Classic form

Trade account application form with the director guarantee on the same page

A merchant opening a trade account is lending money to a business it has never invoiced, and the decision turns on three referees and a personal guarantee. This form puts the ABN, the directors, the references and the guarantee in one seventeen field page, signed before it is sent.

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Open a trade account with Northgate Plumbing Supplies

For businesses buying on 30 day terms. Accounts are opened in two working days once the three trade references answer. Prices on a trade account are quoted excluding GST.

The business applying

Registered entity name *

Trading name or names *

ABN *

Entity type *

Sole trader

Partnership

Company

Trust with a corporate trustee

Delivery address, including suburb, state and postcode *

Who the credit team deals with

Accounts contact name and position *

Email for invoices and statements *

Phone for the accounts contact *

List every director, partner or proprietor. A company account is guaranteed by its directors personally, so a name missing here delays the account rather than shortening the form.

Directors, partners or proprietors *

#	Full name	Position	Years in the business
1
2
3

The account you are asking for

Credit limit requested, in dollars excluding GST *

Expected spend in a normal month *

Under 2,000

2,000 to 9,999

10,000 to 24,999

25,000 to 49,999

50,000 or more

What the account will mostly be used for *

Copper and press fittings

PVC and drainage

Hot water units

Tapware and bathroom

Gas fitting

Roofing and rainwater

Tools and consumables

Civil and trench products

Three trade references, each a supplier that already invoices you on terms. A wholesaler, a hire company and a fuel card all count. Retail store cards do not.

Trade references *

#	Supplier business name	Contact person	Phone	Account held since
1
2
3

Terms and the director guarantee

Invoices are due 30 days from the end of the month of supply. Goods remain the property of Northgate until paid for and a security interest may be registered on the Personal Property Securities Register. Each director signing below guarantees the account personally, and that guarantee survives the sale of the business.

Acknowledgement *

I have read the trading terms and the retention of title clause

I consent to a PPSR registration and to the three referees being contacted

I am a director, partner or proprietor and I give the personal guarantee above

Name of the director signing *

Date signed *

Director signature *

Every field, and what it collects

The complete field list, in the order respondents meet it.

Registered entity nameShort textRequired
Trading name or namesShort textRequired
ABNShort textRequired
Entity typeSingle choiceRequired: Options: Sole trader · Partnership · Company · Trust with a corporate trustee
Delivery address, including suburb, state and postcodeShort textRequired
Accounts contact name and positionShort textRequired
Email for invoices and statementsShort textRequired
Phone for the accounts contactShort textRequired
Directors, partners or proprietorsTableRequired: Columns: Full name · Position · Years in the business
Credit limit requested, in dollars excluding GSTNumberRequired
Expected spend in a normal monthSingle choiceRequired: Options: Under 2,000 · 2,000 to 9,999 · 10,000 to 24,999 · 25,000 to 49,999 · 50,000 or more
What the account will mostly be used forMultiple choiceRequired: Options: Copper and press fittings · PVC and drainage · Hot water units · Tapware and bathroom · Gas fitting · Roofing and rainwater · Tools and consumables · Civil and trench products
Trade referencesTableRequired: Columns: Supplier business name · Contact person · Phone · Account held since
AcknowledgementMultiple choiceRequired: Options: I have read the trading terms and the retention of title clause · I consent to a PPSR registration and to the three referees being contacted · I am a director, partner or proprietor and I give the personal guarantee above
Name of the director signingShort textRequired
Date signedDateRequired
Director signatureSignatureRequired

What each block of this application collects

The first block identifies the legal entity rather than the business anyone knows: registered name, trading names, the ABN with a validation pattern that only accepts eleven digits, and the entity type. The delivery address is here because a merchant ships to a yard, not to a billing address. The second block names the person the credit team will ring about an overdue statement and gives them an email and a phone, then lists the directors in a three row table with their position and their years in the business, which is the single best predictor a merchant has of whether the account survives its first slow quarter.

The Australian pieces on this form

Four things here follow Australian trading practice. The ABN field carries a pattern for the eleven digit format, so a nine digit ACN cannot be typed into it, and the entity type radio names a trust with a corporate trustee as its own option because that structure changes who gives the guarantee. The credit limit is asked excluding GST, which is how a merchant quotes and how the limit is actually applied, so the intro line says so before anyone types a figure. The terms paragraph names retention of title and consent to a registration on the Personal Property Securities Register, which is the mechanism a supplier uses to keep an interest in goods already delivered but not yet paid for. The guarantee line says it survives the sale of the business, which is the part directors most often assume is untrue.

How to adapt this form

A hire company swaps the product category list for an equipment class list and adds a site address field, because the risk sits with where the plant goes rather than with what is bought. A merchant that opens cash accounts as well as credit accounts puts a radio at the top choosing between the two and shortens the form to six fields for a cash applicant, since references and a guarantee are pointless without terms. A supplier trading interstate adds a state of primary operation dropdown above the address, because the credit team runs different reference checks in each state and the answer decides which branch owns the account.

What makes this form work

The director table is three rows, not one name field

Name, position and years in the business, once per director, is what a guarantee needs and what a single free text box never produces. A partnership fills two rows, a one person company fills one and leaves the rest blank, and the credit team can see at a glance who is standing behind the account.

References are asked with the date the account opened

The fourth column, account held since, turns three phone numbers into a credit history. A referee who has invoiced this business on terms for six years answers a different question from one who opened an account in March, and the credit team knows which call matters before making it.

The guarantee is read three times before it is signed

It appears in the terms paragraph, again as the third acknowledgement tick, and again beside the signature line that asks for the signing director name and date. Nobody reaches the signature pad able to claim they did not know the account was personally guaranteed.

Questions people ask

Why does a trade account application need three trade references?

Because a credit decision needs evidence that somebody else already lends to this business and gets paid. Three is the number most merchants settle on: one referee can be a friend, two can be coincidence, three that all confirm terms and payment behaviour is a pattern.

What is retention of title, and why is it in the terms paragraph?

It means the goods stay the property of the supplier until the invoice is paid, even though they are already on the customer site. It matters most when a customer becomes insolvent, and it works properly only if the supplier has registered its interest, which is why the consent tick covers the Personal Property Securities Register as well as the terms.

Can a director guarantee be given by ticking a box?

The tick records that the person read the guarantee. The signature below it is what evidences the guarantee itself, which is why the form asks for the signing director name, the date and a drawn signature rather than relying on the checkbox alone.

Why is the credit limit a number field rather than a set of bands?

Because an applicant asking for a specific limit has thought about their own cash cycle, and that number is useful even when the credit team lands somewhere else. The field carries a minimum of one thousand and a maximum of two hundred and fifty thousand, so an obvious typo is caught on a classic form before the application is sent.

Does the ABN field check that the number is real?

It checks the shape, not the registration. The pattern accepts eleven digits with or without spaces, which stops a nine digit ACN being typed into the ABN box, the most common mistake on a paper version. Confirming the number belongs to the entity named is a lookup the credit team does on the ABN register before the account opens.

How long should a trade account application be?

Seventeen fields is about right for a credit decision, and it is long because most of the work is collecting things the applicant has to look up. Shortening it means asking for the same information later by email, which costs the merchant a day and the applicant two.

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Sources

Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked 12 September 2026.