--- title: "Business Credit Applications: How to Onboard Wholesale Accounts Online" url: https://www.uncap.com/post/b2b-credit-application author: "Denis Dyli" published: 2026-11-12 updated: 2026-11-14 summary: "A business credit application is the form a new wholesale account completes to ask a supplier for trade credit, collecting legal and tax details, bank and trade references, the terms requested and signed authorizations. Suppliers review references, then approve, counteroffer or decline; under Regulation B, trade credit applicants must be told the action taken within a reasonable time and can request reasons in writing within 60 days. On Shopify B2B, company account requests collect the application online and keep new companies from ordering until approved, and payment terms such as net 30 are then set per company location. Keeping credit decisions in the ERP as the system of record, with Shopify showing the result, avoids keeping two records." --- # Business Credit Applications: How to Onboard Wholesale Accounts Online > A business credit application is the form a new wholesale account completes to ask a supplier for trade credit, collecting legal and tax details, bank and trade references, the terms requested and signed authorizations. Suppliers review references, then approve, counteroffer or decline; under Regulation B, trade credit applicants must be told the action taken within a reasonable time and can request reasons in writing within 60 days. On Shopify B2B, company account requests collect the application online and keep new companies from ordering until approved, and payment terms such as net 30 are then set per company location. Keeping credit decisions in the ERP as the system of record, with Shopify showing the result, avoids keeping two records. A business credit application is the form a new wholesale account fills out to ask a supplier for credit, meaning the right to buy now and pay later on terms such as net 30. For a manufacturer or distributor, it is where account onboarding starts: who the buyer is, who vouches for them, and which terms they get. Last updated: November 12, 2026. ## What a business credit application is, from the seller's side Most guides to the business credit application are written for the applicant: a company asking a bank for a credit line or a card. This one is written for the other side of the counter. You make or distribute products, a new trade account wants to order, and your finance team has to decide whether to ship before it is paid. That arrangement is [trade credit](/glossary/trade-credit). The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's interpretation of Regulation B describes it as "a financing arrangement that involves a buyer and a seller - such as a supplier who finances the sale of equipment, supplies, or inventory," and notes it "does not apply to an extension of credit by a bank or other financial institution for the financing of such items." Put simply, you are the lender, and your invoice terms are the credit. The credit application, sometimes called a wholesale credit application, a credit application form or a wholesale account application, is the record behind that decision. It tells you who the business is (legal name, structure, addresses, tax ID, the people allowed to order) and gives you bank and trade references to check before you extend terms. It also sets the deal: the terms the buyer asks for, the terms you grant, and the conditions both sides sign. A credit application template from the web will get the identity section right. Checking references and setting terms depend on your own credit policy, which no template can supply. ## What to collect on a wholesale credit application A wholesale credit application should collect enough to identify the business, check its payment history and set its terms. Here are the sections to include, in the order a buyer fills them in. - Business identity. Legal business name, any trade name, entity type (corporation, LLC, partnership or sole proprietorship), year established and the federal tax ID (EIN). - Locations and contacts. Billing address, every ship-to address, and the accounts payable contact who will receive invoices. - Tax status. Whether purchases are for resale or tax exempt, with the tax exemption certificate attached. - Bank reference. The business's bank, plus written permission for you to contact it. - Trade references. Three or so suppliers that already sell to the business on terms, with a contact for each. - Credit request. The terms the buyer wants (for example net 30) and the monthly volume they expect. - Guarantee and authorization. Signatures of the owners or officers authorizing you to check credit, and a personal guarantee if your policy calls for one. - Terms and conditions. Your payment terms, late-payment policy and returns policy, accepted by signature. Two choices on the form save rework later. Ask for every ship-to address on the application, because each one becomes a location your team sets up. And decide which sensitive fields (full bank account numbers, owners' personal details) belong on a storefront form at all, and which your finance team should collect directly in the credit or accounting system. ## Trade references and the credit review Trade references tell you how the applicant pays other suppliers, which is the closest thing you have to a preview of how it will pay you. A bank reference confirms the account exists and is in good standing. Neither answers the question on its own, so check both. When you call or email a trade reference, ask the same questions every time so the answers compare: - How long has the business bought from you on terms? - What terms do you give them, and what credit line? - Do they pay on time, early or late, and by how many days? - What is their current balance, and is any of it past due? Then make the decision your written policy allows. It should name three possible outcomes: approve the terms requested, approve with a counteroffer (shorter terms, a lower line, or prepayment on the first orders), or decline and offer prepaid ordering instead. Write the outcome down where your team will see it again. The approved terms, the credit line your finance team set and the date of the next review belong on the account record, where the whole team can find them. If the account later runs over its limit or falls behind, that same record is what lets your team place a [credit hold](/glossary/credit-hold) on new orders with a reason anyone can read. ## Adverse action notices and personal guarantees Two legal points come up when a supplier reviews a B2B credit application. What follows is a plain summary of the federal text, not legal advice. State law and your own contracts also apply, so have your attorney review your form and notices. **Adverse action notices.** Regulation B (12 CFR part 1002) is issued under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. It applies to creditors, which it defines as a person who "in the ordinary course of business, regularly participates in a credit decision, including setting the terms of the credit." It also has rules for business credit, defined as "extensions of credit primarily for business or commercial (including agricultural) purposes." Section 1002.9(a)(3) sets out how a creditor notifies business credit applicants. For "an extension of trade credit," and for a business that had gross revenues over $1 million in its preceding fiscal year, a creditor shall "Notify the applicant, within a reasonable time, orally or in writing, of the action taken," and provide a written statement of reasons and the ECOA notice "if the applicant makes a written request for the reasons within 60 days of the creditor's notification." Smaller businesses applying for other kinds of business credit fall under a different rule in the same section. Adverse action includes "A refusal to grant credit in substantially the amount or on substantially the terms requested in an application," unless the creditor makes a counteroffer and "the applicant uses or expressly accepts the credit offered." A decline, or shorter terms than the buyer asked for, may therefore need a notice. Build that notice into your approval workflow so nobody has to remember it. **Personal guarantees.** Section 1002.7(d)(5) allows a guarantor: "If, under a creditor's standards of creditworthiness, the personal liability of an additional party is necessary to support the credit requested, a creditor may request a cosigner, guarantor, endorser, or similar party." It adds that "the creditor shall not require that the spouse be the additional party." ## Moving the credit application online with Shopify B2B The paper version of this process is familiar: a PDF credit application emailed to the buyer, printed, signed, scanned and emailed back, then retyped into the ERP. Shopify B2B gives you an online starting point for it, called company account requests. Shopify describes it this way: "You can allow new B2B customers to request access to your online store using company account requests. You need to install the Shopify Forms app, create and customize a form for wholesale customers to fill out, and then add a popup or inline form to your online store." When a buyer submits the form, "a company, a company location, and a customer are automatically created in your Shopify admin." The form can carry your application fields. Shopify requires company name and email, and you can add custom fields stored as "local fields, customer metafields, or company metafields." A file upload field accepts one attachment "of 20 MB or less," PDF included, which suits a tax exemption certificate. Shopify adds that you can use the stored metafield data "to assess company account requests for B2B customers." Filling in the form does not give the buyer wholesale pricing. Shopify says "By default, companies created through the form can't place orders in your online store or access B2B pricing until you approve them." Pending requests sit under the Ordering not approved tab in Customers, then Companies. To approve one, you assign locations and permissions, and you can notify the buyer that ordering is open. To reject one, you delete the company. Know the limits before you design around it. The feature "doesn't allow customers to be added to an existing company," and you can't use it on a dedicated store that restricts access to B2B customers only. Shopify B2B itself runs on the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Shopify Plus plans. ## Setting payment terms on the approved account Approval is where the credit decision turns into store settings. On Shopify, "Payment terms define how long a company has to pay for an order," and you can set them for each company location. The options are no payment terms (payment due immediately, the default), net 7, net 15, net 30, net 45, net 60 and net 90, or due on fulfillment, which means payment is due after all items in the order are fulfilled. Fixed-date terms are set on individual draft orders. Our guide to [Shopify net terms](/post/shopify-net-terms) covers how each option behaves at checkout. A few settings map directly onto common credit decisions: - Terms by account. Set terms for one location, for every location in a company, or for many companies at once from the Companies page. - Order review. For a new account on probation, choose "Submit all orders as drafts for review," so your team checks each order before it is confirmed. - Deposits. Requiring a deposit on orders placed on terms is a Shopify Plus feature: "Deposit requirements are available only on the Shopify Plus plan." - Reminders. Shopify lists payment reminders, sent "on the payment due date for orders with payment terms using Shopify Flow." Buyers then see their terms on every order. During the term, they can pay from their customer account, and after it lapses "the order displays as Overdue in customer accounts." Shopify also notes that "Payments aren't automatically captured when the payment terms expire," so collections still need an owner on your side. ## Keeping credit decisions in the ERP For most manufacturers and distributors, the ERP is where credit actually lives: the customer master, the terms, the credit line, the open invoices that make up [accounts receivable](/glossary/accounts-receivable). The storefront should show the outcome of those decisions and leave the record itself in the ERP. Shopify supports that split. Its B2B overview lists integrations that "Integrate your enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, accounting systems, or other business systems with your B2B store on Shopify," and each company can carry an external company ID "if you're syncing B2B data in Shopify to other systems, such as ERP." A practical division of labor looks like this: - The storefront collects the application and creates the company record. - Your credit team reviews it and records the decision in the ERP. - The ERP sends the result back to Shopify: approved locations, payment terms and catalog. - Orders on terms flow to the ERP , where invoices, aging and holds are managed. [Uncap Connect](/products/connect) is built for that sync. It is a Shopify-to-ERP integration app "with native support for B2B companies, locations, catalogs, price lists, and payment terms." [Farmers Depot](/work/farmers-depot) shows the ERP-as-system-of-record side of this at scale. Its Shopify Plus B2B store serves 14,500+ customers across 13,000+ companies, with login-only purchasing, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 F&O "stays the system of record for products, companies, pricing and inventory." Shopify Flow handles the routine onboarding steps: "Company onboarding configured automatically" and "Customers tagged by payment terms." ## A worked onboarding flow for new wholesale accounts Here is how the pieces fit for a distributor opening new trade accounts online. **Step 1: The buyer applies.** A wholesale application page on your store carries the company account request form, with your credit fields and an upload for the exemption certificate, on the public part of your store. **Step 2: The record appears.** Shopify creates the company, location and contact, in Ordering not approved status. Nobody sees wholesale pricing yet. **Step 3: Credit review.** Your team checks references against your written policy and decides: approve, counteroffer or decline. A decline or counteroffer gets the notice your attorney approved. **Step 4: Terms and catalog.** On approval, the ERP or your team sets the payment terms and catalog on the company location. New accounts on probation can start with orders submitted as drafts for review. **Step 5: Ordering opens.** The buyer gets the notification and signs in. From here, ordering runs through the same account; our post on [wholesale order forms](/post/wholesale-order-form) covers what that ordering experience needs. Accounts that want more than a store login can get a portal. [Uncap Portal](/products/portal) gives trade accounts "a self-serve home on Shopify, catalogs, pricing, reorders, invoices, and users," including "NET terms, invoices, and payments in the portal." ## Talk through your credit application Uncap is a Shopify Platinum Partner that builds Shopify B2B stores for [wholesalers](/solutions/wholesale) and [distributors](/solutions/distributors), including the account onboarding and ERP sync behind them. If new accounts still reach you as a scanned PDF, bring your current credit application and your terms policy. [Talk to Our Experts](/quote), and we will map which steps can move online and where the credit decision should live. ## Frequently asked questions ### What is a business credit application? A business credit application is a form a company completes to ask a supplier or lender for credit, such as trade credit on net 30 terms. For a manufacturer or distributor, it collects the buyer's legal and tax details, bank and trade references, the terms requested and signed authorizations, so the credit team can decide what terms to offer. ### What should a wholesale credit application include? A wholesale credit application should include the business's legal name, entity type, EIN and addresses, the accounts payable contact, tax-exempt status with a certificate, a bank reference, three or so trade references, the terms and volume requested, signed authorization to check credit, any personal guarantee your policy requires, and your terms and conditions. ### What is the difference between a credit application and a wholesale account application? A wholesale account application asks to buy at wholesale prices, and a credit application asks to pay later on terms. Many suppliers combine them on one form. An account approved without credit can still order wholesale and pay at checkout, with terms added later once references check out. ### Can a business credit application be submitted online on Shopify? Yes. Shopify B2B's company account requests use a Shopify Forms form on your online store. When a buyer submits it, Shopify creates a company, a company location and a customer, and by default the company can't place orders or see B2B pricing until you approve it. The feature isn't available on a dedicated store that restricts access to B2B customers only. ### Do you have to send a notice when you decline a business credit application? Often, yes. Regulation B section 1002.9(a)(3) sets notification rules for business credit applicants. For trade credit, a creditor must notify the applicant of the action taken within a reasonable time, orally or in writing, and give a written statement of reasons if the applicant asks in writing within 60 days. Confirm your process with your attorney. ### Can a supplier ask for a personal guarantee on a credit application? Yes, within limits. Regulation B section 1002.7(d)(5) says that if the personal liability of an additional party is necessary under a creditor's standards of creditworthiness, the creditor may request a cosigner, guarantor, endorser or similar party, but shall not require that the applicant's spouse be that party. ### How do you set payment terms for an approved wholesale account on Shopify? Set them on the company location in your Shopify admin. Shopify offers net 7, 15, 30, 45, 60 and 90, due on fulfillment, or no terms, and fixed-date terms on draft orders. You can set terms for one location, a whole company or many companies at once. Deposits on orders placed on terms require Shopify Plus.