Customer applying

The public form lives at /apply. /contractor/apply only redirects to it.

Who can use it#

Anyone, signed in or not. A signed-in customer (APPLICANT) sees the form inside their workspace and gets prefill and history from GET /v1/apply/context; the submission is attributed to that account. Other visitors, sales-rep links and staff see the public frame.

Entry links#

Query parameters on /apply choose the supplier: org (organization id), vendor (name), v, and rep (a sales representative token). With none, the customer picks from participating suppliers. If the link names a supplier that has not published an application, the page says "This supplier is not accepting applications yet" and nothing is started.

Steps#

A stepper and a line "Step 1 of 2" (with "n of m required sections complete" on step 1) show where you are.

1. Your details: business, contact, requested limit and preferred payment terms (Net 30, 60 or 90 days, when the supplier asks), bank and trade references, extra questions and documents the supplier configured in the application form editor. The supplier's brand, name and terms appear in the header. Trade references are other suppliers that already sell to you on credit; we email each one a short form, their answers go to the supplier only, and unless the supplier requires some you can send the application without them and add them later. When the supplier requires them, an Owners and officers section asks for at least one owner or officer (name, title, ownership %, the last 4 digits of the SSN and an optional email; add as many as ten, remove a row any time). Enter only the last 4 digits: a longer number is refused, and ownership across all rows cannot exceed 100%. These answers are not saved with the draft in your browser, so they are asked again if you reload. Smart features such as scan-to-fill appear only if the supplier enabled them and the scan service is configured.
2. Sign and send: review every answer, accept the supplier's terms (and the personal guaranty if the supplier requires it: the box is covered by the same signature, there is no second signing at this point), type your name and draw or type a signature. A line under the signature says that typing your name and drawing your signature acts as your electronic signature (US E-SIGN Act). The certification the customer ticks ends with "I intend my typed name and drawn signature to act as my electronic signature", and the exact text is stored with the signed submission.

Mistakes and saving#

• Error summary: pressing Continue or Submit with problems shows one summary at the top of the form (error-summary, it takes focus) listing every unmet rule in plain language; each line links to its field. It shrinks as you fix fields. Inline messages stay beside the fields and appear after you leave a field. Nothing you typed is cleared.
• Autosave: the form saves to this browser as you type. The action bar says "Unsaved changes", then "Saved 14:02", or "Not saved: this browser blocked saving" (private mode or a full disk) so you do not trust a draft that is not there (apply-save-state). When you are signed in, the draft is also saved to your account (encrypted, without the signature or the owners and officers rows), so it resumes on another device; the newer of the two copies wins, and it is deleted when you submit, discard it, or 30 days after the last save (API). Without an account the draft stays in this browser for 30 days; the dashboard lists them under "Needs you" with a Continue button for the same signed-in account.
• Business details gate: a signed-in customer whose business details (or required verification) are not done sees why, what is being checked and what they can still do above the form; submitting answers 409 until the gate is open.
• Test hooks: apply-field-<field key>, apply-continue, apply-submit, apply-certify, apply-signed-name, apply-signature, apply-progress, apply-esign-note.

Confirmation#

After sending, a signed-in customer sees apply-confirmation: supplier, application number, the email the decision goes to, and What happens next (apply-next-steps): references are emailed now (or you can add them later), the supplier checks your business and reads their answers, you get an email when a decision is recorded and the status is always under My applications.

What submitting does#

POST /v1/applications (public). One transaction creates the application, an immutable submission record (inputs, signer, IP, user agent), and the queued emails: a request to each trade reference, a receipt to the customer with the confirmation code, and a notice to each active supplier user. Result: 201 with the application id and code.

Errors#

• 400: required details missing, no published application for that supplier, bad signature image, or an invalid sales-rep link.
• 409: the supplier published a new version while you filled the form (reload and review the new terms), or the same idempotency key was reused for different data. A retry with the same key and data returns the first result.
• 413 body too large. 429 more than 5 submissions per hour per IP.

Related#

• Reference responding
• Credit decision