Wholesale payments: six moments you can take the money, and which one fits the account
A department store on net 60, a boutique on prepay, an international buyer on a letter of credit and a walk-up at market are four different cash problems. AIMS360 collects at order, at pick, at ship, from the invoice, on terms or through your factor, with the card tokenized, the payment posted against AR and the entry synced to your ledger.
How does a wholesale apparel brand actually get paid?
Rarely one way. The same brand takes a deposit from a first time boutique, ships a department store on net 60 against a factor approval, captures a card at shipment for a reorder, sends a pay-from-the-email link to an account that keeps forgetting, swipes a card at market, and invoices an international buyer in their own currency.
The thing that makes that manageable is not a payment product. It is that the order, the credit decision, the shipment, the invoice and the payment are the same record. The card authorized at order entry is the card captured at shipment. The payment taken from the invoice email posts against AR aging without anyone keying it. And the entry reaches QuickBooks, Xero or Sage as a customer payment applied to the right invoice rather than as a lump sum somebody has to allocate.
When the money can move, and which account each one suits
| Moment | How it works | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Deposit at order | A percentage taken by card or ACH when the order is written, held against the order and applied to the final invoice at shipment | Large orders, first time buyers, custom production |
| Pre-authorization at pick | The all-in total, including estimated freight, authorized before the warehouse picks, then captured for the actual amount at shipment | Card accounts where a declined card after packing means an unpack and restock |
| Capture at shipment | The card on file charged for the invoiced amount as the pick ticket completes | Repeat card customers with a card already tokenized |
| Invoice payment link | The invoice email carries a view link and a pay button, so the buyer settles by card or ACH without a phone call | Boutiques and any account that pays when reminded |
| Net terms | The invoice ages against the terms on the customer record, from net 7 to net 120 with EOM dating and early pay discounts | Established accounts and anyone your credit process has cleared |
| Factor advance | The order is credit approved before it ships, the invoice is assigned at creation and the retailer pays the factor | Department stores and any receivable you finance rather than carry |
Marketplace deposits from the B2B platforms you sell on arrive the same way, so an order written on a wholesale marketplace and an order written by your own rep both land with the money already accounted for rather than needing a separate reconciliation.
Every term your buyers ask for, configured once
What ships configured
- Net 7 through net 120, with EOM dating and early pay discounts
- Credit card, ACH and debit
- Wire transfer, COD, letter of credit and ROG
- Prepay, consignment and memo
- Buy now pay later financing through the financing partners
- Unlimited custom terms built in setup rather than by a developer
Set per customer, overridden per order
Each account carries a default term, so a department store is net 60 and a new boutique is card on file without anyone deciding again at order entry. Credit card only and prepayment required flags sit on the record, along with the hold status that stops an account shipping at all. Any of it can be overridden on a single order when the situation genuinely calls for it.
The payment terms catalog lists the full set with codes, discount percentages and day counts.
The freight problem, and why it declines cards
The card that authorizes for the merchandise total declines at capture once freight and tax are added, and by then the order is packed. This is the most expensive small problem in wholesale card payments.
Authorize the all-in total
AIMS360 calculates expected shipping from product weights, carton sizes and carrier rules, then pre-authorizes merchandise plus tax plus estimated freight, so the warehouse never picks an order the card cannot cover. The actual amount is captured at shipment.
In batches, and across split shipments
Pre-authorizations can be run in batch across hundreds of pick tickets rather than one order at a time, and a supplemental authorization covers a shipment that goes out in more than one piece. Cards on file are tokenized, so none of this requires re-keying a card number.
One operational rule worth knowing before you automate: if you capture cards at invoicing, fully automatic batch invoicing must be switched off, or invoices are created without the cards being charged. The run looks clean and the money simply never moves. Use the account filter to run card customers and net terms customers as two separate batches.
Deciding whether to ship at all
Getting paid starts before the goods move. Two mechanisms decide it, and they answer to different people.
Your own credit limit
A whole dollar limit on the customer record, for business you finance yourself. The AR tab shows open unpaid invoices plus approved orders against it, which is real exposure. With the order entry setting on, an order that would breach the limit warns and saves on hold with your reason code.
Your factor's approval
Factored orders go to the factor for credit approval before the goods move. Approvals come back onto the order and denials are flagged for review, so nothing ships on credit the factor never accepted. At invoicing each invoice is assigned to the factor with the right remittance details, so the retailer pays the factor and funding is not waiting on paperwork.
Not in your ERP, which is the point
| What | How it works |
|---|---|
| Card data | Captured and tokenized by PCI DSS compliant processors. AIMS360 stores a token and a transaction reference, never the card number |
| Card on file | The token is reusable for repeat orders, deposits, captures and refunds without anyone re-keying a number |
| Your compliance scope | Keeping cardholder data out of the ERP reduces what has to be protected and audited on your side, and removes the most attractive target from the system your whole team logs into |
| Platform fees | There are no AIMS360 platform fees on payments, only the standard processing rates from your processor |
| Accounting | Every payment posts against the invoice in AR and syncs to QuickBooks, Xero or Sage as a customer payment applied to the correct invoice and account |
What to know before you plan around it
| Constraint | Detail |
|---|---|
| Automatic batch invoicing does not charge cards | If you capture cards at invoicing, uncheck automatic mode before starting the batch. Otherwise invoices are created, the log looks clean and the cards are never charged. You find out in aging. |
| Nobody is alerted when a customer pays online | A payment made from the invoice email or the payment page posts to AIMS360, but no message reaches your side. Turn on payment notifications at your card processor so AR hears about it. |
| The in house credit limit is a prompt, not a wall | With the order entry setting on it warns and holds. Without it, the limit is information. Neither applies to factored orders, which the factor approves. |
| Multi-currency is the selling side | Pricing, invoicing and collecting in another currency are supported, with live or fixed rates and gain and loss reporting. Confirm the scope for your own setup during implementation. |
| Confirm your processor and its documentation | Processing runs through PCI DSS compliant partners. Confirm the specific processor and its current compliance documentation with your AIMS360 contact when you set payments up. |
| Terms are a decision, not a default | An account with no term set inherits whatever the system default is, which is how a boutique ends up on the same terms as a department store. Set the term when you create the account. |
What each part of payments does
The card and ACH engine, and the factor approvals that decide whether an order ships at all.
Common questions
What credit, accounting and sales teams ask about taking money from wholesale accounts.
Credit card, debit, ACH bank transfer, wire, COD, letter of credit, ROG, prepay, consignment, memo, net terms from net 7 to net 120 with EOM dating and early pay discounts, buy now pay later financing through the financing partners, and factored receivables. More than 38 standard terms ship configured, with unlimited custom terms built in setup rather than by a developer.
Six moments, and most brands use several. A deposit by card or ACH when the order is written, applied to the final invoice at shipment. A pre-authorization before picking, captured for the actual amount at shipment. A straight capture at shipment against a card on file. A payment link in the invoice email. Net terms, where the invoice ages against the customer record. Or a factor advance, where the order is credit approved before it ships and the invoice is assigned to the factor.
Usually freight. A card authorized for the merchandise total declines once tax and shipping are added at invoicing, and by then the order is packed. AIMS360 calculates expected shipping from product weights, carton sizes and carrier rules and pre-authorizes merchandise plus tax plus estimated freight, so the warehouse never picks an order the card cannot cover. The actual amount is captured at shipment, with supplemental authorization for a split shipment.
No. Cards are captured and tokenized by PCI DSS compliant processors, and AIMS360 stores only a token and the transaction reference. The token is reusable for repeat orders, deposits, captures and refunds, so nobody re-keys a card number, and there is no cardholder data sitting in the ERP database to be exposed. That also reduces the scope of what has to be protected and audited on your side.
Yes. The invoice email carries the customer PO number, account code, invoice number and amount in the subject, a link to view the invoice as it currently stands, and a pay button where you take cards through AIMS360. The buyer settles by card or ACH without a phone call and the payment posts against AR. One thing to set up alongside it: no message reaches your side when they pay, so turn on payment notifications at your card processor.
A percentage is taken by card or ACH when the order is written and held against the order, then applied automatically to the final invoice when the goods ship. It is the usual arrangement for large orders, first time buyers and custom production, because it locks in the order before you commit to producing it. Deposits collected on the B2B wholesale platforms you sell through arrive the same way rather than needing a separate reconciliation.
Because automatic mode was left on. Credit cards are not processed by the fully automatic batch invoice feature, so invoices are created without the cards being charged. Nothing appears to fail: the run completes, the log looks clean and the money simply never moves, which you find out later in aging. If you capture cards at invoicing, uncheck automatic mode before starting the batch, or use the account filter to run card customers and net terms customers as two separate batches.
They cover different receivables. The in house credit limit on the customer record is for business you finance yourself, and the AR tab shows open unpaid invoices plus approved orders against it. With the order entry setting on, an order that would breach it warns and saves on hold with your reason code. Factored orders are not governed by that limit at all: they go to your factor for credit approval before the goods move, and a denial is flagged for review rather than slipping through.
At invoicing, automatically. Once approved goods ship and the invoice is created, it is assigned to the factor with the correct remittance details, so the retailer pays the factor rather than you, and your funding is not waiting on somebody re-keying an assignment. Recourse and non recourse, advance rates, holdback percentages and factor specific fee structures are configurable per assignment.
Yes. A percentage or dollar amount can be added on top of the actual freight cost for an account, automatically, every time. On the invoicing side the freight is reconciled against the shipment rather than left as an earlier estimate, with each account's own discounted or upcharged shipping pricing applied as the invoice is created. Freight is where wholesale invoices most often get corrected by hand, and that is the step it removes.
Yes, on the selling side. With multi-currency on, each customer carries a currency, each style carries a price per currency, and orders, invoices, payments and receivables hold the currency and the exchange rate of the day. Rates are retrieved daily by default or fixed by you, and unrealized and realized gain and loss reports show what the movement between invoice and payment cost or earned.
Yes. Cards can be taken on the road through the AIMS360 mobile and remote tools, so an order written at market is paid for at market rather than chased afterwards, and the payment lands against the same order and the same customer record as everything else.
Yes. Card and ACH payments post as customer payments applied to the correct invoice and account, and sync to QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Xero or Sage. That matters more than it sounds: a lump sum landing in the ledger for somebody to allocate by hand is the difference between a payment being recorded and a receivable being closed.
No AIMS360 platform fee is charged on payments, only the standard processing rates from your processor. Confirm the specific processor, its current rates and its compliance documentation with your AIMS360 contact when you set payments up, since those are set by the processor rather than by the ERP.
Where payments touch the rest of the system
Last reviewed 16 September 2026 by the AIMS360 team. Payment capability and processor arrangements reflect the AIMS360 configuration as of that date and are confirmed for your setup during implementation. Processing rates are set by your payment processor. AIMS360 does not provide financial or legal advice. Product and company names belong to their owners.
Bring the account that always pays late
We will set its terms, its credit limit and its card on file, pre-authorize an order with estimated freight, ship it short on purpose and capture the real amount, then show you the payment posted against AR and ready for your ledger.
