ZAMBO.

Direct answer

A discount for paying early is a loan you make to yourself, priced by the day. Run the yearly rate before you smile and agree.

The request sounds like a compliment: your client likes your work and offers to pay fast, if the price moves a little. Sometimes it is a fair trade. Often it is the most expensive money you will touch all year, because a small percentage over a short window annualizes into a rate no lender would dare print. Two percent off for paying 20 days early is roughly 37 percent a year. Five percent for two weeks is well over 100 percent. This page works the arithmetic in the open, names the situations where speed really is worth buying, shows the ways to get paid sooner that cost nothing, and gives you the written shape of the offer for the times you do make it, tied to the acceptance record so the early date both sides count from is a fact, not an argument.

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Updated November 10, 2026. First published November 10, 2026. The records quoted below are real and public, read back from the live service on November 10, 2026.

Step 1. Do the arithmetic before you discuss the offer

One formula decides most of these requests: discount divided by what you actually receive, times 365, divided by the days the payment moves forward. On a $2,000 invoice due in 30 days, 2 percent off for payment by day 10 means giving up $40 to get $1,960 twenty days sooner: 2 divided by 98, times 365, divided by 20, which lands near 37 percent a year. The same 2 percent against a client who would otherwise pay on day 45 buys 35 days and costs nearer 21 percent, which is why the honest question is never the percentage; it is how late this client actually pays when nobody offers anything. Check their last two invoices before you price speed. A discount offered to a client who pays on day 9 anyway buys nothing at all: you have simply cut the price and called the cut a finance decision.

Step 2. Take the free speed first

Most slow payment is not a finance problem, so do not pay a finance price for it. The commonest causes are process: the invoice arrived without the reference their system needs, approval sat with one person who was away, or the work itself had no recorded acceptance for their accounts team to pay against. Each of those is fixed free: ask how they pay before asking when, get the acceptance on the record the day the work is done, and take a deposit or milestone split on the next job, which moves real cash to the start at zero discount. If a client chronically pays at day 50 on 30 day terms, the cure is a schedule conversation and staged billing, not a standing toll you pay them for doing what the agreement already says. Only when you have a specific, dated cash need, a supplier to pay before the client pays you, a gap week you must fund, does buying speed become a real option worth its rate.

Step 3. If you offer, tie the clock to the acceptance record

Every discount dispute is secretly a date dispute: when did the early window start, and when did the money land? Both dates become facts when the job runs on a record. The record format is AER-1, published as an IETF Internet-Draft (draft-zambo-aer1-26), and each step carries a verifiable receipt: a receipt proves the saved result was not changed since it was saved. The two public records below show the decision layer the clock should hang on:

Accepted: the decision is on the record

Pending: checked, and still waiting on a decision

The accepted record carries its decision with a decider and a date, 2026-10-16T14:31:51.146Z, and its release state reads ok_to_release: that is a start line both sides can point at. The pending record, decision still open and release on hold, is a job no early payment should be expected on at all, because the client has not yet recorded the decision that makes the invoice payable. So write the offer against the accepted state: the discount applies if the full amount, less the agreed discount, lands within the stated number of days from acceptance, and the invoice is settled in one payment. A client who has not accepted cannot start your discount clock, and a client who pays after the window has paid the full price, by the offer's own recorded terms.

Step 4. Write the offer so it cannot drift

Four lines cover the whole agreement, and anything vaguer will be renegotiated by events. The percentage and the window, counted from the acceptance date on the record. The amount that settles the invoice inside the window, stated as a number, so nobody does arithmetic at the point of payment. The statement that payment after the window is the full invoice amount, said once, kindly, before anyone is late. And the scope: this job only, offered once, not a standing term for future work. That last line matters more than the rate. A discount granted silently twice becomes the client's expected price and your new ceiling, and unwinding an expectation costs more goodwill than refusing the first request ever would. Send the offer as a message attached to the job, keep the reply, and show the discount as its own line on the settlement so your books record price, discount, and amount received as three honest numbers.

Step 5. The reply, in words you can send

For the client whose history justifies it: happy to. On this invoice, if the full amount less 2 percent lands within 10 days of your acceptance on the delivery record, that settles it in full; after day 10 the invoice stands at the agreed price. Offered on this job, and I will confirm the moment it lands. For the client it does not suit: I do not discount for early payment, because the price already assumes the agreed terms; what I can do is split the next job into a deposit and milestones, which gets cash moving at the start without either of us repricing finished work. Both replies are short because the thinking happened before the message. Notice what neither does: apologise for the price, or discount work that is already delivered and accepted at the full agreed figure outside a written settlement; a retroactive cut on a closed job is not an early payment discount at all, it is a price renegotiation wearing one as a costume.

What this page cannot settle

The arithmetic shows what speed costs; it cannot say what speed is worth to you this month, which depends on your cash position, your other options for covering a gap, and this client's real payment history. This is general information, not financial or tax advice, and discount terms interact with tax treatment in some jurisdictions, so a standing discount policy deserves professional advice before it becomes policy. A verifiable receipt proves the saved result was not changed since it was saved; the acceptance record settles the dates and the decision state both sides count from, and payment itself is proven by bank records, not by the work record.

Frequently asked questions

My client wants a discount for paying early. Should I offer one?

Only after two checks. First, the arithmetic: divide the discount by what you would receive, annualize it over the days actually gained, and look at the rate with open eyes; 2 percent for 20 days is about 37 percent a year, and 5 percent for two weeks is over 100 percent. Second, this client's real history: if they pay on day 10 anyway, the discount buys nothing, and if they pay on day 50, staged billing and a recorded acceptance fix more than a toll does. Offer it when you have a specific dated cash need and their lateness is real, and then write it tightly: percentage, window counted from the acceptance date on the delivery record, the exact settling amount, full price after the window, this job only. Otherwise keep the price and offer the free speed instead: a deposit, milestones, and an invoice their system can process the day it arrives.

What percentage is fair for an early payment discount?

The common market shape is 1 to 2 percent for payment roughly 20 days early, often written as 2/10 net 30: 2 percent off inside 10 days, full amount due at 30. Common is not the same as cheap: that shape annualizes to about 37 percent, so fairness depends on the days actually bought and the client's untreated payment speed. A small percentage with a short window, offered on one job to a client who genuinely pays slowly, can be a rational purchase of certainty. A larger percentage, a long window, or a standing offer to every client is margin leaving by a side door. If a client proposes 5 percent, counter with the window, not just the number: 2 percent inside 7 days of acceptance is usually a better trade than 3 percent inside 30.

What if the client takes the discount but pays late anyway?

Then the discount never happened, and the paperwork should say so before the situation exists. Write the condition into the offer itself: the reduced amount settles the invoice only if it lands within the window counted from the acceptance date on the record; after the window, the full invoice amount is due. When a discounted amount arrives late, send one short message the same day: received with thanks, applied against the invoice, balance of the discount amount still owing under the offer's terms, with the two dates shown, acceptance date and payment date, both of which sit on records neither side has to reconstruct from memory. Most late discount claims are honest confusion about when the clock started, which is exactly the confusion a recorded acceptance date removes.

Will offering a discount train my clients to pay slowly on purpose?

It can, and the mechanism is simple: a standing early discount quietly redefines your real terms, because the client learns that the fast price is the true price and the slow price is a penalty only a fool pays, so every future negotiation starts from the discounted figure. The defences are scope and silence. Scope: offer job by job, in writing, with this job only stated, and let most jobs carry no offer at all. Silence: never advertise a discount policy, because a policy is a price list, and a price list gets optimized against. Clients who pay promptly at full price are your best clients; a loud discount program charges them the most for the same work, which is the opposite of the lesson you want your pricing to teach.

How do I set a job up so early payment is easy to offer and easy to check?

Run the job on one record, so acceptance, its date, and the invoice live in the same place and the discount window counts from a fact. When the work runs through Zambo, every step lands on the job record with a verifiable receipt under AER-1, published as IETF Internet-Draft draft-zambo-aer1-26, the client accepts on the record, and the acceptance view shows status, decider, date, and release state. New users get 20 calls and 1 wrap-up free every day per agent, and picking up work in another AI is always free. For $0.99, run your next job that way and offer the early terms against its acceptance date, so both sides can check the window from the record instead of from inboxes: get the Day Pass. A Day Pass is unlimited for 24 hours, no subscription. Ongoing use is the Zambo Pass at $29 a month, $19 a month for $ZAMBO holders, or Lifetime at $250 one time.

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