A payment term meaning an invoice is due in full 60 days after the invoice date, common with large companies and hard on freelancer cash flow.
Net-60 means an invoice is due 60 days after its date. It’s common with large corporations and agencies, whose accounting departments run on long cycles — and it’s brutal on a freelancer’s cash flow, since you’re effectively lending two months of your income interest-free.
For sellers, net-60 is a real cost, not just an inconvenience. If a client insists on it, price it in: a higher rate, a larger deposit, or milestone payments so you’re not waiting 60 days on the entire amount. For buyers, offering shorter terms to a small vendor is a genuine kindness — and often earns you priority and goodwill you can’t buy otherwise.
The negotiation point is leverage. Big clients present net-60 as non-negotiable policy, but the person hiring you often has more flexibility than the boilerplate suggests. Ask for net-30, a deposit, or milestones. The worst answer is no, and you’re no worse off than the payment terms you started with.