OVERVIEW
How to create a new term
How to edit an existing term

SCREEN OVERVIEW
New/edit term
Existing terms
Buttons

Overview

In short, payment terms identify the conditions under which a seller will complete a sale. Depending on the nature of your business, you might find it useful to attach special terms to different estimates or invoices in order to modify or put stipulations on payment. For example, if you attach the term "due on receipt" to a payment, your buyer will know that payment for that good or service will be due when the good is received or the service completed. Quite often, terms refer to the period of time in which an invoice should be paid, rather than the mode used to pay it. In Method, terms are used to mark a record so it can be identified both in Method and QuickBooks as requiring payment that follows certain rules or has been modified a particular way. This section will detail how to create a new term and how to edit an existing one, allowing you to create or modify the terms that are most relevant to your business!

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How to create a new term

1. In Method, terms can be found in a few places. From your CRM tab group, you can access the New/Edit terms screen by selecting in the Terms drop down menu or clicking the ellipses button (...) next to the Terms drop down menu in the Edit customer and Edit lead screens, under the Additional info sub-tab. Choosing any of these options will generate the New/edit terms screen.  Additionally, you can acces the New/edit terms screen by navigating to your Profile hover menu and clicking on QuickBooks > Terms.
   
2. Choose a name for your new term and fill in the Name field. The name should reflect what kind of term you are creating; for example, if you are creating a date-driven term that requires an invoice be paid before the third Friday of the month, you may wish to create a name like "Due before 30th".
3. Sometimes, a retailer will offer a discount incentive to a buyer should an invoice be paid in full by a particular date. This discount incentive can be expressed as a percentage in the Discount percent field, if applicable.
4. Choose whether your term is Standard or Date driven. Please see our Screen overview section for more information on the difference between the two. Keep in mind that selecting one or the other option will allow you to modify additional information based on your choice, but one of the two must be selected in order for Method to save the record.
5. Remember to click "Term is active" in order to ensure this term will appear in Method once saved.
6. Clicking Save will save this new term; when you refresh the screen it will appear both in the Existing terms grid below, and also in all applicable drop down menus. Save & New will perform the same function before clearing the fields in preparation for a new term. Cancel / Close will close the New/edit terms screen without saving. You can also choose to Clear the fields without saving or Delete the existing term using the More actions button.

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How to edit an existing term

1. Follow step 1 from above.
2. On the New/edit terms screen, scroll down to view the Existing types grid. Click on "Go to" next to the term you wish to edit. This will populate the fields above with the information already associated with this term.
3. From here you can change the name, the term type, the discount parameters, and toggle whether or not the term is active. Remember, it's best not to monkey with the stock options unless you're really sure of what you're doing - if not, it's a better idea to create your own term that can be edited or deleted later.
4. The buttons function the same as above; once the changes have been saved, refreshing the grid will make the new version of the edited term appear both in the Existing terms grid and in the associated drop down menus throughout Method.

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Screen overview

The following is a breakdown of the New/edit terms screen. We'll take a closer look at each element of the screen (drop down menus, buttons, etc.) so you know exactly what each element does. We hope this will be a useful "glossary" of sorts for new users!

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New/edit term

The new term screen has two fields, one of which is required, and a further two to three fields depending upon which option is selected. Let's go through these individually.

• Name: This is the only required field on this screen - it's writable, which means you can name your new term whatever you like!
• Discount percent: If applicable, you can assign a discount percentage to your terms of payment (for example, your company may offer an incentive for early payment of an outstanding balance). This isn't required, however. It is important to note that information filled into this field, and the other discount associations, will sync with QuickBooks: however, it is not reflected anywhere else and will not be automatically applied to payments unless you set that up through QuickBooks.

Choosing either Standard or Date driven will change the options available to you in the next section, so let's look at each individually.

Standard

A standard term is usually used for one-off payments that aren't expected to repeat (for example, buying a single product or service for a unique situation, like a photocopier for the office or a legal consultation). Standard terms reflect the "one-time-only" nature of such a transaction.

• Due in (days): This generally refers to a set number of days (as in "due in 30 days" from receipt of the invoice, product or service).
• Discount if paid within (days): If you want to, you can assign a discount for early payment. This field is meant to reflect how many days the buyer has to collect on that discount (e.g. discount if paid within 15 days).

Date driven

A date driven term is often ascribed to an invoice that will be paid over and over (for example, a monthly purchase of printer paper, or a cleaning service for an office). Date-driven terms have options that reflect the ongoing nature of these transactions.

• Due before day of month: This refers to a specific, recurring date upon which payment is due (for example, the third Friday of every month, or the 15th of the month). This field allows you to set an exact date before which an invoice must be paid off.
• Due next month if within (days): Sometimes, schedules don't line up in a way that makes sense with your accounting department. If, for example, your company typically requires payment of an invoice on a monthly set schedule, but offers a service that can be performed at any time, it may be beneficial for you to stipulate that an invoice received late in the month will be due the following month if it falls within a set number of days before the regular date. Here's where you'd include that information.
• Discount if before (day): If you want to, you can assign a discount for early payment. This field is meant to reflect how many days the buyer has to collect on that discount (e.g. discount if paid before the 15th of the month).

There is also a check box called Term is active: if you would like your new term to appear in the drop down list, make sure you check this box!

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Existing terms

Directly below the New term screen is the Existing terms grid, which will allow you to edit other terms of payment already within Method CRM. This grid operates in much the same way as other grids in Method (see Grid functionality for more information). The preset Filter by view drop down will allow you to filter the grid based on Active terms, Inactive terms, and All terms. Keep in mind the only place Inactive terms will appear is in this filter view (they won't be viewable in the drop down menus). The column headers will allow you to search or sort the grid by Name of term and whether or not the term is Active.

Clicking on "select" next to an existing term will auto-fill the fields in the New term section to match the information in the existing terms. This will work for both standard terms and date-driven terms, though none of the preloaded options are date-driven.

These fields can then be altered to suit your needs. As they are all writable fields you have the freedom to input whatever values you see fit.

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Buttons

When you're done, the four buttons you recognize from other areas in Method will help you finish up the process.

• More actions will allow you either to Clear / New which will clear all the information from the fields above to make way for a new Term, or Delete term which can't be undone.
• Save will save the information in the fields without closing the screen.
• Save & New will save the information in the fields and then clear them to make way for a new Term.
• Cancel / Close will not save the information in the fields, and will close the screen.