Few distribution businesses have as many tax-exempt customers as jan-san. Public schools, universities, nonprofit hospitals, churches, government buildings and housing authorities are all big cleaning supply buyers, and most of them are exempt. At the same time, building service contractors are a large share of the market, and many of them are small businesses running on thin margins with payroll every week.
That mix means a lot of paperwork and real credit risk. The app helps with both.
Credit applications online, with signature
Credit applications are online with a signature. A new customer fills out the application in the app and signs it there, and you approve terms with one tap. No faxed forms, no missing signature pages, no retyping.
For building service contractors, speed matters. When a contractor wins a new building, they need a full startup order: chemicals, paper, liners, dispensers, mops, buckets, vacuums and maybe a floor machine, often within days. If your credit approval drags on, they'll buy the startup somewhere else, and the startup order usually decides who gets the ongoing business.
Tax exemption certificates under control
Tax exemption certificates show every exempt account and whose certificate is missing or expired. Customers can upload their own certificate in the app instead of your office chasing it by email. For a distributor with dozens of schools, churches and nonprofit customers, that's a lot of follow-up you no longer do by hand. And if you're audited, you can show the certificate for every exempt sale without digging through folders.
School districts and other master accounts are especially simple. Set terms and tax status on the master account, and every building under it inherits them.
Better terms, with less risk
Better terms can win business, especially with contractors who pay for supplies before their own customers pay them. The risk is extending terms to someone who won't pay. The app helps you manage that:
- Signed credit applications on file for every account, so you know who you're dealing with.
- Invoices and Look up an invoice, so both sides see what's billed and what's open.
- The collections helper, which shows who owes money and how late.
- Pay links on every invoice, so paying you is easy.
With that visibility you can extend terms to a contractor and watch how they pay. If they pay well, they can earn more. If they start to slip, you'll see it on the collections helper and can step in before the balance gets out of hand.
Why it's a profit issue
Every hour your staff spends chasing exemption certificates and signatures is overhead that doesn't sell anything. Every bad debt from a contractor who folded wipes out the margin on many good orders. Moving credit and tax paperwork online cuts the overhead, speeds up the first order, and lets you offer competitive terms with your eyes open.
For school and public customers, it also makes you easier to do business with. Facility directors appreciate a vendor who keeps their paperwork straight, and that reputation travels between districts.
A good habit is to review the missing and expired certificate list at the start of each school year and before the fiscal year turns over for public customers. That's when exemption paperwork tends to lapse, and fixing it before the next order ships is far easier than correcting invoices after the fact.
Want to see your own jan-san catalog in it? See how it works.