with the due date intact.

Common in practice, particularly with instalment terms or customers managing their own cash flow. Odoo handles it without any special treatment.

Payments covering several invoices

A customer pays one amount against four invoices.

Register the payment and match it across them. Odoo allocates and clears each.

Where it gets awkward: when the amount does not exactly cover them, and nobody knows which invoices the customer intended to pay.

The practical fix is not software. Put your invoice numbers on statements and ask customers to reference them. Most will.

Getting paid sooner

Four things that work, in order of effect.

Online payment

Enable a payment provider and customers can pay from the invoice email or the portal.

This is the single biggest lever for most small businesses. Removing the friction of a manual bank transfer moves payment dates forward measurably.

Automatic follow-ups

Odoo Enterprise supports follow-up levels — a reminder at 7 days, a firmer one at 30, escalation to a person at 60. Whatever you define.

Consistency collects more than tone does. Most companies chase erratically, when someone remembers. Automated levels chase everyone the same way.

Accurate terms

If your terms say 30 days and everyone pays at 45, either enforce the terms or change them. Terms nobody follows make your cash forecast fiction.

Reviewing the aged receivable

Monthly, at minimum. It is the most useful report in the system for most small businesses, and looking at it is what turns it into money.

Vendor payments

The same mechanisms in reverse.

Register payments against vendor bills. Reconcile against your bank statement. The payable clears.

Two practices worth having:

Batch payments. Pay several vendors in one run and produce a single bank file. Less work and fewer errors.

Verify bank detail changes by phone, using a number you already had — not one from the email requesting the change. Payment redirection fraud is common and this one habit prevents most of it.

What usually goes wrong

Reconciliation left to month-end. It grows into a job nobody wants and the unexplained items never get explained.

Payments recorded without matching. The money is in Odoo and the invoice still shows outstanding. Your aged receivable is wrong and someone chases a customer who has paid.

Terms set per invoice. Inconsistent, and eventually wrong.

No follow-up process. Chasing happens when someone remembers, which is not a process.

Unallocated payments accumulating. A growing balance of money received but not matched to anything. It should be near zero.

The monthly check

Four things:

• Every bank account reconciled
• No significant unallocated payments sitting
• Aged receivable reviewed and acted on
• Deliveries not yet invoiced checked — you cannot collect what you never billed

The short version

Payment terms decide when. Set them on the customer, use instalments where they apply, and make sure they reflect reality.

Payments are matching, and an invoice is not settled until the money is matched to it.

Reconcile weekly. It is the same work done while it is still easy.

And for getting paid sooner, the two things that work are online payment and consistent automatic follow-ups. Both are configuration, and both are frequently left switched off.