When a new brand wants to order packaging, someone has to collect its details, check its credit and set it up in the accounting system before the first invoice. In many distributors that means a Word form, a separate credit check and the same details typed into Xero.
This guide follows the fictional supplement brand Saltbush & Co. from its first enquiry to a live account.
The manual way today
- An account form goes out as a document and comes back half filled.
- Someone looks up the ABN and runs a credit check in a separate system.
- The credit decision is emailed around.
- The customer, contacts and terms are typed into Xero.
- The first order waits until all of that is done.
The automated way
- One setup link. Saltbush & Co. fills in one form with its ABN, delivery sites, contacts and approvers, and uploads its spec sheets.
- Credit check run. A CreditorWatch check runs on the ABN and the report goes to your accounts team with the application. CreditorWatch offers credit applications with ABN and ASIC details filled in.
- Your team approves. Credit terms are decided by a person, with the report in front of them.
- Account created in Xero. The customer, contacts and approved payment terms are created in Xero through its published API. Nobody re-keys them.
- First job opens. The brand’s first RFQ or proof round opens, with approvers already named.
What your team still decides
- Whether to approve credit, and on what terms.
- Anything unusual in the application.
Who does it
In Otopack this is the work of the Customer Service Rep, working with Xero and CreditorWatch. See the Xero + CreditorWatch workflows.
