How does the payment term work?
The term depends on the agreement. If there is nothing in your quotation, your order confirmation or your general terms and conditions, you fall back on the statutory rules. If there is something, that applies, as long as it stays within the limits the law sets for commercial agreements.
Calendar days are the right unit. A term of thirty days is thirty calendar days, and the interest that starts running afterwards runs per day over the number of days in the year. Anyone who counts in working days structurally arrives at a different due date than their customer.
Default occurs by operation of law once a payment term has expired. So you do not need to send a reminder to make interest run. For collection costs charged to a consumer, that is different: there the veertiendagenbrief (the fourteen-day letter) is a condition.
Where is the payment term in the law?
These legal sources come from the specialist dossiers that were reviewed on 24 August 2026. Mind the difference that becomes large in a dispute: a statutory article next to a value is where that value is found, not a justification for how it applies to your situation.
- Article 6:119a of the Dutch Civil Code (BW)governs statutory commercial interest on commercial agreements and the moment at which it starts to run
The links go to the statutory text on wetten.overheid.nl, in the version that applied on 24 September 2026.
What does basestep do with the payment term?
basestep calculates due dates in calendar days and puts the due date on the invoice itself. Outstanding items are compared on that date, so that late really means late and not roughly.
All calculations, explanations and signals in basestep are calculation support and instruction, not tax or legal advice. Amounts are estimates based on your own input; the Dutch tax authority (Belastingdienst) sets the assessment.
Where does it go wrong with the payment term?
The two mistakes you run into most often in practice with this term, and what they cost you.
Counting in working days
Payment terms and interest run in calendar days. If you count in working days, your due date differs from your customer’s and from the court’s.
Thinking you must send a reminder for interest
Once a term has expired, commercial interest runs automatically. Sending a reminder is useful to get paid, but it is not a condition for the interest.
Further reading
Three places this term is tied to, inside this glossary and beyond.