A groundworker at the counter with cash in hand
A new customer walks in at seven in the morning. He is a groundworker with two lads in the van and a job starting in Barnsley on Monday. He wants an account. The counter hands him a four-page PDF, or tells him to fill in the form on the website, and he pays cash for today's sand and cement because the account will not be open in time.
The form comes back a week later, photographed on a phone, half filled. The bank details are missing. The trade references are two names and a mobile number. It goes into the credit controller's tray, where it waits behind month end. By the time the account is open, he has opened one at the merchant down the road, and that is where his Monday order went.
The application is five jobs pretending to be one
It looks like a form problem. It is really a hand-off problem. Opening a trade account at a builders merchant usually means a form, proof of identity and address, a credit reference check, sometimes trade references, sometimes a personal guarantee for a sole trader or a new limited company, a limit decision, and then keying the account into BisTrack, K8 or whatever your branch system is. Each of those steps sits with a different person and a different tool.
- The form is a PDF, so every field is retyped by someone in the office.
- Missing information is chased by phone, and nobody logs the chase.
- The credit check is run in a separate portal and the result is saved as a PDF on someone's desktop.
- Trade references are requested by email and replies arrive in a personal inbox.
- The branch manager who sponsored the account has no idea where it has got to.
None of these is hard. Together they turn a same-week job into a three-week one, and the customer's patience is shorter than that.
What the slow account really costs
The obvious loss is the customer who gives up and goes elsewhere. The less obvious ones are the cash sales that would have been larger on account, the branch staff who stop pushing accounts because they know the process is painful, and the credit controller whose week is spent chasing paperwork rather than chasing debt. There is also risk the other way: when the process is slow, branches open accounts informally with a note on the till and a promise that the form will follow.
The application intake we build
- A web and tablet form the counter can hand over on the spot, which checks the fields as they are filled in and will not submit without the items your credit policy requires.
- Identity and address documents are photographed in the form, and company details are looked up against Companies House so the registered name and number are right first time.
- The credit reference check runs through your chosen agency's API, such as Creditsafe or Experian, and the result is attached to the application rather than saved elsewhere.
- Trade reference requests go out automatically with a short reply form, and the replies attach themselves to the file.
- The approver sees one screen: the application, the checks, the references and a suggested limit band based on the rules you give us. They approve, adjust or decline.
- On approval the account is created in your merchant system through its import or API, and the branch and the customer are told the account number.
| Step | Today | With the intake |
|---|---|---|
| Form | PDF, retyped | Checked as it is filled in, no retyping |
| Missing details | Phone chasing | Form will not submit without them |
| Credit check | Separate portal, saved PDF | Run and attached automatically |
| References | Personal inbox | Reply form linked to the application |
| Status | Ask the credit controller | Visible to the sponsoring branch |
The credit decision stays with your people. The system gathers the evidence and applies your rules for which applications go to whom. It does not decide who is creditworthy.
Monday morning, after the change
The counter hands over a tablet instead of a PDF. The application arrives complete, the checks are already on it, and the credit controller spends her time on the judgement calls rather than the admin. The branch manager can see that the groundworker's account is waiting on one trade reference and can ring the referee himself. When the account opens, the first order goes on it.
Does this sound like your credit desk?
- Application forms are PDFs that someone retypes.
- You cannot say how many applications are open or how long they have been waiting.
- Credit check results are saved outside the merchant system.
- Branches open accounts informally while the paperwork catches up.
- Customers tell you they opened an account elsewhere while waiting.