An adhesives, abrasives and tape distributor sells to a wide range of customers. OEMs building products on an assembly line. Plants buying for their maintenance departments. Independent body shops and multi-location collision groups. Small fabrication and welding shops. Other distributors who resell your stock. Each wants terms, each carries a different kind of risk, and many of them buy in ways that may be tax-exempt.
When opening an account means a paper application, reference calls and a week of waiting, a new body shop buys on a card for a while, and some never become real accounts.
Credit applications without the paper chase
The app has an online credit application with a signature. The customer fills it in from a phone or computer and signs it. It arrives in your office, where you can review it and approve terms with one tap.
A rep who meets a new shop owner, or a manufacturer that just moved a line into your area, can send the application during the visit, rather than leaving a paper form behind to get lost under the estimates.
Tax exemption certificates that stay current
In many states, materials that become part of a manufactured product can be exempt. That can include the structural adhesive bonding a panel, the foam tape mounting a trim piece or the threadlocker on an assembly. Resellers buying for resale can be exempt too, and depending on the state, so can some materials a shop bills through to its own customer. The weak point is the certificate: never collected, expired or lost in a drawer.
The tax exemption certificates tool shows every exempt account and whose certificate is missing or expired. That gives your office a short list to work each month, instead of a surprise during an audit.
Offering better terms, safely
Good terms can win a growing fabricator or a new body shop that a larger supplier holds to strict limits. But you want to extend terms only where you can see what is happening. The app gives you the controls:
- Monthly budgets on an account, so orders past the budget are held for approval.
- Approval required on accounts where every order goes to a manager first.
- Quotes-only mode for customers who should request prices but not order directly.
- Invoices and pay links, so customers can see and pay what is open.
- Collections reminders that run from friendly to firm on a schedule.
With those in place, you can open a new shop with a sensible limit, watch how it pays and give it more room as its volume grows. For a young business, real terms from its consumables supplier is a reason to stay.
Larger customers benefit too. A collision group with several shops, or a manufacturer with plants in more than one state, can be set up as a master account with terms set once, so every location runs on the same terms without separate applications.
Dispensing equipment deserves extra care. A pneumatic dispenser or a meter-mix system is a large order compared with a box of discs, and it often comes with a commitment to buy the adhesive that goes through it. Budgets and approvals make sure an order like that is seen by the right manager before it ships, which protects both of you.
The goal is to open good accounts quickly, keep certificates current and give terms to the customers who earn them. When credit is easy to get and easy to manage, it helps sell.
Want to see it with your own adhesives, abrasives and tape accounts? See how it works.