Payment FAQ — Serbia
How Serbia corporate merch orders are paid — advance structures, currency options, banks and the methods accepted by buyer type.
Standard payment terms
For established Serbian B2B buyers with prior order history, the standard payment terms are 50% advance on order confirmation and 50% on completion. Completion is defined as production finished and goods available for pickup or delivery; it does not require the buyer to have received or inspected the goods.
For new buyers (first order with us), the standard terms are 100% advance against proforma. This is a one-time structure — once the first order has been completed satisfactorily, the buyer graduates to the standard 50/50 terms on subsequent orders.
For buyers placing orders above 500,000 RSD in single-order value, the standard terms are 100% advance against proforma, regardless of prior history. This protects both parties against the working-capital exposure on a large single order. For ongoing programmes that exceed 500,000 RSD annually, the framework agreement model can move back to 50/50 terms.
For public-sector and state-owned buyers, the standard terms are typically 30-day post-delivery through the buyer's treasury system. These orders take longer to book but are reliable once the framework agreement is in place. We handle the framework agreement setup at the start of the relationship.
Currency and invoicing
Serbian domestic B2B buyers are invoiced in Serbian dinars (RSD) with 20% PDV applied under the Serbian VAT Act. The PDV is recoverable as input VAT on the buyer's regular PDV return. The exchange rate reference we use is the middle rate published by the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) on the invoice date.
EU-registered B2B buyers are invoiced in EUR without Serbian VAT under the EU reverse-charge mechanism. We need the buyer's valid EU VAT ID at quote time — an invalid or missing VAT ID means we have to charge Serbian PDV, which can be reclaimed later but is operationally painful for the buyer.
For buyers in BiH, Montenegro, North Macedonia and other Western Balkans jurisdictions, EUR invoicing is also standard. The buyer handles import VAT and any customs duties in their own jurisdiction, and our invoice is issued without Serbian VAT.
For buyers outside the EU and outside Serbia, the export invoice is issued without VAT, with the buyer handling import VAT and customs in their own jurisdiction. For non-EU buyers we can also ship DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) on request, with the duty and import VAT billed at cost.
Payment methods accepted
The standard payment method is bank transfer to our RSD or EUR account at a Serbian-licensed bank. We hold accounts at Intesa (Intesa Sanpaolo), UniCredit, Raiffeisen, OTP and AIK — the five most common Serbian-licensed banks for corporate B2B payments. The bank details are on the proforma invoice.
For smaller orders (typically below 50,000 RSD) and for buyers who prefer card payment, we accept corporate card payments through a standard Stripe / payment-processor route, with a small processing fee. We do not accept personal cards for corporate orders.
For very small in-person runs (typically below 10,000 RSD), we accept cash on pickup at our Belgrade facility. We do not accept cash on delivery — the cash option is pickup-only.
For framework-agreement buyers with regular monthly invoicing, we offer consolidated invoicing where multiple orders are billed on a single monthly invoice with a single payment. This is standard for buyers on rolling programmes and reduces the buyer's accounts-payable processing load.
Advance structures for large programmes
For programmes above 1,000,000 RSD in value, we can structure the advance across the production schedule rather than as a single upfront payment. The typical structure is 30% on order confirmation / 40% at production start / 30% on completion. This requires a signed framework agreement and is reserved for buyers with established credit history.
The advance structure can also be milestone-anchored for programmes with multiple delivery dates. For example, a programme with three quarterly deliveries can be invoiced 1/3 on confirmation + 1/3 at each delivery, with the production costs allocated to each delivery tranche.
For buyers on rolling programmes with vendor-managed inventory, the standard terms are 30-day post-delivery with weekly or monthly consolidated invoicing. This is the most cash-flow-friendly model for buyers with predictable recurring needs.
Currency risk on EUR-denominated orders
Currency risk on EUR-denominated orders is borne by the supplier between proforma and final invoice unless explicitly fixed. The exposure window is typically 2–6 weeks for standard orders, longer for framework-agreement orders, and the EUR/RSD rate can move 1–3% in that window.
For buyers who want certainty on the EUR price, we offer a fixed-RSD quote against the EUR base price, calculated at the NBS middle rate on the quote date and held for 14 days. After 14 days the quote is reopened at the current rate. The fixed-RSD option is a small premium over the floating-RSD option.
For buyers who prefer floating exposure but want a worst-case cap, we offer a capped-RSD quote where the RSD price is calculated at the NBS rate on the quote date but capped at a maximum RSD amount against further RSD weakening. The capped-RSD option is also a small premium over the floating-RSD option.
Late payment and dispute resolution
For buyers on 50/50 terms, the 50% balance is due on the completion notice (production finished, goods available). We issue the completion notice by email with the delivery / pickup date confirmed, and the payment terms run from that date.
Late payment triggers a reminder at 7 days, a second reminder at 14 days, and a formal notice at 30 days. Serbian law (the Serbian Law on Obligations) provides for statutory interest on late commercial payment at the NBS reference rate plus 8 percentage points. We reserve the right to apply statutory interest on overdue balances.
Disputes over invoice amount or quality are resolved through dialogue first, with the formal escalation to the Serbian Chamber of Commerce arbitration if dialogue fails. In practice, disputes are rare and most are settled at the dialogue stage.
Receipts, e-invoices and PDV treatment
For all B2B orders, we issue a fiscal receipt (fiskalni račun) at the point of payment and a final invoice (faktura) on order completion. Both documents are issued through the Serbian e-Invoice platform (SEF) for buyers who are SEF-registered, which is standard for Serbian B2B buyers above a certain turnover threshold.
For EU buyers, we issue a standard commercial invoice without fiscal receipt, with the EU VAT ID noted on the invoice and the reverse-charge statement applied. For non-EU buyers, we issue a commercial invoice with the export declaration referenced.
For framework-agreement buyers, we issue monthly consolidated invoices with each order's individual invoice referenced. The consolidated invoice carries the same PDV treatment as the underlying orders and is SEF-submitted in the standard way.
Confirm payment structure
Send the brief and your standard payment preference, and we confirm the payment structure on the proforma within one Belgrade business day.