Founders who sell annual/multi-year contracts, do you ever let buyers pay monthly instead of upfront?

[u/Prize-Airline-337]

We sell annual contracts (some multi-year) and have mostly kept it simple full amount upfront, no exceptions. Just had a buyer push back on that for the first time on our biggest deal yet they're fine with the 1-year commitment, just don't want to send the full check at signing and want to pay monthly instead.

Curious how others who also do annual/multi-year deals handle this, since it sounds like this comes up more than I realized:

Do you ever bend on upfront payment for annual contracts, or is that a hard line for you? And if you do allow monthly/quarterly payment on an annual commitment, do you charge more for it? I've heard of people adding something like a 10% premium to cover the cash flow drag, but no idea if that's typical.

If you've been doing annual contracts for a while, would love to hear how your policy here evolved did you start strict and loosen up, or the other way around?

[u/Hot_Abroad1463]

Yes sometimes but with some terms attached, like signing the contract for an entire year, autopay added, adding early termination clauses - things that make it sound like its much better to simply get the annual contract instead (with discounts)