What Are Net Terms? (Net 30, Net 60 — Explained for Designers)

Net terms are trade credit: a vendor ships your order and gives you a set window — net 30, net 60 — to pay the invoice in full. For designers, terms turn a cash-flow cliff into a bridge: the furniture can be ordered before the client's final payment fully clears, because the vendor's bill isn't due for a month.

Why they matter in design

A furnished room is a five-figure purchase order, and someone has to float it. Without terms, the designer either collects 100% from the client up front (a hard ask) or fronts the money personally (a hard risk). With terms, the sequence relaxes: collect the client deposit, place the orders, and settle vendor invoices inside the window as the client's balance arrives. The margin doesn't change; the timing does — and in a business of freight delays and staggered deliveries, timing is most of the stress.

What it takes to get them

Terms are credit, so vendors underwrite you like a borrower: expect applications with trade references, bank details, and time-in-business — and expect "prepay only" as the starting answer for a new design business. Terms are earned account by account, usually after a history of prompt prepaid orders. They also add a real obligation: an invoice due in 30 days is due whether or not your client has paid you, which is why terms pair with disciplined deposits, not instead of them.

Where to go deeper

Terms live inside brand trade accounts — the complete guide to trade programs covers the accounts themselves, and what is trade pricing covers the economics they finance.

On Suede, the money movement is the platform's job: procurement runs through us, we invoice your client, handle collection and payment timing, and pay out your earnings. You pick the products and find clients, Suede manages the rest. Join the waitlist here.