Shipper credit applications and signed terms

How the Logistics pack onboards a shipper with a credit application, a credit limit your business decides and trading terms signed electronically.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 4 min read · For Logistics businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya

Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.

A new shipper calls with regular volume: several loads a week, a lane the business already runs, a decent rate. Sales are delighted. Finance is nervous, and with good reason. Before the shipper pays its first invoice, the transporter will have paid for diesel, drivers, subcontracted hauliers and perhaps duties at the border, for every load in that first month. If the shipper turns out to be a slow payer, or no payer at all, the transporter has funded its business.

Credit for shippers is not a formality. It is the moment the business decides how much of its own cash it is prepared to put behind a customer. The Logistics & freight pack in Achekam's Industry CRM structures that moment into three steps: a credit application, a credit limit the business decides, and trading terms signed electronically.

Why freight credit is riskier than it looks

In most trades, credit exposure is simply what the customer owes. In freight, it is larger, because costs run ahead of invoices. At any moment, a shipper's real exposure is the sum of:

• invoices issued and not yet paid;
• loads delivered but not yet invoiced;
• loads in transit, whose costs you are already carrying; and
• disbursements such as duties and storage paid on the shipper's behalf.

Size the credit limit with all four in mind, not just the first.

Step one: the credit application

The Logistics pack keeps Shipper accounts, and onboarding starts there with a credit application. A workflow step sends the shipper a request for documents, and the shipper's answer moves the task on, so the account manager can see which applications are complete and which are still waiting.

Your credit policy decides what the application asks for. A freight business typically wants:

• the shipper's registration and tax details;
• the names of its directors or owners;
• bank details and trade references, ideally from other transporters;
• the expected lanes, volumes and frequency;
• for larger limits, recent financial statements.

Step two: a credit limit the business decides

Once the application is complete, the business decides the credit limit. The pack does not suggest a figure, and it runs no credit-bureau check. If your policy calls for a bureau report, someone obtains it outside Achekam and weighs it with the rest of the application.

That keeps the decision where it belongs: with someone who understands both the shipper and the lanes. A practical approach is to work out the exposure the expected volume creates over the payment terms you are offering, using the four items above, and set the limit with some room for busy weeks. Record who approved it and on what information. Investopedia's explainer on credit control describes managing the credit a business extends to customers so that it supports sales while limiting bad debts.

In words: a shipper on monthly terms who sends loads every week will, by the time its first invoice falls due, owe for a month of delivered loads, have more loads in transit and perhaps duties paid on its behalf. The limit has to cover that whole picture, or the account will hit its limit just as the relationship gets going.

Step three: trading terms signed electronically

The shipper then signs the trading terms electronically. Achekam places signature and initials fields on the document, lets the parties sign in order or all at once, sets an expiry and reminders, and files the signed PDF and a completion certificate back into Documents.

Every agreement in the industry packs, the trading terms included, is marked as starter wording that your business must review before use. Have your attorney adapt them. Freight terms usually need to say, at least:

1. the payment terms and what happens when they are not met;
2. that disbursements such as duties, storage and demurrage are recharged with proof;
3. the limits of the transporter's liability for loss or damage, and any insurance arrangements;
4. what documents the shipper must provide for each load and border crossing;
5. the transporter's rights over goods in its possession when invoices are unpaid, if your attorney advises such a clause.

A few points about the signature, by country:

What the pack does not do

The Logistics pack has no live tracking feed, no carrier rate feed, no customs system link and no credit-bureau check. Statuses, rates and customs entry numbers are entered by people. For credit, that means the information behind the limit is what your team gathered and recorded, nothing more.

Reviewing credit later

A limit set at onboarding is a starting point. Shippers grow, struggle, change ownership and change how they pay. Set a review date when you approve the limit, and review it sooner if payments start to slip or the shipper asks for more volume.

Before the next shipper signs

Write your credit application list down, name who approves limits, and have your attorney review the starter trading terms, including the clause on recharging disbursements described in invoicing freight and recharging duties with proof. Then the first load leaves the yard on terms both sides have signed, against a limit somebody actually decided.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.