Keeping the credit book straight

The worst moment to decide whether somebody is good for it is while they stand in front of you with the goods in their hand and three people behind them in the queue. You will say yes. Everybody says yes.

So decide in the quiet: who is on the book, and how much they may carry. A ceiling is not an insult, and said plainly it is not even awkward. Akosua Mensah carries up to GH₵ 200.00 at Adjoa's Provisions. She knows it. It is why she is still allowed credit three years in.

The single largest cause of a credit argument is a sale written down an hour later from memory. By then, the quantity is approximate, the price is what you usually charge rather than what you charged, and one sale in ten is simply gone.

Record it while the customer is still standing there. Two seconds at the counter is worth an hour of arguing in three months, and it also means the customer saw you write it, which is half of why the book worked.

A repayment is where disputes are won or lost. 'I already paid you fifty' is only an argument if your record cannot answer it. A record that carries the five things below ends the conversation in ten seconds, politely, with the customer looking at the same screen you are.

Notice what is not on that list: an eraser. Never change a line that is already written. If something is wrong, add a new line that corrects it and says why. A book with crossings-out is a book the customer is entitled to doubt.

Sort the book by age, not by size. A balance that has been sitting for 90 days is a different problem from one that is 10 days old, even when the older one is smaller, because age is the best warning you will get.

Four buckets are enough: 0 to 30 days, 31 to 60, 61 to 90, and over 90. Look at the list once a week, on the same day, and start at the bottom. Money that is asked for is money that comes back. Money that is never mentioned quietly becomes a gift.

Send the figure, not an accusation. Your customer is not avoiding you, they are busy and they have forgotten, and the message that gets paid fastest is the one that is easiest to say yes to.

A message that works looks like this: "Good morning Akosua, this is Adjoa's Provisions. Your balance is GH₵ 100.00. Whenever you are passing, I will be here." Their name, your shop, the exact figure, no pressure.

This is also exactly how AxisTrade handles it. The app writes the message with the balance already in it and hands it to you. It never sends anything by itself, and it never contacts your customers.

Set the rule now, while nobody has broken it: no new credit to somebody whose balance has passed 90 days, until they bring it down. Applied to everybody, it is a policy. Applied to one person on a bad day, it is a personal insult.

And never write a balance off silently. Either it is owed and it stays on the book, or you have decided to forgive it, in which case say so to their face and record that you did. A number nobody believes in is worse than no number.

Decide who gets credit before they ask. Record it while they are still standing there. Ask for the oldest one every week. A shop that does those three things has a credit book that grows and shrinks on purpose, and never turns into a list of names nobody wants to talk about.

In AxisTrade the credit book is part of the Shop plan. Recording money somebody already owes you is never blocked, on any plan, even if you move down later.