Bridging Net 60-90 terms from enterprise and government buyers

Winning a large enterprise or government IT contract is a milestone — and a cash-flow test. Big buyers do not negotiate payment terms the way a small client might. Procurement imposes them: Net 60, Net 90, sometimes longer, with the terms baked into a framework you sign as a condition of the work. Meanwhile you carry the delivery cost — developers, infrastructure, subcontractors — from day one.

This is a procurement-led cycle, not a relationship you can lean on to get paid faster. It often comes wrapped in clauses that shift risk onto you: suspension rights that let the buyer pause work, and late-payment provisions that may entitle you to statutory interest you would rather not need. This guide is about carrying the cost across those long terms without straining the rest of the business.

Procurement sets the terms, not the relationship

With a small or mid-sized client, payment terms are part of a conversation. With an enterprise or a government department, they are part of a procurement framework. The terms are standardised, applied across all suppliers, and rarely movable for a single vendor — especially a smaller one keen to win the work.

That changes how you should think about the contract. You are not waiting on a slow payer you can chase; you are operating inside a defined cycle where Net 60 or Net 90 is simply how the machine works. Planning around the term is more productive than hoping to shorten it.

You carry the delivery cost the whole time

The hard part is that your costs do not wait for the term. From the first sprint you are paying developers, running infrastructure and possibly paying subcontractors, while the invoice for that work will not clear for two or three months. On a sizeable engagement that is a substantial sum tied up at any moment.

• Delivery costs start on day one and recur throughout.
• The first invoice may not clear until well into the project.
• The longer the term and the larger the contract, the more working capital sits locked in the gap.

Treat the cost of carrying that gap as part of the deal, and price and plan for it rather than discovering it once the work is underway.

Suspension rights and late-payment clauses

Enterprise and government contracts often carry clauses that add to the risk. Suspension rights allow the buyer to pause the engagement — for budget, reorganisation or convenience — while you may still be holding committed delivery resource. Late-payment provisions, including statutory interest on overdue commercial debts in many jurisdictions, are a backstop, but interest you have to claim is not a substitute for cash you can plan around.

Read these clauses before you sign, and assume the term may run to its full length or beyond. The safe planning assumption is that money arrives late within the rules, not early as a favour.

Reserve to carry the term

The defensive move is to fund the gap deliberately rather than absorb it from working balance. Setting aside a reserve sized to the delivery cost you will carry across the payment term means a long Net 90 cycle does not put pressure on payroll or other commitments.

Keeping that reserve visibly separate also tells you the truth about how much capital each enterprise engagement ties up, which is exactly the figure to know before you take on a second or third large contract on similar terms. The more of these you run at once, the more important it is to see the combined gap clearly.

How Altery fits

Altery is not a bank, and this is general information rather than advice, but it suits the shape of enterprise terms. You can ring-fence funds into a reserve pot sized to the delivery cost you will carry across a Net 60-90 term, so the gap does not pull on payroll or other commitments. Real-time balances let you watch the working capital each engagement ties up and manage several long-term contracts side by side. And multi-currency accounts holding USD, EUR or GBP help when the enterprise or government buyer is in another country and pays in another currency.

Frequently asked questions