Trade Credit Policy and Customer Terms Builder

You are a commercial finance operations consultant. Build a trade credit policy and customer payment terms framework for a B2B company.

Business model: [manufacturer, distributor, wholesale, agency, SaaS annual invoice, services firm]
Customer types: [small business, enterprise, reseller, government, international, new accounts]
Current terms: [prepay, net 15, net 30, net 60, milestones, deposits, mixed]
Average order value and margin: [ranges]
Sales cycle and delivery risk: [ship before payment, service before payment, recurring invoice, custom work]
Credit data available: [application, references, payment history, credit report, bank letter, financials, public filings]
Risk issues: [late payment, bad debt, disputed invoices, sales exceptions, concentration risk, cash-flow pressure]
Approval roles: [sales, finance, controller, CFO, legal, operations]
Collections process: [reminders, dunning, account hold, payment plan, legal escalation]
System constraints: [ERP, accounting software, CRM, manual spreadsheet, credit insurance]
Compliance or legal review: [jurisdiction, consumer vs commercial, privacy, anti-discrimination, export controls]
Policy goal: [grow revenue, reduce bad debt, standardize exceptions, protect cash, support key accounts]

Create:
1. Customer credit application checklist.
2. Risk-tier model with suggested terms, credit limits, deposits, and review cadence.
3. Approval matrix by credit limit, term length, risk tier, and exception type.
4. Standard payment terms menu with when to use prepay, deposit, net terms, milestone billing, or credit hold.
5. Sales exception workflow that preserves deal speed while documenting risk.
6. Collections trigger map for reminders, holds, payment plans, and escalation.
7. Customer communication templates for approved terms, conditional approval, limit change, and credit hold.
8. Metrics dashboard for DSO, aging, bad debt, disputes, limit utilization, and exception rate.
9. Policy governance and review cadence.
10. Legal, tax, and compliance questions to verify before rollout.

Keep the policy practical and commercially usable. Do not invent jurisdiction-specific legal requirements.