As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly choose invoice payment terms.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open your current invoice template, standard terms and customer contract, and copy the payment wording into a working document.
   2. Gather your cash-flow forecast, recent payment history, typical invoice values, customer type, order frequency and any known procurement approval requirements.
   3. Paste those facts into the prompt, replacing each bracketed slot and removing information you do not know rather than guessing.
   4. Ask the model to compare your current terms with options such as payment on receipt, a fixed period, a deposit or staged billing, where those options fit your business.
   5. Compare each proposed term against your cash-flow forecast, customer history, contract and current invoice wording, correcting any factual mismatch.
   6. Check the relevant payment and late-payment guidance on GOV.UK, then ask an accountant or solicitor to check the wording where the amount, contract, dispute risk or customer relationship is significant.
   7. Choose the option you can apply consistently, update the approved invoice template and send the final wording to the person responsible for issuing invoices.

   Prompt

   Help me choose invoice payment terms for a UK business. This is not professional advice. Do not invent facts, legal rules, customer credit information or figures. If information is missing, identify it and show how the recommendation changes.
   
   Business details:
   - Business type and sector: [insert]
   - What we sell and when we normally invoice: [insert]
   - Current standard payment terms: [insert]
   - Desired cash-flow position: [insert]
   - Costs or risks caused by waiting for payment: [insert]
   - Whether deposits, staged billing, retainers or payment on delivery are possible: [insert]
   - Any existing contract or published terms that apply: [paste or describe]
   
   Customer details:
   - Customer type and location: [insert]
   - New or existing customer: [insert]
   - Relevant payment history: [insert]
   - Order value and expected repeat business: [insert]
   - Any known credit, procurement or approval constraints: [insert]
   
   Produce:
   1. Three realistic payment-term options, including the current terms if supplied.
   2. For each option, explain the effect on cash flow, customer friction, administration and late-payment risk.
   3. State which option you recommend and the facts supporting it.
   4. Give a simple decision rule for when to use each option with future customers.
   5. List the assumptions and missing information that could change the recommendation.
   6. Draft plain UK wording for the invoice terms, without claiming that it is a complete contract or giving legal advice.
   7. Flag any point that should be checked with an accountant or solicitor, especially contractual, statutory interest, late-payment or cross-border issues.
   Keep the recommendation separate from facts and assumptions.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.