Deliveries go out, money does not come back
Every Tuesday the van drops coffee at the same cafés. Most pay on time. A few drift: thirty days becomes forty five, then sixty, and the next four deliveries have gone out in the meantime because nobody looked at the balance before loading the van.
When the owner finally notices, it is awkward. The café manager is friendly, the owner of the café is hard to reach, and a phone call about money feels like it might end the account. So it gets put off again.
Why café accounts drift
The roastery and the accounts do not talk to each other. Deliveries are planned from orders, invoices are raised in the accounts package, and payments arrive by bank transfer, card or direct debit. Nobody sees the account balance at the moment it matters, which is when an order is confirmed or a van is loaded.
- Invoices go to a café's general email, which the person who pays never sees.
- Payment terms were agreed on a handshake and are not recorded anywhere.
- Reminders depend on the owner remembering to send them.
- Orders are accepted without anyone checking the balance.
- Chasing feels personal because the owner has the relationship.
The quiet cost of slow payers
Green coffee is paid for long before a café pays for the roasted coffee made from it, so every overdue account stretches your cash further. Owner time goes on chasing instead of selling. The worst case is a café that closes owing several weeks of deliveries. Even without that, uncertainty about who owes what makes planning green purchases harder than it should be.
How we connect deliveries and payments
- Each café account holds its agreed terms, the right person for invoices and the right person for orders, which are often different people.
- Invoices raised in Xero or QuickBooks are read back into the account, with their due dates and payments.
- Reminders go on a schedule you choose, before and after the due date, written in your own tone and signed from an accounts address rather than the owner.
- When an order is confirmed, the order screen shows the café's balance and oldest overdue invoice, so the person confirming can decide whether to talk before delivering.
- Accounts past a limit you set are flagged on the delivery list, and the decision about whether to hold a delivery stays with you.
- A weekly summary shows the owner which cafés are drifting, before it becomes a difficult conversation.
| Moment | What happens now | With the link |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice sent | To a general inbox | To the person who pays |
| Due date passes | Nothing, unless someone remembers | Reminder in your tone |
| New order arrives | Accepted without a check | Balance shown on confirmation |
| Van loaded | Every order goes | Flagged accounts visible to decide |
| Monthly review | Owner scans the aged debt | Drifting accounts listed weekly |
A calmer way to be paid
Most chasing happens without anyone picking up the phone, because a friendly reminder from accounts at the right time is usually enough. The owner only steps in on the few accounts that need a real conversation, and has the facts in front of them when they do. The delivery driver is no longer the person a café asks about its bill, and your cash position stops being a surprise at the end of the month.
Is this happening in your wholesale book?
- Some cafés are regularly past their payment terms.
- Deliveries go out without anyone checking the balance.
- Payment reminders only go out when the owner remembers.
- Invoices go to an address nobody at the café reads.
- You have lost money to a café that closed owing you.