Only last week, I was visited by a local lawn mowing business who was quoting to manage my property on an ongoing basis. We happily parted ways with a verbal agreement to take on the job, but I received no written quote and no terms of trade.
How many times as a business have you or your employees done the same and agreed on proceeding with job by only a handshake?
What if something goes amiss?
Often, it’s only when you are looking to recover an overdue payment from a customer that you realise that not having any terms of trade or not presenting it to your customer at the right time or on the correct documentation could be a costly error. Unbeknown to you, if you do have terms of trade, you may only be putting them on your invoices and unfortunately and legally that is too late.
What are terms of trade?
Terms of trade are vital for the smooth running of your business and establishes a clear legal relationship with your customers right from the beginning. Not only that they help with:
- Protecting against loss of profit
- Providing indemnity from potential liabilities
- Enabling charges to be imposed for late payment
- Providing the advantage of reservation of title until goods are paid for (available in most circumstances where goods are sold)
- Improving cash flow and reduce the cost of monitoring payments
- Easing of resolving disputes and unpaid accounts
What should be included on my terms of trade?
There is no one size fits all approach when it comes to drafting up this documentation. All industries are different and some trades as an example may need more comprehensive conditions than others.
How can we help?
Our team have assisted thousands of businesses to help safeguard companies like yours.
We will work with you to set up your necessary legally binding terms of conditions and are also on hand to provide you with a comprehensive range of personalised documents in addition to being on hand for any queries or implementation.
Let’s have a chat
We have local Area Managers throughout the country to visit you in person, on conference call or by a quick phone call.
Check out or locations here.
Alternatively, our friendly customer service team are on hand too. Give them a call on 1300 361 070.
