How to set up trade accounts for electricians and contractors

Trade customers expect their own price. Write that price down before you build anything: sort your regulars into bands, then decide how each band is priced and who signs off the deal.

Two bases work. A list discount suits cable and conduit. A fixed price per item suits a contractor who buys one breaker and plate range every week for a housing job, because the same lines repeat.

Put a start date and an end date on every rate, because an agreement with no end date outlives both the supplier’s costs and the contractor’s project. Review each band yearly with the owner. Record any volume rebate too, along with the quarter it is paid and the product groups it covers.

Give every account a limit. Without a visible limit, the person serving a regular simply says yes, and a bad month shows up later as an overdue statement nobody saw coming. Add terms in days.

Count open orders and unbilled deliveries against the limit. A contractor who has taken three loads this week and been invoiced for none has already spent part of the credit, even though the ledger shows nothing owed.

Decide who may lift a hold. That should be the owner or the accounts manager, never the person serving at the counter on a busy Saturday morning. New accounts often start on a deposit. The limit rises after a few clean months. Ask for a trading reference, a company registration number and a signed account application before the first delivery.

A contractor is rarely one address. An electrician may run a school refit, two houses and a shop fit out together, and each site needs its own delivery address, contact and purchase order reference.

Then name who may sign. A delivery left at a gate with nobody to sign is a dispute waiting to happen, so list the foreman and anyone else who may take a load. Add a phone number for each.

Ask for a site code on every order. It lets you split a statement by job, which is exactly what the contractor’s own accounts team will ask for next. Mark whether the site is first fix or second fix, because the lines that go out differ: cable and back boxes early, plates and consumer units later.

A quote is a price held briefly. Cable and copper fittings change often, so a quote with no validity date is a promise that never ends. Print the date at the top.

Number each quote and each revision. When a contractor asks about the third version of a bathroom fit out list, show versions one and two straight from the quote history, with no inbox search.

Turn an accepted quote into an order with one action, keeping its prices. A lapsed quote gets requoted from current rates. Never honour an old price out of habit. Mark each line as stock, special order or long lead time, so the contractor knows which lines leave the same day.

A statement lists invoices, credit notes and payments for the account, and for each site if the contractor wants it. Send it on a fixed day each month. Most disputes surface within a week.

Group what is owed by age, call the oldest account first, and note what was promised and by when. A promise with a date can be checked.

Pilot the whole sequence with ten regular accounts. Print their first statements, walk through each one with the customer, and fix whatever they query before you open the next batch of accounts.