This guide will help you incorporate the YourTerms Terms of Trade documents into each sale you make.
1. Download and Fill Out
Download from our secure website the Package or forms you need.
Enter your business name and details in all the fields provided using Acrobat Reader. 
2. Give Documents to Your Customers – “Disclose”
You must now disclose (show or give a copy of the Terms and Conditions of Trade Contract) to new customers, current customers and all new customers in the future. You should use the large print version for this purpose. A small print version is printed on the back of all documents which require the Terms and Conditions of Trade Contract.
Credit
When your customer is applying for credit you should use the Credit Package add-on documents.
The credit application forms should be given to your customers and completed by them at the start of your dealings with them.
Your customer will want to have credit approved so it is likely they will agree to complete the documentation so that they get the credit they want.
Making the Terms of Trade Binding
For the Terms and Conditions of Trade to be binding your customer must know what is being agreed to.
So your customer must see and consent to the YourTerms document.
When you are updating your terms of trade for existing customers we suggest you send the new Terms and Conditions of Trade (with a copy for your client’s records) to them and ask them to complete, sign and return the forms.
When the customer is a limited liability company you should include the YourTerms Personal/Directors Guarantee.
N.B.: “Rush” jobs need the YourTerms forms completed in every case. – these can be the riskiest when it come to payment.
3. The covering letter
Old Clients
We suggest the following covering letter on your Letter Head to inform your clients of the change:
“We advise you of a change to our Terms and Conditions of Trade. Our new Terms and Conditions are included with (the attached Credit Application Form)(where applicable).
Please read, complete, sign and return a copy of the completed Forms.
Should you have any queries, please contact us within 7 days.”
Keep a record of who you have sent this to and the date so you can prove disclosure. However the signed and completed forms are still the best proof that the customer has agreed.
New Clients
Have new customers complete the forms at the time of closing the deal.
For telephone arrangements you will need to work out your best approach. Face to face is ideal but you may choose to forward the documents by email and have the signed documents returned to you by hand, by mail or by Fax.
Binding Contract – you have the upper hand
You will now have a legally binding contract (as long as the requirements of capacity – age etc – and intention – sound mind – are satisfied) with your customer.
With this documentation in any conflicts with your customer you will have the upper hand. This certainty will go a long way towards ensuring that you can enjoy the YourTerms advantage.
4. Enforcing Your Contract
When you need to collect outstanding debts it is often a circuit breaker to send a copy of your contract (the Large print Terms of Trade contract pointing out the rights you have under the clause dealing with default, the title clause and/or the security and charge clause.
When your client is aware that you plan to use one of these clauses, it is our long standing experience that they will make payment.
Including an explanation of how all extra costs will be legally added to the debt will make payment even more certain.
YourTerms supplies you with a seven day warning letter.
Summary
- New customers are shown and then complete the YourTerms documentation that applies to them.
- You record a full range of details about your new customers.
- Ensure that your new Terms & Conditions of Trade from YourTerms are disclosed to your current customers as soon as possible.
- Tell customers who haven’t paid or who are slow paying your contractual rights with excerpts from the YourTerms Terms of Trade documentation using the seven day warning letter in your YourTerms package.
Personal Guarantees
Where your customer is a Limited Company, Guarantees are used to make the company director’s guarantee the liabilities of their company. This way if a company fails to pay for goods or services bought from you each director of the company becomes personally liable for all the debts.
Guarantors must be given the opportunity to get independent advice on what their obligations are.
In practice company directors will already understand the effect of a director’s guarantee as they are standard in business.
Obtaining a director’s guarantee is optional but is strongly recommended especially in the case of larger commitments. Unwillingness to provide a director’s guarantee may alert you to a problem.
YourTerms provides a guarantee form for you to use.
Sole traders and partnerships are already personally liable for the debts of their business.
More Technical Details about Contracts
The Parties
Your client and yourself, correct and complete naming is necessary.
Always obtain complete information about your customer, especially all the confirmed contact details available
- full name,
- full business names including “Trading As…”,
- full company name,
- Names of who you are dealing with and
- phone numbers,
- email addresses
- etc.
You should do this as part of the process of deciding to enter an agreement with the person especially where part of the payment is to be deferred or where there is an offer of credit.
Acceptance
By signing the Terms of Trade Documentation you and your client agree to the Terms of Trade (Terms and Conditions) and the contract is completed and formalised.
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Secure your Sales Relationship with your Customers
This guide will help you incorporate the YourTerms Terms of Trade documents into each sale you make.
The Terms of Trade document is a contract. It is used for every sale of a product or service that you make.
- It covers the price of goods and services and how your customer must make payment.
- It sets the price (invoice, price list or quote), when the payment must be made (on or before delivery, by installments, 30 days after statement, invoice date etc).
- It covers when the buyer is responsible for loss or damage and when the buyer gets ownership (only after payment is completed).
- It allows you to recover unpaid debts from the buyers assets, including all recovery costs.
- It covers situations where the buyer claims there is a defect in the goods and requires strict notification to you, it sets out requirement of return of faulty goods.
- If there is a failure to pay, interest is added to the debt and the buyer must pay for costs in recovering the debt.
- It also allows you to cancel any sale.
- Where it is important to obtain a Credit Report and in a situation where there is Commercial Credit the Terms of Trade Document covers getting, using credit Reports and reporting debts to Credit Agencies.
YourTerms ensures that what is needed to create an enforceable Terms of Trade Contract are present.
You will have a transparent enforceable process and the legal leverage to rectify problems with slow paying or non-paying customers.