Credit limits and net terms

How it works

Before you start:

The payment on account metafield

A metafield is an extra field on a record in your store admin. Credit limits, balances and net terms all live in one customer metafield.

For other platforms, see the developer docs.

The value is a short piece of text in a set format (JSON), with these properties:

What to enter

Fill in the form and copy the value it writes. Leave out anything you don't use, and enter amounts without a currency symbol.

Add a Balance date only for an opening balance on Shopify: the date the Balance was owed from, which SparkLayer tracks new orders and payments from. Pick it in the form and it's written in the format SparkLayer needs: the date, the time and your time zone's offset from UTC, such as 2025-01-01T00:00:00+00:00 for midnight on 1 January 2025 in the UK. A date needs a balance with it.

These are the common values, if you'd rather copy one:

Set a credit limit and account balance

1. Open the customer's record in your store admin. On Shopify, go to Customers (opens in your Shopify admin in a new tab)Opens in your Shopify adminTakes you straight to Customers to do this now. Opens in a new tab. and open the customer.
2. In the Credit Limit and Account Balance metafield, paste the value from the form, for example {"credit_limit":1000,"balance":250}.
3. If you sell in several currencies (see Shopify Markets and currencies), add the customer's currency, for example {"credit_limit":1000,"currency_code":"usd","balance":250}.
4. Save the customer.

The balance updates automatically with each successful order, and you can change it by hand at any time. For a balance that also tracks payments, turn on Payments visibility: see Show a real-time account balance.

Worked example

Available credit is the customer's credit_limit minus their balance. The balance is what they owe you, not what they have left to spend.

Don't set balance to 250 to give them $250 to spend. {"credit_limit":250,"balance":250} means they already owe you $250, so they've used all their credit.

Checkout blocks the order, rather than warning the customer, because of the customer group's Prevent placing an order if exceeding credit limit setting, shown on the group as Checkout blocked if limit exceeded. See Block orders over the credit limit.

Let customers order over their credit limit

By default, a customer can't pay on account for an order over their credit limit. To allow it, change the customer group's Credit settings rule:

1. Go to Customers,Groups (opens in your SparkLayer Dashboard in a new tab)Opens in your SparkLayer DashboardTakes you straight to Customers › Groups to do this now, whichever platform you're on. Opens in a new tab. and click the group's name. For every group, click Edit on the base customer group.
2. Under Inherited rules, click + Override next to Credit settings (on the base group, + Customize), then Configure.
3. Turn off Prevent placing an order if exceeding credit limit, then click Save.

Customers can then pay on account over their limit, with a message that the order may be delayed and subject to approval. See Block orders over the credit limit.

There's also a store-wide setting at Settings,Configurations (opens in your SparkLayer Dashboard in a new tab)Opens in your SparkLayer DashboardTakes you straight to Settings › Configurations to do this now, whichever platform you're on. Opens in a new tab. that lets customers use Pay on Account when an order takes them over their limit.

Change the credit messages

Change this text without code at Storefront,Options,Translation overrides (opens in your SparkLayer Dashboard in a new tab)Opens in your SparkLayer DashboardTakes you straight to Storefront › Options › Translation overrides to do this now, whichever platform you're on. Opens in a new tab. (see Change checkout text). {balance}, {creditLimit} and {type} are replaced with the customer's own values.

credit-unavailable messages show when Pay on Account is turned off for an order over the limit. credit-limit-hit messages show when you let customers order over it.

translations: {
  en: {
    "account.main.my-details.payment-on-account.detail": "Your account balance is {balance} with a credit limit of {creditLimit}.",
    "account.main.my-details.payment-on-account.detail-without-limit": "Your account balance is {balance}.",
    "account.main.my-details.payment-on-account.net-terms": "Your payment terms are {type}.",
    "account.main.my-details.payment-on-account.sub-text": "Payments may take some time to be updated. Please contact us to discuss payments or credit.",

    "cart.checkout.payment-method.credit-unavailable.title": "Your cart currently exceeds your available credit limit",
    "cart.checkout.payment-method.credit-unavailable.message": "Please choose an alternative payment method to complete your order. If you'd like to discuss your payment terms, please contact us.",
    "cart.checkout.payment-method.credit-limit-hit.title": "Your cart currently exceeds your available credit limit",        
    "cart.checkout.payment-method.credit-limit-hit.message": "You can place an order but it may be delayed and subject to approval. If you'd like to discuss your payment terms, please contact us.",
  }
},

<!-- SparkLayer Core Script: in your theme, just before </head>.
     Already have window.sparkOptions? Add just the setting to it. -->
<script>
  window.sparkOptions = {
    translations: {
      en: {
        "account.main.my-details.payment-on-account.detail": "Your account balance is {balance} with a credit limit of {creditLimit}.",
        "account.main.my-details.payment-on-account.detail-without-limit": "Your account balance is {balance}.",
        "account.main.my-details.payment-on-account.net-terms": "Your payment terms are {type}.",
        "account.main.my-details.payment-on-account.sub-text": "Payments may take some time to be updated. Please contact us to discuss payments or credit.",

        "cart.checkout.payment-method.credit-unavailable.title": "Your cart currently exceeds your available credit limit",
        "cart.checkout.payment-method.credit-unavailable.message": "Please choose an alternative payment method to complete your order. If you'd like to discuss your payment terms, please contact us.",
        "cart.checkout.payment-method.credit-limit-hit.title": "Your cart currently exceeds your available credit limit",        
        "cart.checkout.payment-method.credit-limit-hit.message": "You can place an order but it may be delayed and subject to approval. If you'd like to discuss your payment terms, please contact us.",
      }
    },
  };
</script>

Set net payment terms

Net terms tell the customer how many days they have to pay an order they didn't pay for at checkout, such as Net 30. They show as Payment terms (for example, "45 days") in Financials in My Account.

1. Open the customer's group at Customers,Groups (opens in your SparkLayer Dashboard in a new tab)Opens in your SparkLayer DashboardTakes you straight to Customers › Groups to do this now, whichever platform you're on. Opens in a new tab. and tick Payment on account (or Pay by invoice) in its Payment methods rule. See Payment methods.
2. On the customer's record, add the terms to the payment on account metafield, for example {"net_terms":"30_days"}. Use the form to combine them with a credit limit: it writes {"credit_limit":1000,"balance":250,"net_terms":"30_days"} for you.

The customer uses their terms by choosing Pay on Account (or Pay by Invoice) at checkout. Supported values:

Choose how to send invoices

Send invoices from your store

Attach your own invoice to an order

Link an invoice file to an order, and customers see View & Download Invoice on that order in My Account. Put a UUID (opens in a new tab) in the file name or URL so no one can guess it.

Use a third-party invoicing app

For more invoicing features, consider an app such as Sufio Invoicing.

Troubleshooting

FAQs