Managing customer credit without getting burned

Every distributor knows the tension. Extending credit wins you the shop on the corner and keeps the big accounts loyal. But credit that isn't tracked turns into a slow leak: balances creep up, payments slip, and by the time you notice, a good customer owes more than you'd ever have approved.

The fix isn't to stop giving credit. It's to make credit visible and bounded at the moment of sale.

Set a limit, enforce it at the van

A credit limit only helps if the agent sees it when it matters — not in a report the next week. In Traxales, each customer carries a limit, and the agent sees the outstanding balance the instant they select that customer. When a new sale would push the balance past the limit, it's flagged then and there, before the goods leave the van.

Watch the aging, not just the total

A customer who owes you a large amount that's all current is very different from one who owes half that but is 90 days overdue. Traxales breaks every outstanding balance into aging buckets:

• 0-30 days
• 31-60 days
• 61-90 days
• 90+ days

The 90+ column is the one that ends relationships. Watching it lets you have the awkward conversation while it's still a small number.

Collect in the field, record it instantly

Most credit is recovered the same way it's extended — face to face, on the route. When an agent collects a payment, it should reduce the customer's balance immediately, offline, with a record that syncs back to the office. No paper slips, no "I'll enter it later."

Credit isn't the risk. Untracked credit is the risk.

A simple weekly rhythm

1. Review the credit exposure dashboard every Monday.
2. Sort by the 90+ bucket and assign follow-ups.
3. Give agents a collection target for the week.
4. Watch the aging shift left over the month.

Do this consistently and credit stops being the thing that scares you and starts being the thing that grows you.