A trade sale on account

What does this tour show?

It shows the moment the morning's mix leaves the shop. At half past ten the builder from the sample business comes to collect two tins from the Harbour Mist batch, plus two 9 inch rollers and four rolls of 48 mm masking tape. They are a trade customer with a 5% usual discount, and they settle their account monthly. The tour covers four screens' worth of work at one till.

Selling on account is ordinary in the trade. Contractors buy several times a week and pay once a month, and the shop that makes this easy keeps their business. The risk is that "put it on the book" slowly becomes a debt nobody tracks. The paint till puts the account, the discount and the limit in front of you at the moment of sale.

What does the sale look like in numbers?

Here are the sample lines, at the sample shop's prices. The shop is not VAT-registered in this example, so no VAT line is added.

The builder sees the Rs 1,189 discount as its own line. The shop sees it too, which matters when you later ask why margin on trade sales is lower than on walk-ins.

Step by step

1. Open the paint till. The product area shows base tins, weather coat, putty, rollers, brushes, tape and thinner, with any mixed batches waiting to be sold. A tin running low is marked, which is handy when a builder asks for six.
2. Tap the mixed batch. It carries its batch number, MIX-2026-0142, and the note that it was mixed this morning. Adding it from here, rather than as a plain "paint 4 L", keeps the link between the sale and the mix.
3. Add the sundries. Two rollers and four rolls of tape. Tap each product and use + for the quantity. Each line lands in the sale on the right.
4. Find the customer by name or phone. Type part of the business name or the number they ring from. The till shows their usual discount (5%) and what they already owe, before you go any further.
5. Check the totals. The account discount appears as a separate line under the subtotal. If the builder expected a different rate, sort it out now, not when the statement arrives.
6. Choose On account. The payment options are Cash, Card and On account. A monthly-paying contractor goes on account, which adds the sale to their balance.
7. Watch for the credit limit. If this sale would take them above their limit, the till stops the on-account sale. You can take the payment another way or speak to the owner.
8. Complete sale. The batch leaves the waiting list on the paint Home, the sundries come off stock, and the amount is added to what the customer owes.

Why let the till enforce the credit limit?

Because the person at the counter is rarely the person who set the limit, and it is hard to refuse a regular customer face to face. When the till says no, the conversation is about a rule, not about trust. The owner sets the limit once, from the customer's account, and every on-account sale respects it. The customer credit guide explains how to pick a sensible limit for a trade customer.

How is a trade sale different from a walk-in sale?

The products are the same; the paperwork is not. A walk-in painter doing their own living room pays the shelf price in cash or by card and leaves. A contractor expects their agreed discount, wants the purchase on their monthly account, and may send three different people to collect during a week. The table below shows what changes on the till.

Getting the customer on the sale is the step that makes every other row work.

Tips for trade sales at the counter

• Always choose the customer before completing the sale, even for cash. It builds a buying history you can use later.
• Read the "owes" figure back to regular builders now and then. It is a gentle reminder that costs nothing.
• Keep sundries close to the till. Rollers and tape are easy add-ons when the customer is already there for paint.
• If a builder sends a labourer to collect, agree in advance who is allowed to buy on their account.
• Check that the batch number on the till matches the label on the tin you hand over.

Common mistakes

• Typing the discount by hand. Different staff give different amounts. Set it on the customer and let the till apply it.
• Selling the batch as a generic product. The batch then stays "mixed, waiting" on the Home, and the evening review shows a mix that was actually sold.
• Overriding the limit with a cash sale that is never paid. If the money does not change hands, it is not a cash sale.
• Forgetting to ask for a phone number on new accounts. It is the quickest way to find the customer next time.
• Putting walk-in customers on account. Credit belongs to people with an agreed limit and an account.

What should you do next?

The builder now owes more than they did this morning. The next tour in the paint day, a contractor pays by cheque, shows their account from the other side: the statement line by line, and a cheque recorded against the invoice it pays. To get trade accounts paid on time, read how to get invoices paid faster. To check what a 5% account discount does to your margin, the markup vs margin guide has worked examples.

How EasyTaskr helps

EasyTaskr's paint till sells mixed batches and ready-made products on one sale, applies each trade customer's usual discount as its own line, and shows what they owe. Sales on account are added to the customer's balance, and an on-account sale above the credit limit is stopped at the till.