You shipped the order, the store sold it, and the invoice is now 40 days past net-30. The buyer answers your emails. They're friendly. They say the same thing every time: "We'll get you next week." Next week comes and you get a partial check, or nothing, because the store had six other vendors saying the same thing.
That's the shape of most slow money in cannabis. It isn't fraud and it usually isn't a dispute. It's a dispensary with real sales, thin margins, a heavy tax bill and more invoices due this month than cash on hand. The store isn't refusing to pay you. It's refusing to pay you all at once.
Cannabis payment plans meet that store where it actually is. Instead of chasing a $4,800 balance that never shows up, you offer four monthly payments of $1,200 and start getting paid this week.
Why wholesale cannabis invoices stall
Cannabis net terms drift for structural reasons. A dispensary can't put a wholesale invoice on a card, so paying you means someone has to sit down and cut a check. Cash is tight because 280E taxes take a big bite out of every store's profit. And there's rarely a consequence for slipping from net-30 to net-60. We covered that drift in depth in Cannabis Net Terms: How to Get Invoices Paid.
Reminders fix the invoices a store forgot about. They don't fix the invoices a store can't cover in one go. Those sit, because every reminder asks for the whole amount, and the whole amount is exactly what the buyer doesn't have. So the invoice ages, your rep makes the awkward calls, and eventually someone suggests a collection agency that keeps a quarter or more of whatever it recovers.
A store that can't pay $4,800 today can often pay $1,200 a month. The question is whether you'd rather wait for the whole thing or start getting paid this week.
What a 0% payment plan does for both sides
A payment plan is an installment schedule on one invoice. The balance is split into equal payments on fixed dates, and nothing is added on top. No interest, no finance charge. The store gets breathing room. You get dates you can plan around instead of "next week."
Chasing the full balance
$0
Collected this week on a $4,800 invoice the store can't cover at once. Every reminder asks for money that isn't there.
A 0% payment plan
$1,200
Paid at approval, then $1,200 on each of the next three monthly dates. Example numbers.
Plans also protect the relationship. Your buyer will order again from the brand that helped them through a tight month. They won't be as eager to order from the one that sent the account to collections.
Why most brands don't offer installment payments
If plans work, why doesn't every brand offer them? Because running one by hand is a part-time job. Someone has to agree on the schedule, track each date, remind the store before each payment, chase the payment that didn't arrive, record each one in QuickBooks, and figure out what to do when a check bounces halfway through. Most brands try it once with a spreadsheet, lose track by month two, and go back to asking for the whole balance.
Installment payments for dispensaries only work when the follow-through runs without anyone remembering to run it.
How payment plans work in ShelfCollect
ShelfCollect Payment Plans runs the whole schedule for you. Here's the flow, start to finish.
You offer the plan in one click
On any open invoice, pick how often (weekly, every 2 weeks or monthly) and how many payments (2 to 24). Every payment has to be at least $1.00, so very small balances can't be split.
The store hears about it
The invoice email and every reminder say "Need more time? 0% payment plan available" and point to Pay over time on the store's payment link.
The store sets it up
On the payment link, the buyer picks Pay over time, enters the store's bank account and authorizes the payments by ACH bank transfer or e-check. If they saved their bank for that store, it's one click.
You approve it
Approve or decline from the invoice page. Approval sends the first payment right away. If a request sits for 2 days you get a nudge, and after 7 days with no answer it's declined and the invoice goes back to normal paying.
Payments go out on each date
The store gets a heads-up 3 days before each payment and a receipt after it. Each payment comes from the store's own bank account, by ACH bank transfer or e-check.
Once the plan starts, the store's payment link becomes a plan-status page. It shows the schedule, what's been paid so far and the next date, and it has a Stop future payments button the buyer controls. Payments already made stay paid. Giving the store that control is part of why buyers are comfortable saying yes.
0%
interest or finance charge for the store
2–24
payments, weekly, every 2 weeks or monthly
3 days
heads-up before every payment
When a payment bounces
Every brand that has run a plan by hand has the same story: payment three bounced, nobody noticed for two weeks, and the books still showed it as paid. ShelfCollect handles that in one click.
- Report it. On the invoice, click to report the bounced check and pick the bank's reason. The payment is reversed in the app and in QuickBooks, and the plan pauses.
- Resume. For an ordinary bounce, resume the plan. The next payment is at least 3 days out and the bounced amount becomes one payment at the end. Nothing is ever taken twice.
- Or cancel. Cancel the plan and whatever is still owed turns back into a normal invoice on the same payment link, with reminders chasing it. The store can always pay that remainder from the link.
Your cannabis accounts receivable stays honest the whole way through: what QuickBooks shows matches what actually arrived.
When to offer a plan, and when not to
Payment plans are a tool for good accounts that hit a tight stretch. Some rules of thumb we see work:
- Offer it on the first slip, not the fifth. A plan at 15 days past due keeps the account healthy. A plan at 120 days past due is a rescue.
- Match the cadence to the store's cash. Weekly suits a busy store with steady deposits. Monthly suits a big balance and a store that pays its bills once a month.
- Keep the count short when you can. Four to six payments clears most balances without stretching the relationship for half a year.
- Pair it with your other tools. A plan works best alongside reminders and Pay Now links for everything else, and a promise to pay for stores that just need until Friday.
Getting paid by dispensaries isn't about pushing harder for the whole balance. It's about making it easy for a store with real sales and tight cash to pay you a piece at a time, on dates you both can see.
Where this fits
Payment plans are part of ShelfCollect, ShelfSpace's done-for-you accounts receivable for cannabis brands, cultivators and distributors. Every invoice goes out with a payment link, reminders run on a schedule in your brand's name, and stores can pay in full, pay part, or pay over time from their own bank account. See every way stores can pay you on Payments.
The first step is free: we'll look at your open invoices and show you how much is past terms, and which of those accounts are good candidates for a plan.