Outstanding A/R balance as percent of credit limit, aggregated across customers. High utilisation predicts credit-hold orders.
At a glance
Real-time gauge showing the % of customer credit limits being used across the B2B customer base. Each account has acreditlimitset on its NetSuite Customer record; the utilisation =customer.AR_balance + open_SO_value/customer.creditlimit. The card aggregates across B2B customers and surfaces both the headline (average + 90th percentile) and the list of accounts at or near their ceiling. For VP Finance this is the cash-flow pressure-gauge: customers near their ceiling will stop ordering until they pay down, creating a rolling revenue-blockage risk.
| What it counts | (customer.balance + customer.open_so_total) / customer.creditlimit per customer, aggregated. Headline = weighted average across customers with a non-null credit limit. Drill view = list of accounts above 75%, 85%, 100% thresholds. |
| VAT / tax treatment | Inclusive of tax in both AR balance and open SO total (matches the credit limit which is typically set gross). |
| Shipping | Included. |
| Discounts | Already deducted (post-discount totals). |
| Refunds | Credit memos applied to AR reduce the balance, releasing utilisation. |
| Cancelled / voided orders | Excluded from open SO total. |
| Currency | Per-customer in transaction currency. Multi-currency customers can swing 1 to 3 percentage points on FX. |
| Channels / sources | All sources blended; the credit limit gates all channels. |
| Credit hold flag | Customers with creditstatus = On Credit Hold show up regardless of utilisation level; the hold is the operational lock. |
| Time window | RT |
| Alert trigger | >85% utilisation, driven by sentiment_key: credit_util. |
| Roles | owner, finance |
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your NetSuite data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.Worked example
A US wholesale distributor on NetSuite OneWorld. Snapshot Monday 04 May 26. Headline gauge: weighted-average utilisation 58% across 1,140 B2B accounts with credit limits set. Distribution:| Utilisation bucket | Account count | Total credit limit | Total utilised |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 to 25% | 480 | $14,200,000 | $1,820,000 |
| 26 to 50% | 320 | $9,800,000 | $3,660,000 |
| 51 to 75% | 184 | $6,400,000 | $4,180,000 |
| 76 to 85% | 84 | $3,200,000 | $2,594,000 |
| 86 to 100% | 56 | $2,180,000 | $2,000,000 |
| Over 100% (over-limit) | 16 | $620,000 | $762,000 |
| Total | 1,140 | $36,400,000 | $15,016,000 |
- The 86 to 100% bucket has 56 accounts. Each is one missed payment cycle from being on credit hold and unable to order. Combined credit limit 2.00m utilised. These 56 accounts are the priority collection list this week. If the AR clerk can collect 400k of orders next week without hitting credit hold.
- The 16 over-limit accounts are already in trouble. Combined utilisation 620k limit. They have either been auto-flagged for credit hold or were granted temporary over-limit approvals. Cross-reference Orders on Credit Hold to see how many SOs are blocked on these accounts.
- The 76 to 85% bucket has 84 accounts. These will likely flip to >85% within 2 to 4 weeks if their order velocity continues. Pre-emptive options: increase credit limit (if their credit-bureau profile justifies), accelerate collections to keep utilisation below 85%, or push the customer onto an installment-payment plan to free working capital.
- The bottom 480 accounts (0 to 25% utilisation) are sales-team opportunities. Low utilisation = headroom to order more. The sales rep should contact these accounts; they have 1.8m / 30D of orders. Pushing utilisation from 13% average to 25% would add ~$1.6m of monthly revenue.
- Action playbook for VP Finance this week:
- Send the 56 high-utilisation account list to the AR clerk for priority collection.
- Send the 16 over-limit accounts to the credit committee for review (extend, hold, or terms-renegotiate).
- Send the bottom 480 to the sales team for proactive outreach (the “headroom available” pitch).
- Cross-reference DSO: customers in the 86 to 100% bucket typically run 1.5x the company-wide DSO; their slow payment is a major DSO contributor. Improving their payment cadence is double-win (releases credit + reduces DSO).
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
| Card | Why pair it with Customer Credit Utilisation |
|---|---|
| Orders on Credit Hold | The downstream consequence: when utilisation reaches 100%, SOs flip to credit hold. |
| DSO | High-utilisation customers tend to be slow-payers; DSO and utilisation correlate. |
| A/R Aging Buckets | High-utilisation + aging in 60+d bucket = priority collection. |
| Top B2B Accounts | Concentration check: are top accounts at high utilisation? |
| Credit Hold Spike Alert | Fires when utilisation drives a credit-hold spike. |
| Customer Churn Signals | Customers stuck at 100% utilisation often go quiet (can’t order); churn-precursor. |
| B2B Payment Terms Mix | Net-60 customers structurally run higher utilisation than Net-30. |
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in NetSuite’s own dashboard:Lists > Relationships > Customers, with view “Customers Near Credit Limit” (system-provided saved search in most accounts). The list shows AR balance, credit limit, and over/under amount per customer.For per-customer utilisation: Customer record > Financial subtab > Credit Limit + Outstanding Balance fields. NetSuite calculates the over-limit amount but does not present a percentage by default; Vortex IQ adds the percentage. Why our number may legitimately differ:
| Reason | Direction | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Open SO inclusion | Material | Vortex IQ includes open SO value in the utilised side. NetSuite’s standard customer record shows AR balance only. The “Hold Sales Order” workflow in NS, when enabled, adds open SOs to the credit calc; when disabled, NS shows only AR. Configurable per merchant. |
| Customer hierarchy | Either | Vortex IQ rolls Sub-Customer balance to parent for credit-limit comparison (assuming parent’s limit gates all sub-buyers). NS allows per-sub-customer limits; verify which model the merchant uses. |
| Currency | Either | Per-customer in transaction currency; consolidated headline in base. FX swing affects per-customer utilisation 1 to 3 percentage points. |
| Credit limit not set | Vortex IQ excludes | Customers with creditlimit IS NULL are excluded from the headline (no denominator). NS reports include them with a 0% utilisation. |
| Card | Expected relationship | Notes |
|---|---|---|
shopify.b2b_company_credit (when present) | Indirect; Shopify B2B credit is spend-cap, NS is balance-vs-limit | Reconciliation requires per-period normalisation. |
Known limitations / merchant FAQs
What does “over 100%” mean exactly? The customer’s outstanding AR + open SO total exceeds their authorised credit limit. Three causes: (1) the credit team approved a temporary over-limit (typical for trusted accounts during seasonal peaks), (2) the customer placed an order that pushed them over without prior approval (next SO will auto-flag for credit hold), (3) the credit limit was reduced after the customer already had committed orders. My credit-limit field is blank for many customers. Should I set them all? For B2B accounts with payment terms (Net-30, Net-60, etc), yes. A blank credit limit is functionally infinite, which removes the gate that prevents customers ordering more than they can pay. For DTC consumer accounts (which pay at checkout), the credit limit is irrelevant. Why is my over-limit count surprisingly high? Two structural causes. (1) Credit-limit values are stale; many merchants set the limit at customer-creation and never update. As the customer’s volume grows, they outgrow their original limit. Periodic credit-review (annually) and adjusting limits up keeps the gate functional. (2) Workflow not enabled: if the “Hold Sales Order on Credit Limit” preference is off, NS allows the customer to order beyond limit without flagging. Should I treat the headline average or the 90th percentile as the operational metric? Both. The average tells you whether your customer base is generally healthy; the 90th percentile tells you which accounts are at the edge. Most operators watch the 90th: if 90th percentile is at 87%, you have ~10% of accounts close to credit-hold, which is the operational pain. A customer is at 95% utilisation but always pays on time. Action? Three options: (1) Increase their credit limit (justified because their payment history is clean). (2) Accept the high utilisation as steady-state for this account (some businesses run permanently high). (3) Negotiate Net-15 terms in exchange for a higher limit, balancing your working-capital exposure. My credit-utilisation jumped 8 points overnight. What happened? Three usual causes: (1) A large month-end invoice batch posted, pushing AR balances up. (2) A wave of new SOs (sales month-end push) inflated the open-SO portion. (3) A bulk credit-limit reduction took effect (policy change, audit recommendation). Open the day’s transaction log; one of the three is responsible. Why does NetSuite include open SOs in credit calc? Because committed but unbilled SOs represent future AR. If a customer has 200k open SO, granting them another 280k of future-AR exposure against, say, a $250k credit limit. Including open SOs prevents the “stack-them-up before billing” loophole. Customer over-limit but I want to ship anyway. Manual override? Yes, via the Approve Credit / Override at SO entry, or via the customer recordcreditstatus = Override. Both create an audit trail. NetSuite logs the override in the System Notes; the credit team should review overrides weekly for policy compliance.
My OneWorld account: are credit limits per subsidiary?
Yes. Each NS-subsidiary’s customer record carries its own credit limit. A customer that buys from US Inc and UK Ltd has two limits, two utilisation calcs. Some merchants prefer a global-credit view (single limit governing total exposure); requires a custom field + workflow.
Does this include intercompany?
By default no. Intercompany customers (subsidiary A as customer of subsidiary B) are excluded from the headline because intercompany credit is governed by intercompany agreements, not commercial credit limits.
The 0 to 25% bucket has 480 accounts. Why so low?
Healthy customer base distribution. Many B2B accounts have credit limits set conservatively at customer-onboarding and never use the full headroom. The 0 to 25% bucket includes (a) low-volume accounts whose typical orders never approach the limit, (b) prepay customers (limit is set but never used because they pay on PO), (c) accounts whose limit was set high anticipating growth that hasn’t materialised.