Check the dealer’s verified outstanding balance, already committed orders, overdue bills and unresolved disputes. Then apply your own credit policy to the proposed order. A payment promise does not reduce the outstanding balance.
Put the full request in front of the approver
“Purana payment pending hai, par maal aaj chahiye.” The sales team wants to serve the dealer. Accounts wants the previous bills cleared. Give both teams the same short review instead of passing separate screenshots.
Record the dealer and company, balance as of a stated time, overdue amount, open orders, proposed dispatch value and agreed payment terms. Identify whether pending dispatches already appear in the balance. Counting them twice makes the exposure look larger than it is.
Credit controls can consider more than the credit limit: overdue days, overdue amount, order value and changes in payment terms are separate checks in Microsoft’s documented credit-management workflow. That is an example of configurable software behaviour, not a prescribed policy for your business.
ACCA’s receivables guidance also separates setting credit terms from monitoring and collection. Your owner-approved policy should define the thresholds; this worksheet does not prescribe them.
A fictional order review
Suppose your internal policy permits exposure up to ₹2,00,000, subject to a separate overdue-bill review. The figures below use the same payable-value basis, including applicable invoice charges. The open orders are not yet invoiced.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Verified outstanding invoices | ₹1,40,000 |
| Other approved, uninvoiced orders | ₹30,000 |
| New order requested | ₹60,000 |
| Exposure if all are released | ₹2,30,000 |
| Amount above this example’s limit | ₹30,000 |
The arithmetic is ₹1,40,000 + ₹30,000 + ₹60,000 = ₹2,30,000. It does not answer whether to approve. Of the existing dues, perhaps ₹20,000 is disputed and another bill is overdue. Those facts need their own decision even if a part-payment brings exposure within the limit.
Separate a payment from a promise
A promise to pay ₹40,000 tomorrow leaves today’s exposure unchanged. If ₹40,000 is received, confirmed and reflected once in the figures, exposure falls to ₹1,90,000. Avoid subtracting a receipt again if the refreshed balance already includes it.
A disputed return also remains unresolved until the appropriate review and adjustment are completed. Put the disputed document beside the claim, name the person checking it and give a response date. Quietly deducting the claim can hide both the dispute and the true recorded balance.
Record a decision the dispatch team can use
The owner may request payment first, release a smaller order, hold the dispatch or approve an exception under the business’s policy. Write the permitted value or quantity, conditions, approver and expiry. “Approved” without a scope can be mistaken for approval of every pending order.
A useful note is: “Release up to ₹30,000 today after accounts confirms the balance. The remaining request needs fresh approval.” Record any later change in order value or terms and send it back for review.
For a small distributor, one shared sheet can hold this record. With several salespeople, assign approval rights and keep a decision history. A proposed assistant workflow could assemble this review; Dhandha GPT’s current read-only connector should not be treated as an automatic credit or dispatch approval system.
Questions you might ask
Does a promised payment reduce dealer exposure?
No. Keep it as a commitment until receipt is confirmed. Do not subtract it again if the updated balance already includes it.
Should the biggest dealer always receive an override?
Turnover alone is not an approval rule. Review exposure, overdue bills, disputes, terms and the authorised exception policy.