A credit application works best as an online form you send by link, because a PDF tends to come back half filled, photographed, or not at all. Ask for the legal business name, two or three trade references, expected monthly spend, and an authorised signer. Then set the credit limit before the first delivery.
Use the vendor onboarding template
The fields to ask for
Keep it to one screen's worth of questions at a time, because most of your customers will fill it in on a phone. Here is what each field does for you.
| Field | Why you need it |
|---|---|
| Legal business name and trading name | Invoices and any later collection need the legal name. The shop's sign usually shows something else. |
| Billing address, delivery address | They are often different, and the invoice goes to the first one. |
| Accounts contact (name, phone, email) | The person who actually pays bills, not the owner who placed the order. |
| Tax ID (GSTIN in India, EIN in the US) | Ties the buyer to a registered business. |
| Business type and years trading | Sole proprietor, partnership, or company changes who is responsible for the debt. |
| Expected monthly purchases | The starting point for the credit limit. |
| Credit limit and terms requested | Shows what they expect, such as 15 or 30 days. |
| Two or three trade references | Other suppliers who already sell to them on credit. |
| Authorised signer: name, title, signature | Someone who can commit the business to your terms. |
| Terms checkbox | "I have read the payment terms and agree." |
Write your terms in plain words on the form: when invoices are due, any late fee, and what happens to the account when an invoice is 30 days overdue. Have your accountant or a lawyer read the wording once. What binds a business depends on where you are, and I can't tell you that.
Trade references: ask for these, then use them
For each reference, cllect the supplier's name, a contact person, a phone number or email, and how long the shop has bought from them on credit. Three is plenty. Two is fine for a new business.
Then contact at least two. A short message does the job, and in India a WhatsApp message gets answered faster than an email. Ask whether the shop pays on time, what limit they have, and whether there were ever disputes. Most suppliers will tell you in two lines.
If a customer cannot name any references, that tells you something too. Offer a small limit or payment up front for the first few orders.
Set the credit limit before the first delivery
The form gives you the number to work from: expected monthly spend. Say packaging wholesaler in Pune gets an application from a new café group that expects ₹80,000 a month. You might open the account at ₹40,000 with 15-day terms. After three on-time payments, raise it.
That ratio is only an example, so use whatever you are comfortable losing if the account goes bad. The point is to decide before the truck leaves, with the foorm and the reference calls in front of you, instead of arguing about it once a customer already owes you.
A plumbing supply counter in Ohio could run the same way. The contraftor fills in the form on the phone while standing at the counter, you check two references that afternoon, and the account is live the next morning.
Take it online instead of a PDF
This takes about an hour the first time.
- Open the vendor onboarding template and rename it to "Credit application". It is built for collecting business details from another company, so you edit it to match the table above.
- Type
/to add blocks. Use Short answer for names, Email and Phone nuber for the accounts contact, and Number for expected monthly spend. - Add a File upload block for a business registration certificate or trade license. Files can be up to 1 GB each, so a phone photo is no problem.
- Add a Signature block for the authorised signer, and a Checkboxes block for the terms agreement.
- Use conditional logic to show extra questions only when they apply. A company, for example, can be asked for its registration number while a sole proprietor skips it.
- In Settings, switch on email notifications so each application lands in your inbox, and confirmation emails so the customer knows it arrived. Turn on prevent duplicate submissions, and partial submissions if you want to see who started and stopped.
- Switch off the Qwenvo badge, then share the link by WhatsApp or email.
A form at credit.yourbusiness.com looks more trustworthy than a long random link. Add a subdomain on the Domains page, create the CNAME and TXT records your DNS provider needs, click Verify, and pick it on the Share tab. It has to be a subdomain, because a bare yourbusiness.com usually cannot take a CNAME.
For your records, the Submissions tabble exports to CSV or XLSX, and each submission can be saved as a PDF. One catch: those per-submission PDFs cannot draw some scripts such as Devanagari or Arabic. If a customer writes their name in Hindi, keep the spreadsheet export as the master copy.
Which free tool to use
I'll be upfront: Qwenvo is a free form builder that our team builds, so weigh my recommendation accordingly. It costs $0 with no paid plans. The things most form builders hold back for a paid tier are on for everyone: no badge, a custom domain, unlimited teammattes, partial submissions, visit and drop-off analytics, AI triage of submissions, custom design and CSS, and 180+ templates. Qwenvo launched in October 2026, so there are few outside reviews yet, and it is hosted in the United States.
Tally is a solid alternative. Its free plan has unlimited forms and submissions, logic, signatures, and file uploads up to 10 MB per file. Branding removal, custom domains, teammates, and partial submissions are on its Pro plan at $29 a mpnth. Tally is hosted in Europe, which matters if you want your data there.
Google Forms is free with a Google account and fine for a quick internal form. The problem for credit applications is that respondents must sign in with Google to upload files, and a shop owner who just wants a tradesman's account will often balk at that. Design and branding are limited too.
Questions owners ask
Is an online signature enough for a credit application?
It depends on your local law and how much credit you extend. The form records the signer's name, title, and signature. For a small starting limit that is usually how suppliers work, but ask your lawyer about larger lines, and consider asking for signed paper on top.
Should I ask for a personal guarantee?
Some suppliers add one for newer companies. It changes your legal position, so have a lawyer write that wording and then add it as a checkbox or an extra signature field.
Can my customers fill this in from WhatsApp?
Yes. They tap the link and the firm opens in the phone's browser. No app or account is needed, and there is no mobile app to install on your side either.
What if a customer refuses to give trade references?
Offer a smaller limit, shorter terms, or payment up front for the first orders. Many reliable small shpos are new and simply have no other supplier yet.
Do this today
Open the vendor onboarding template, paste in the fields from the table, and send the link to the next shop that asks to buy on credit.