Credit limits that protect you without blocking good retailers

Giving credit is how distribution works, and also how distributors get hurt. The instinct is to set one limit for everyone. It rarely works: it's too tight for your best retailers and too loose for the ones who are already slipping.

Set limits per retailer, from behaviour

What a retailer has actually done tells you more than a guess. Look at:

• How they pay: on time, a bit late, or often very late.
• How much is overdue right now, and for how long.
• Whether they keep their promises to pay.
• Whether their orders are growing or shrinking.

A retailer who pays on time and is growing has earned a higher limit. One who is 45 days overdue with two broken promises has earned a pause.

Warn first, block last

A hard block can lose you a good retailer over a payment that is one day late. A warning at the moment of ordering lets a person decide: “They're overdue, but I spoke to them this morning — go ahead.” Reserve hard stops for the cases you have already decided on.

Review regularly

A limit set once and forgotten gets stale. Look at limits monthly: raise them for retailers who have proven themselves, lower them where the pattern has turned.

Keep the reason on record

When you approve an order over a warning, note why. It protects you later, and it helps whoever covers for you when you're away.

How Distiqo helps

Distiqo refreshes a risk score for every retailer overnight, based on payment behaviour and how a retailer is trending. On each order, it checks credit and shows a warning if there's a problem — with the amount overdue and the number of days — and then leaves the decision to you. Nothing is refused automatically.