Credit limits and agents: who approves the override?

Ask the owner of any FMCG distributor how credit really works and you will hear two answers. There is the policy: limits set by outstanding, history and season. Then there is the practice: a trusted dealer calls the salesman, the salesman calls the credit manager, and a truck leaves with stock worth more than the limit allows.

Neither answer is wrong. The practice exists because rigid limits lose good business. The trouble starts when an agent is put in the middle of that practice without anyone deciding which part of it the agent is allowed to perform.

Three kinds of credit decision

It helps to separate the decisions an agent will meet, because each needs a different answer.

1. 01Within the limit: an order that fits the dealer's existing limit. The agent can process it, and the action is recorded.
2. 02Above the limit, inside a band: an override that is normal for this dealer and this season. A named person decides, quickly, with the history in front of them.
3. 03Outside the band, or a change to the limit itself: a decision about the relationship, not the order. It needs the credit manager, and sometimes the owner.

The mistake is to let an agent treat the second kind as the first because "we always approve Kumar Traders". That habit is exactly what a written rule should capture, with a ceiling, so the agent cannot stretch it further than a person would.

Who approves is a design decision

In elan1, overrides above your line wait for the person you name, usually the credit manager. They see the order, the outstanding, the ageing and the reason the agent gave, and they answer in the console or with one tap on their phone. An unanswered request expires after 24 hours and is refused, so a truck never leaves because nobody replied.

Some changes should never be automated at all. A request to change a dealer's or supplier's bank details is refused by default, however it arrives, because it is the most common route to payment fraud.

Discount authority works the same way

Salespeople carry discount authority in their heads: five per cent on their own, more with the area manager's nod. When an agent drafts quotes or updates the CRM, that authority has to be explicit. elan1 Work checks that no discount is committed beyond the seller's authority, however the request arrives, and that the price list still agrees with the e-invoice and the books.

Write the rules before the agent starts

Before switching anything on, sit down with the owner and the credit manager and write four things on one page:

• The band within which an override is routine, by dealer tier.
• The person who approves inside the band, and their deputy.
• What counts as outside the band, and who decides then.
• The changes that are always refused, starting with bank details.

That page becomes the rule set. The agent handles the routine, the people keep the exceptions, and the record shows who decided each one. When the season turns and the band needs to move, you change one rule and the record shows that too.