Net 60

Net 60 is a payment term with a 60-day clock, usually counted from the invoice date. It is twice as long as Net 30, which is why it shows up so often in redlines from a client’s finance team. For a freelancer, that extra month is often rent sitting in someone else’s accounts.

Large companies use Net 60 because their approval chain is long, not because the work takes longer to check. The clock and the review of the deliverable are different jobs. You can accept a five-day review window and still keep Net 30 for the invoice. Mixing the two is how “we’re still reviewing” becomes a 90-day wait.

Common counters are keeping Net 30, splitting the difference at Net 45, or agreeing Net 60 only if a larger deposit is paid first. A pause if an invoice is overdue is often more useful day to day than arguing about a percentage. Milestone billing also helps: if the last unpaid slice is smaller, Net 60 on that slice hurts less.

As with any net period, write down when the clock starts and what happens if the invoice is late. “Net 60 from receipt” plus a client who sits on email is a longer clock than “Net 60 from the invoice date”. If you accept the longer period, price the job or the deposit as if the last invoice will be late.

Agencies sometimes keep Net 30 for their own suppliers and accept Net 60 from the brand. That gap is a cashflow problem, not a legal one. The paper will not fix it unless the two clocks are written down and the fee or the deposit makes the wait possible.