Decision
When to Put a Buyer on Credit Hold (and How to Do It in Shopify)
A buyer goes on credit hold when either of two lines is crossed: they're over their credit limit, or anything on their account is 60+ days past due. On hold means new orders wait — placed and acknowledged, but not shipped — until the balance comes back inside the lines. Shopify has no credit-limit field to do this for you (checked 6 August 2026), but it does have one setting that turns a hold into something checkout actually enforces. This guide covers the rules, the mechanics, and the conversation.
What does "on hold" actually mean?
Not fired, not insulted — paused. The buyer can still browse, still place orders, still talk to you. What stops is your risk growing: nothing new ships while the existing debt is outside your agreed lines. A hold is you declining to raise a loan that's already past its limit — because that's literally what unshipped-but-unpaid inventory is.
The reason holds feel harsh is that most suppliers only invent the rule the day they first need it — so it lands as a punishment. Written down in advance (your net-terms agreement is the right place; grab the free checklist if you don't have one), it's just policy, applied to everyone, including your favorites.
When does a buyer go on hold?
Three tripwires, decided while everyone's still friends:
- Over the credit limit. Every terms buyer gets a number. Starting rule: about 2× their expected monthly order value — big enough to never bother a healthy buyer, small enough that a blow-up stings instead of sinking you. Raise it after six clean months, on request, happily.
- Anything 60+ days past due. One invoice is enough. Money at 60 days hasn't slowed down; it's gone quiet. (Your aging report is where this jumps out — that's the screen that makes holds boring and automatic instead of emotional.)
- A second broken promise. "Paying Friday" that didn't happen once is life. Twice is a pattern, and patterns are what holds are for.
This is the supply-side discipline experienced wholesalers preach on the Shopify forums — start limits low, put the rules in writing, enforce them kindly — and it's cheaper than any collections tactic, because the best unpaid invoice is the one that never got that big.
How do you enforce a hold in Shopify?
Here's the honest state of the toolbox (as of 6 August 2026), from most to least manual:
- Flip their location to review-first ordering. The one native switch that behaves like a hold: Customers → Companies → the company → their location → Checkout → Edit → "Submit all orders as drafts for review." From then on their checkout ends in Submit for approval instead of a confirmed order — no payment is taken, the order lands in your Drafts, and nothing moves until you decide (Shopify's documentation). Many suppliers run new terms buyers this way as training wheels; for a hold, you're just putting the wheels back on.
- Tighten their payment terms for what comes next. In the company's Payment terms section, switch them from Net 30 to due on receipt. Existing invoices keep their dates; future orders stop adding to the pile.
- Hold the order that's already in flight. An unshipped order for a buyer who just crossed a tripwire can be paused individually — open the order and hold its fulfillment. Undo it the day the balance clears.
- If you like automation: Shopify Flow can tag a company's orders and hold fulfillment on tagged orders — workable, with the usual Flow caveat that every edge case is yours to maintain. Apps in this space (ours included) do the arithmetic continuously instead: TermsPilot watches balance vs. limit and days overdue, and flags, tags, or holds an over-limit order before it ships — the buyer can still place the order; it's caught before fulfillment.
How do you tell the buyer without losing them?
The words matter more than the mechanics. The tone that works is warm-firm:
"Happy to keep orders coming — I just need the March balance cleared first. Want me to resend the statement? The moment it lands, today's order ships."
No apology (you're not doing anything wrong), no accusation (neither are they, probably — most late payment is disorganization, not malice), and one concrete exit: pay this, and everything resumes same-day. Send the statement with it so the number is in front of their bookkeeper, not just their inbox.
Two details that keep the relationship: act fast on your half — when the payment lands, lift the hold and ship that day, with a cheerful note. And consider the first post-hold order on due-on-receipt before returning to Net 30 — trust rebuilds in steps, and reasonable buyers know it.
When is a hold the wrong move?
Three cases. A disputed invoice — if they say the goods were short or damaged, resolve the dispute; a hold reads as strong-arming. Your own paperwork gap — invoice never sent, PO number missing, statement wrong: embarrassing, common, and fixed by you, not them. And a one-off slip from a good payer — eighteen clean months and one invoice at day 62 is a phone call ("everything okay over there?"), not a freeze. Holds are for patterns. People get a call first.
Common follow-up questions
Does Shopify have built-in credit limits?
No. As of August 2026 there is no field anywhere in Shopify for "this company’s maximum is $5,000" — the limit lives in your records, and checkout won’t enforce it. The closest native lever is the per-location "Submit all orders as drafts for review" setting; enforcement beyond that comes from you or an app.
Will the buyer see that they’re "on hold"?
There’s no public label. If you switch their location to review-first ordering, checkout shows a Submit for approval step instead of instant confirmation — that plus your email is all they see. No scarlet letter.
Should I charge late-payment interest?
Only if your net-terms agreement already says so — you can’t invent it on an overdue invoice. A written 1.5%/month clause changes behavior even if you never once collect it. Our free net-terms checklist covers the clause.
What if they place an order while on hold?
With review-first ordering that’s fine — the order arrives as a draft and waits. That’s the entire point: the decision to ship returns to you, order by order, until the balance clears.
When does it stop being a hold and become a collections case?
Past 90 days with silence, or a second broken payment plan. At that point you’re choosing between an agency, small claims, and writing it off — and the useful lesson is almost always "the limit was too high for that buyer."
If chasing invoices is the part you dread: TermsPilot sits on top of the native setup this guide covers — one aging dashboard, reminder emails that keep going until the invoice is paid, and per-company credit limits. The Free plan shows you who owes you what before you pay us anything.