Packaging distributors sell to a wide mix of businesses. Established manufacturers with steady volume. Food processors with strict specs. 3PL warehouses packing for dozens of clients. And a fast-growing crowd of e-commerce shippers, some of them doing well, some of them a few months from closing. Each brings different credit risk.
Tax status adds another layer. Packaging that becomes part of the product a customer sells is often bought for resale or under a manufacturing exemption, depending on the state and how the packaging is used. That means certificates on file, and certificates that expire. Handling all of this by email and paper eats office time. The app brings it into one place.
Credit applications, online with signature
Credit applications are online, with 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 pages, no retyping.
Speed matters in packaging. When a new e-commerce brand launches or a manufacturer brings a new product line online, they need boxes, mailers, tape and void fill right away. If your credit process takes a week, they'll put the first order on a card somewhere else, and the first order often decides who gets the steady business.
Tax certificates you can actually keep current
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. When an auditor asks why you didn't charge tax on boxes sold to a manufacturer, you have the certificate ready, not a search through old email.
For multi-plant customers, put tax status and terms on the master account, and each location inherits them.
Better terms with less risk
Better terms can win packaging business, especially from growing shippers whose cash is tied up in inventory. The risk is extending terms to a company that can't pay. The app helps you manage that:
- Signed credit applications on file for every account.
- Invoices and Look up an invoice, so you and the customer both see what's billed and open.
- The collections helper, showing who owes money and how late.
- Pay links on every invoice, so paying is as easy as ordering.
With that visibility, you can start a new e-commerce shipper on modest terms, watch how they pay, and increase their limit as they prove themselves. If payments start slipping, perhaps after a slow season, you'll see it on the collections helper and can act before you've shipped another truckload of custom mailers.
That matters double for custom print. When a customer orders printed boxes made only for them, you're carrying both the credit risk and the inventory risk. Pair good credit practice with a dedicated custom inventory agreement, and you can support growing brands without betting the business on them.
Credit and tax paperwork is overhead. Every hour spent chasing signatures and certificates is an hour not spent selling, and every bad debt wipes out the margin on many good orders. Getting it online cuts the overhead, speeds up first orders and lets you offer terms that win accounts without taking blind risks.
A simple habit helps: review the missing and expired certificate list every quarter, and look over new accounts' payment history after their first few months. Growing shippers that pay well are worth rewarding with better terms, and doing it on a regular schedule turns credit into a sales tool instead of a hurdle.
Want to see your packaging catalog in it? See how it works.