Should I sell on credit at all?

Credit is normal in most markets and refusing it can cost you regular customers. The danger is not credit itself but credit nobody wrote down, because an unrecorded debt cannot be told apart from a stolen item.

What exactly should I write down for a credit sale?

The customer's name, their phone number, the item and quantity, the amount owed, the date of the sale, and the date they promised to pay. Anything less and you will be arguing from memory later.

How do I chase a debt without losing the customer?

Contact them on the day they promised, not weeks later, and be matter of fact rather than angry. Most people pay when they are reminded early, and reminding early is also what stops the debt from growing.

What if a customer denies owing me?

This is why the record matters. A date, an item, an amount and a phone number turn the conversation from your word against theirs into a simple fact. Read the record back to them calmly.

Should staff be allowed to give and clear credit?

Staff can record a credit sale, but only the owner should mark a debt as paid. If the same person can create a debt and clear it, credit becomes an easy way to hide a pocketed sale.

How to Record Credit Sales So You Actually Get Paid

Selling on credit keeps customers coming back and quietly drains your cash. Here is what to write down, how to chase politely, and when to stop giving credit.

"She will pay on Friday." Every shop has customers like this, and most of them do pay. The trouble is the ones who do not, and the fact that by the time you notice, you cannot remember who took what.

The damage comes from credit that lives in your head rather than on paper. An unwritten debt looks exactly like a stolen item in your stock, and neither you nor your staff can prove which one it was.

A debt with a name on it is money you are owed. Without a name it is missing stock.

Write six things, every time

A credit sale needs more than a name. Write these six things at the moment the goods leave the shop, not later:

Customer name, the one you will use when you call them.
Phone number. Without it you have a debt you cannot chase.
Item and quantity, so the conversation cannot drift.
Amount owed.
Date of the sale.
Date they promised to pay.

That last one does most of the work. A debt with no promised date has no moment where it becomes late, so it quietly ages until it feels rude to ask.

Keep it in one place, and keep it yours

Two habits protect the record:

One book, not several. Scattered notes, phone messages and memory are the same as no record. Every credit sale goes to the same place, whether that is a notebook, a phone, or an app.

Only you clear a debt. Staff can write a credit sale down, and they should. Marking it as paid is your job alone. When one person can both create a debt and cancel it, "she came and paid me" becomes an easy story to tell about money that never arrived.

Set a limit before you need one

Decide two limits in advance, while you are calm and nobody is standing in front of you:

The most any one customer may owe at a time.
The longest a debt may stay unpaid before you stop selling on credit to that person.

A limit stops the slow slide where a good customer owes ₦2,000, then ₦8,000, then ₦25,000, and you keep serving them because each single sale feels small. Say the limit out loud when you start giving someone credit. It is far easier than announcing it once they are deep in.

Chase on the day, not the week after

Most people pay when they are reminded early. Waiting makes it worse: the amount grows, the memory fades, and the conversation gets harder for both of you.

On the day they promised, send a short and friendly message. "Good afternoon Mama Nkechi, this is Ada from the shop. Your balance is ₦4,500 from the 12th. Will today work?" No anger, no accusation, just the facts and a question.

If they cannot pay in full, take part of it and write down the new balance and a new date. Partial payment is a good sign. A customer avoiding you entirely is the one to worry about, and that is the moment to stop adding to their balance.

Know what credit is doing to your cash

Credit sales feel like sales, and in your records they look like sales, but no money entered the box. If a large part of your day goes out on credit, you can have a busy shop and still not afford to restock.

Two numbers keep this honest:

What you took today, meaning cash actually received.
What people owe you in total, across all customers.

Watch the second number weekly. When it grows month after month, your shop is quietly lending its stock. That is also why credit belongs in your profit calculation only when the money arrives, not when the goods leave.

When to stop giving credit

Stop when any of these are true:

The customer has passed the limit you set.
They have broken two promised dates without contact.
You are borrowing to restock while they are still owing.
You cannot remember the details without checking, and there is nothing to check.

Saying no is easier when it is a rule rather than a judgement about a person. "I keep everybody to ₦10,000 and one week" is a policy. "I do not trust you" is a fight.

Doing it with an app

A notebook works if you keep it faithfully and do the adding up yourself.

MyShopGuard records a credit sale in the customer's name as you make it, groups every debt by customer so you can see who owes what at a glance, and gives you a tap-to-call button next to each one. The total owed sits on your home screen beside the money you actually took today, so the gap between the two is never a surprise. Staff can record credit sales but cannot mark them paid.

Start here

Before your next credit sale, write down two numbers: the most one customer may owe, and how long they may owe it. Then go through the debts you already have and put a phone number and a date next to each one. If any of them cannot be traced to a real person and a real date, treat it as missing stock and read the warning signs.