The Platform PM

Glossary and sources

Field Guide

B2B payments: order to cash

10

Glossary and sources

7 min read · Chapter 10 of 10

Words that mean something else here

TermWhat you'd assumeWhat it means here
CreditOne thingTrade credit (selling on terms), a credit limit, a credit memo, a credit card, an ACH credit (a push) or an insurer's limit. Ask which
TermsThe contractPayment terms (Net 30), shipping terms (FOB, Incoterms: when title and risk pass, which drives revenue timing) or the general terms and conditions
DeductionA tax itemA short pay a customer takes from your invoice. Not a tax deduction or an insurance deductible
HoldOne kind of pauseA credit hold (the order is blocked), the payer's AP payment hold, a Reg CC hold on a deposit, or a legal hold on records
CollectionsChasing late payersThat, all cash received (in a lender's report), or agency work
SettlementThe deal is doneBanks settling with each other, a processor funding the seller net of fees, an invoice "settled" in AR, or a legal settlement like Visa and Mastercard's
PaidMoney receivedPayer: initiated. Seller: cash applied. Bank: item honored. Discount fights live in the gap
ReturnGoods sent backAn ACH entry sent back with an R-code, or a returned check. Returned goods get a credit memo
DisputeA chargebackUsually a commercial disagreement over price, quantity or quality, with no rail involved
ChargebackA card reversalOn cards, yes. In retail, also a deduction or compliance fine a retailer takes from the payment
ClaimA complaintA Canadian PAD claim, a card dispute, a deduction, an insurance claim, a reclamation demand or a creditor's claim in bankruptcy
ClearedFinalFunds made available under Reg CC. The check can still come back
Convenience feeA surchargeA flat fee for a genuinely alternative channel; a surcharge is a percentage on credit cards only
ReconciliationCash applicationMatching the bank statement to the general ledger. Cash application matches payments to invoices
EFTAny electronic paymentIn Canada, the AFT batch stream through ACSS. In US law, a consumer term
Consumer protectionsApply to everyoneConsumers only. Businesses get UCC 4A, 2 banking days for R29, 10 business days on a business PAD, relaxed Reg B notices, no FDCPA, and their contracts

What surprised me

"A check is a slow port: annoying, but once it lands, it's done." A check can be deposited, applied and made available under Reg CC, and still come back weeks later as altered or counterfeit.

"Remittance is message metadata." In messaging, the sender and timestamp ride with the message. Here the money goes through the bank and its explanation comes separately, by email, portal or a stub in an envelope. It's like an SMS with a blank sender ID, where the real one comes by email two days later, or never.

"Payer adoption is carrier approval." A carrier is one gatekeeper with a published process. Payers are thousands of AP departments that owe you nothing, and some have their own offer: a virtual card program where my customer pays the fee. You have to change how each of them pays, one AP team at a time.

"A return code is an error code." In messaging, an error code is a diagnostic: read it, fix it, resend. An ACH return code is a right with a clock, and every R29 counts against a 0.5% threshold your bank watches, so retrying the wrong one makes things worse.

"Fees are carrier pass-through." In telco, carrier fees flow downstream and stop. Here, the interchange my seller pays funds the payer's card rebate, paying the other side to keep using the expensive rail.

"Net 30 is postpaid billing." Postpaid checks credit once and spreads risk over millions of small accounts. Here credit is checked on every order, one customer can be a tenth of the receivables, the biggest customers write their own terms, and cutting off a late payer means fighting my own sales team.

Sources

Undated entries were read on October 1, 2026.

Rail operators

Regulators, central banks and payments law

Credit, collections and insolvency law

Accounting

Card networks

Industry associations, standards and benchmarks

Stablecoins and digital assets

Trade press and legal analysis

Company results and filings

Rail operator and company pages, and deal news

Field Guides are learning notes, not legal or compliance advice. Rules and fees change; check the cited primary sources before you act on anything here.