How to win and run a corporate uniform contract in a tailoring shop
The way a tailoring shop wins and runs a corporate uniform contract is to treat the whole thing as one account rather than a stack of separate jobs: quote the run as a single bulk order, hold every wearer's sizes on file, bill the company on agreed wholesale terms, and keep the balance owed in one place until it clears. A uniform contract for a school, a hotel, a hospital or a security firm is a different shape of work from a walk-in kandura. The numbers are bigger, the garments repeat, the sizes belong to dozens of people, and the money almost never lands on the day. This guide covers how a shop wins one of these contracts and keeps it straight from the first quote to the final payment, using TailorSync as the worked example.
Why a uniform contract is a different shape of work
A walk-in orders one garment, pays a deposit, and collects in a week. A corporate contract asks for two hundred of the same shirt, cut to a roster of sizes, delivered in batches over a term, and paid thirty or sixty days after you invoice. The garments repeat where a bespoke order is one of a kind, so the sizing matters more than the styling. The buyer is a company, not a person, so the paperwork is a purchase order and a credit invoice, not cash at the counter. Get those two facts straight, the repeated sizing and the billing on credit, and the rest of the contract settles into a rhythm you can run every term.
Quote the run as one bulk order
TailorSync marks every order as custom, alteration or bulk, and a uniform run is the case bulk was built for. Open a bulk order against the company, then add a line for each garment in the contract: the shirt, the trousers, the blazer, the apron, each with the quantity you are making and the price you agreed. The order totals the lines into a subtotal, takes off the discount you settled on, adds VAT, and shows one figure at the foot. That priced order is your quote. When the company signs off you move it from Pending to Confirmed and the run is live, so the number you quoted and the job you are building are the same record, never a spreadsheet you have to reconcile later.
Capture the roster of sizes once
The heart of a uniform contract is the roster: who wears what size. In TailorSync a set of measurements belongs to the customer, held as a named set, so you record each wearer once and reuse it. Capture the sizes as named sets on the account, something like Reception, size M or Guard 14, size L, and point each line of the order at the right set as you build it. That is the same mechanism a single order uses when it carries garments for more than one person. The payoff comes at reorder time. When the school takes a new intake or the hotel replaces worn pieces next season, the sizes are already on file, so the second order is a few minutes rather than a fresh measuring day.
Treat the first contract as an investment in the second. Once the roster of sizes is on the account, every reorder, a new term, a new hire, a replacement batch, starts from measurements you already hold. That is most of the reason a saved roster beats a folder of paper size charts. There is no bulk import, though, so you build the roster as you measure the first time.
Set the account up as wholesale, on terms
A company that orders every term should not be billed like a walk-in. Add the buyer as a wholesale client rather than retail, and the profile opens up the fields a trade account needs: the company name, its TRN for the tax invoice, a credit limit that caps how much it can owe at once, and payment terms in days (0, 30, 60 or 90) that set when each invoice falls due. Record the discount you agreed as well, so the rate you bill at is written down and not remembered differently by two people. Because the account is flagged wholesale, the wholesale VAT rate applies to its invoices on its own, kept apart from the retail rate you show at the counter.
Schedule a large run by delivery date
A contract for two hundred garments rarely ships in one van. When the company wants the run in waves, say half before term starts and half a month later, raise an order for each delivery instead of forcing it all onto one date. Each batch then carries its own delivery date and its own progress, while all of them sit under the one account and roll into one balance. TailorSync turns a delivery date gold when it falls due within three days and red once it is overdue and the batch still isn't finished, so on a busy week the drop that needs cutting today rises to the top on its own.
Track each garment stage and where it is stored
Inside an order, every line moves through its own workshop stage, Pending, Cutting, Stitching, Finishing, Ready, Delivered, so at a glance you can tell which parts of the run are on the machines and which are done. Split a garment across a few lines when different batches sit at different stages and you want to watch them apart. Next to the stage, record where each finished batch physically is, like Rack B-12 or Shelf 3, because a store of two hundred boxed shirts is only useful if anyone on the floor can find the right size on handover day.
Storage location earns its keep on a big run. When the van arrives or the company's rep comes to collect, a labelled rack against each batch is the difference between a five-minute handover and an hour of hunting through the workshop.
Invoice on credit and keep the balance in view
Corporate buyers pay on credit, not on the spot. Raise the invoice as a sale against the account, set the due date from the payment terms you agreed, and hand over an FTA-compliant tax invoice carrying your TRN and the VAT breakdown, the document their accounts department needs before it will pay. The invoice then tracks itself: the full amount shows as owing, the balance falls as instalments land, and it reads Paid once it clears. You never keep the amount owed in a separate book, because it rides on the invoice from the day you issue it.
Know what every account owes, and who is late
Run enough contracts and the real question stops being 'is it made' and becomes 'has it been paid'. The Finance receivables view answers it: every outstanding invoice and order grouped by customer, with the total each account owes and the date it was due. The aging report sorts that money by how far overdue it is, from current through thirty and sixty days to anything over ninety, so a hotel drifting past its terms shows up in the older columns before it becomes a bad debt. The credit limit you set on the account is the guard rail on the other side, a ceiling on how far a good customer can run before you have a quiet word.
Common questions
How does tailoring software handle a corporate uniform contract?
It keeps the whole contract on one account instead of scattering it across separate jobs. In TailorSync you quote the run as a single bulk order with a line and a quantity for each garment, hold every wearer's sizes as named measurement sets you reuse on reorders, bill the company as a wholesale account on agreed credit terms, and watch the balance until it clears. Each garment line carries its own workshop stage and storage location, so a large run is trackable through production.
Can I capture measurements for a whole staff roster?
Yes. Measurements in TailorSync belong to the customer as named sets, so you capture each wearer's sizes once (for example 'Reception, size M') and point each line of the order at the right set. There is no bulk spreadsheet import, so you build the roster as you measure. Once it is on the account, every reorder for a new intake or a replacement batch starts from the sizes you already hold.
How do I set up a wholesale account with a credit limit and payment terms?
Add the buyer as a wholesale client rather than retail. The wholesale profile carries the company name, its TRN for the tax invoice, a credit limit that caps how much it can owe at once, and payment terms in days (0, 30, 60 or 90) that set when each invoice falls due. You can also record the agreed discount. Because the account is flagged wholesale, the wholesale VAT rate applies to its invoices automatically.
How do I invoice a company on credit and track what it owes?
Raise the invoice as a sale against the account and set a due date from its payment terms. TailorSync issues an FTA-compliant tax invoice with your TRN and the VAT breakdown, then follows it as the money arrives, from owing in full to partially paid to paid. The outstanding amount shows in the Finance receivables view, grouped by customer with its due date, and the aging report flags anything drifting past its terms.
Can I deliver a large uniform order in batches?
Yes. When a contract ships in waves, raise a separate order for each delivery, so every batch has its own delivery date and its own progress while all of them sit under the one account and roll into a single balance. TailorSync flags each delivery date as it nears and turns it red once it is overdue, so the batch due next rises to the top of the list.
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