What is Flex Pay?
Flex Pay has been an effective way for buyers and sellers to leverage net terms to increase purchasing power for years, but LeafLink has added an exciting update to further enable buyers to access terms on their own. Previously, if a seller decided against paying an extended payment fee, the buyer wouldn’t be able to leverage net terms via LeafLink. Now, buyers are able to opt in to extended payments themselves, enabling them to purchase terms directly from LeafLink.
The Benefits
Buyers are now able to self-select when they would like to include terms on an order without needing to consult with their seller, simplifying the ordering process and allowing buyers to control when and how they want to pay their invoices. This also allows buyers to activate idle invoices that haven’t been processed due to sellers that have decided against paying a net terms fee on an invoice so buyers can have purchases approved faster.
Once a buyer agrees to purchase terms, the seller will get paid on all future invoices upon delivery confirmation for free, incentivizing your sellers to process your orders quickly.
Getting Started
Buyers can purchase net terms in two places – either during checkout in Marketplace, or on the Sellers tab on the Payments portal.
Marketplace Opt-In
If you’re eligible to purchase net terms from a particular seller, you’ll see the option to do so on the Cart Page during checkout, as seen below:
Once selecting “LeafLink Payments,” you will follow the same workflow of purchasing the product within the Marketplace. The corresponding invoice will then be visible in the seller’s “Eligible Invoices” page within the Payments portal, from where they will assign you the invoice, and await your delivery confirmation, which will formally begin your payment terms.
You can also confirm your applicable fee with the respective seller before opting in by clicking on “View applicable fee.” You’ll be navigated to a rate table in the Payments portal.
Payments Opt-In
To get started on Payments, navigate to the Sellers tab to view which sellers are eligible for buyer opt-in to the payment extension. Select the drop-down in the ‘Terms & fees’ column and pick your term with any seller where the payment program is currently listed as ‘Do Not Process.’ You can add a filter on the payment program to see the full list of eligible sellers.
Once you’ve confirmed the update, net terms and associated fees will be automatically added to any existing and future invoices with that seller.
If you ever want to switch back and stop purchasing net terms, simply change your ‘Terms & fees’ dropdown to its original blank state.