Selling and credit terms Doc's required

Hey All,
In another post i've posted about me importing some goods for resale. Obviously the people i will be selling to will want credit from my company. All my dealings in the past has being payment when services are delivered.
What documents should i have ready for my potential customers to sign or do i just send them an invoice for goods delivered? Should i get them to sign a order form that i have made up?
Should i consult a solicitor for something like this or are their generic form that people use in this type of business?
Thanks in advance.
Kieran

Hi Kieran

Good luck with your venture. I do not know what market you are in or who your customer base is but you should be able to compile fairly standard terms and conditions either by googling examples of T's and C's or by 'seeking inspiration' from those of competitors / similar businesses.

Unless you know your customers well - I would not give credit automatically. You should continue to promote 'payment on delivery' as your standard terms with an option to apply for credit facilities for corporate clients. If you are going to extend credit to several customers - be sure you factor in the cost of this to your pricing model. You will need to devote time (either your own or someone elses) into vetting credit applications, controlling these credit accounts (including credit limits) and ultimately providing for some level of bad debt.

Personally - if you feel you must offer creditI would suggest that you take your existing pricing, increase it by about 6% and then offer 5% discount to customers who pay in advance !

Best of luck with this

Dicey