Credit & Invoicing
If some of your B2B customers have a credit limit in place, it's possible to display this when they login to your website, giving them visibility on their credit status.
Credit limits work by specifying an amount against a customer record and, when the customer signs in, and places an order using Pay on Account, they'll be notified if they are about to place an order that exceeds their credit limit.
In our example below, the customer has exceeded their credit limit and their ability to "Pay on Account" has been blocked (i.e. they are only able to "Pay Online by Card")
This feature works by enabling a special setting against a customer that can then be manually adjusted according to their agreed terms. You can also specify an account balance that will automatically update each time a successful order is placed (this can also be adjusted manually if required).
Please note By default, if a customer exceeds their credit limit, the "Pay on Account" payment method will be disabled. If you'd prefer to still allow the order to be placed by this payment method, you can enable this setting here.
Setting up metafields on Shopify To learn more about how to configure metafields on Shopify for SparkLayer, please refer to our guide here
Item | Details |
Custom data type | |
Metafield type | This must be set as an JSON string |
Namespace | This must be set as sparklayer |
Key | This must be set as payment_on_account |
Value | This must be specified in the following format:{"credit_limit":1000,"balance":250} |
It's possible to set specific "Net terms" for a customer (such as Net 30, Net 60) giving the customer visibility on their payment terms. Once it's set up, this will display in the customer's My Account area under "Financials'.
When the customer then goes through the checkout, they can simply select "Pay on Account" to trigger their net payment terms.
When an order then arrives into Shopify, this will then automatically update the "Payment due later" setting and populate the "Payment terms" and "Issue date" fields. Please note, "Auto-complete Shopify Draft orders" must be turned off for this to work. Learn more.
Setting up metafields on Shopify To learn more about how to configure metafields on Shopify for SparkLayer, please refer to our guide here
Item | Details |
Custom data type | |
Metafield type | This must be set as an JSON string |
Namespace | This must be set as sparklayer |
Key | This must be set as payment_on_account |
Value | This must be specified in the following format:{"net_terms":"30_days"} If you're also the credit feature (see above), this should be populated as follows:{"credit_limit":1000,"balance":250,"net_terms":"30_days"} |
In terms of configuring the net terms, the following values are supported:
Net terms | Value |
10 days | 10_days |
14 days | 14_days |
30 days | 30_days |
45 days | 45_days |
60 days | 60_days |
90 days | 90_days |
When a customer places an order and payment has been completed against it, the order will appear in their My Account area. When viewing an order, in addition to the order details (such as products ordered, order status, address), it's possible to attach an invoice against an order that the customer can subsequently download.
To get started, you'll need to add a custom metafield to your Shopify store, using the "Orders" metafields
Setting up metafields on Shopify To learn more about how to configure metafields on Shopify for SparkLayer, please refer to our guide here
Item | Details |
Custom data type | Orders |
Metafield type | This must be set as an File or URL |
Namespace | This must be set as sparklayer |
Key | This must be set as invoice_url |
Value | NOTE: It's very important the file name or URL is not guessable. We recommend having a UUID placed within the URL which makes it impossible to guess. If you select File, you'll be able to use Shopify's built-in file upload tool (e.g. to upload a PDF) If you select URL, you can specify the full URL. |
Once you've set up the metafield, simply navigate to an order in Shopify and you'll see the field appear to specify the invoice.
Once the B2B customer logs in, they'll then be able to download this from their order history on your website. As this is using the Shopify metafield system, the process of attaching invoices could be actioned in bulk or you could even automate this process from your backend system (e.g. ERP, CRM).
Please note You may also want to consider using a third-party solution, such as Sufio Invoicing