How to set 20th of the month following (EMO20) on a Xero contact

"The 20th" is the most common payment term in New Zealand, and Xero can apply it to a customer automatically so you never type a due date again. Here's where the setting lives, the two options that both land on the 20th, how to change it for a lot of customers at once — and what the term really costs you in waiting days.

What EMO20 means

EMO20 is shorthand, not Xero's own wording. It's one of several names for the same term:

• EMO20 or EOM+20 — end of month, plus 20 days.
• 20th of the month following — the phrase most NZ businesses print on an invoice.
• 20 MFI — 20th, month following invoice.

They all mean the same thing: everything you invoice in one month falls due on the 20th of the next. Invoice on 2 March or 28 March, and both are due on 20 April.

Set it on one customer

The setting lives on the contact record, so Xero fills the due date in every time you invoice that customer:

1. Go to Contacts → All contacts and open the customer.
2. Click Edit.
3. Scroll to Financial details, and find the sales default due date under Invoices and quotes.
4. Enter 20, then choose of the following month from the dropdown.
5. Save.

Xero moves its screens around from time to time, so if a label doesn't match, Xero's own instructions are the ones to trust: Set due dates and payment terms for invoices and quotes and Edit a contact on Xero Central.

The change applies to invoices you raise from now on. Invoices already sitting in Awaiting Payment keep the due date they were given, so fix those by hand if the date matters.

Set it for every customer at once

If the 20th is your standard term, set it once for the whole organisation instead of contact by contact. It lives in your invoice settings, and Xero uses it whenever a customer has no default of their own.

A contact's own setting always wins. So set the organisation default to your usual term, then override it on the customers who are different — the ones on 7 days, or the big account that insists on 30.

The two options that both land on the 20th

Xero's dropdown offers four ways to count a due date, and two of them get you to the 20th:

• 20 of the following month — Xero jumps to next month and picks the 20th.
• 20 day(s) after the end of the invoice month — Xero goes to the last day of the invoice month and counts 20 days on.

The arithmetic lands in the same place every month, February included: 31 March plus 20 days is 20 April, and 28 February plus 20 days is 20 March. Use of the following month anyway. It says what you mean, so the next person to open the contact doesn't have to work it out.

The other two options, day(s) after the invoice date and of the current month, are for 7, 14 and 30-day terms. They will not give you the 20th.

Changing a lot of customers at once

Setting the term one contact at a time is fine for ten customers and miserable for two hundred. Two ways out:

1. Set the organisation default in invoice settings, then clear the odd ones out. Quickest, if the 20th is your normal term.
2. Export, edit and re-import your contacts. Export the contacts list to CSV, fill in the due-date columns, and import the file back over the top. Use the template Xero gives you rather than building the columns yourself — the header names have to match exactly. See Import contacts into Xero and Update or edit multiple contacts.

Take a copy of the export before you edit it. An import writes over what's there, and there's no undo.

Check it actually worked

Start a new invoice for the customer. If the due date fills itself in as the 20th of next month, it's on. If it comes up as today, the contact is still falling back to an organisation default that isn't set — or you saved the contact without the number in the box.

What the 20th costs you

The term sounds like "about three weeks". It isn't, and how long you wait depends entirely on when in the month you invoiced:

• Invoice 1 March → due 20 April. 50 days.
• Invoice 15 March → due 20 April. 36 days.
• Invoice 28 March → due 20 April. 23 days.

Averaged out, you're funding your customer for about 35 days before anyone is even late. The work you did earliest waits longest, so if you keep these terms, invoice the day the job finishes rather than batching at month end. That one habit can cut a fortnight off the wait. Our guide to payment terms in NZ weighs it up against 7, 14 and 30-day terms.

When the 20th comes and the money doesn't

A default due date makes the invoice correct. It doesn't make anyone pay. The 20th also creates a queue: every invoice you raised that month goes overdue on the same morning, so a slow payer hides in a crowd.

Turn on Xero's invoice reminders first — they're free, and they collect the honest slips. For the ones email doesn't move, the chasing sequence has a script and a timeline, and the Xero follow-up guide covers where reminders stop working. If your 60 and 90-day columns are the problem, start with reducing aged receivables.

Gary is the phone step: it reads the overdue invoices out of your Xero organisation and rings the customers you switch on, in business hours, then tells you what they said. How Gary works.

Common questions

What does EMO20 mean in Xero?

EMO20 isn't a Xero term — it's shorthand for end of month plus 20 days, the same thing as the 20th of the month following. In Xero you set it on a contact as a default due date of 20 "of the following month".

Where is the default due date on a Xero contact?

Open the contact, click Edit, and look under Financial details, in the Invoices and quotes section. Enter the day number, then pick how it's counted from the dropdown beside it.

Is EOM+20 the same as the 20th of the following month?

Yes. End of month plus 20 days always lands on the 20th of the next month, whether the month has 28, 30 or 31 days. Xero offers both wordings and they give the same due date.

Does changing a contact's due date fix invoices I've already sent?

No. The default applies to invoices you raise afterwards. Anything already in Awaiting Payment keeps its original due date until you edit it.

Can I set the 20th for all my customers at once?

Yes, two ways: set it as your organisation-wide default in invoice settings, or export your contacts to CSV, fill in the due-date columns and import the file back. Use Xero's own template so the column names match.

Why is my Xero invoice still defaulting to today's date?

Nothing is set. Xero falls back to the invoice date when the contact has no default due date and your invoice settings have none either. Set one or the other.