Advance, Net 60, Letter of Credit: Decoding Payment Terms and FX Risk in the Stone Trade

A stone company shipping its first container abroad often runs three currencies at once: quarry and labor costs in Turkish lira, a buyer in Rotterdam who opened their demand in euros, and an offer to Miami written in US dollars. That is everyday cross-border stone trade, where a container's profit or loss often hinges on two financial questions: when does the money move, and what is it worth when it does?

The first question belongs to payment terms, the second to currency risk. Both drain or feed the same reservoir: working capital. This guide merges the two vocabularies for stone companies trading across borders for the first time.

The payment language: five terms from prepaid to letters of credit

An advance, or deposit, is the percentage paid before shipment. A net term is the number of days after the invoice date by which the balance is due. Every preset in the stone trade combines these two dials.

Prepaid means the full amount is paid before shipment: safest for the supplier, who sees the money before production begins, hardest on the buyer, whose working capital sits tied up in a container for weeks. Net 30, 60 and 90 flip the balance: the full payment falls due 30, 60 or 90 days after the invoice date. The buyer breathes, perhaps even sells the stone before paying, but the supplier has effectively financed production and freight. A producer who accepts Net 60 has extended their buyer two months of interest-free credit.

A letter of credit hands that tension to a bank: the buyer's bank guarantees payment once shipping documents are presented — a common secured instrument for parties who do not yet know each other. Milestone schedules, built on the supplier side, spread payment across production stages, say 30 percent at order and 70 percent at shipment, with percentages totaling exactly 100. Everything else is custom: a flexible advance, a flexible net term, details in notes.

Terms are part of the price

The classic mistake is treating the payment term as an administrative detail; it is a financing cost baked into the price. An offer that demands prepayment and looks slightly cheaper per square meter can end up costlier than a pricier Net 60 offer: for two months that cash cannot work anywhere else.

That is why MarbleMap gives payment its own row: on general demands without an item list, offers sit side by side with payment terms next to the ≈EUR total, lead time, Incoterm and supplier rating. On itemized demands the comparison table is a paid Pro feature and has no separate payment row; you read the terms inside each offer. On the Pro flow, a buyer can flag a payment terms preference when opening a demand — a request, not binding; the supplier sets the actual terms in their offer's payment step. Changing payment terms on a rejected offer counts as a material change that lets the supplier resubmit: the term is a live negotiating instrument, not decoration.

MarbleMap does not touch the money. There is no escrow; payments never flow through the platform. Terms are written into the offer, and settlement runs between the parties and their banks. The platform's job is not to hold funds but to make the decision transparent.

The EUR shadow price: putting three currencies on one ruler

How do you compare a USD offer against a demand opened in EUR? MarbleMap's answer is the EUR shadow price: every offer priced outside the euro carries an approximate euro equivalent marked ≈EUR. Twelve supported currencies land on common ground through a EUR pivot; you can sort by lowest ≈EUR price and filter by minimum and maximum EUR.

Suppliers keep their flexibility: each line item and expense can be entered in a different currency. Entered amounts stay untouched; foreign-currency items convert into the offer currency during calculation, and the review step shows both figures. The best-offer flag decides on the same ground: it goes to the lowest grand total on a shared EUR basis. On itemized demands, an offer that leaves lines blank looks cheap only because it skipped them, so it cannot take the flag, and withdrawn offers are excluded. The flag is a recommendation — the decision always stays with the buyer.

Indicative rates, binding rates and the lock at acceptance

The most important sentence in this guide: the rates you see on screen are indicative, not live. The offer screens say so explicitly — EUR/USD estimated, non-live rate — and the FX breakdown lists every rate used. The binding conversion happens at one moment: when the buyer accepts the offer; from then on the locked rate does not move.

The lock is not a hedge but a recorded conversion basis, and it gives both sides clarity: the buyer knows the accepted figure will not drift with tomorrow's market; the supplier knows the agreed basis is fixed. Still, everything before acceptance is an approximation, so a small gap between offers may be that day's FX noise rather than a real price advantage; do not hang a sourcing decision on it. Read it together with payment terms, coverage, lead time and the supplier's track record; when the difference is small, let the terms speak, not the exchange rate.

Before your first container: bring the finance language to the table

For first-time exporters and importers alike, the summary is the same: the payment term is part of the price, and the exchange rate is an estimate until acceptance and a commitment after it. A company that internalizes those two sentences negotiates in the language of finance.

MarbleMap sets that table without commission. Buyers open demands on marblemap.co for free: post in the currency you work in and weigh sealed offers with their payment terms and ≈EUR equivalents. Suppliers submit sealed offers to demands from vetted buyers: price line items in your own currency and set your terms in your own payment step. You know the stone; marblemap.co keeps the numbers honest.