Personal Guarantee Guide

For a specific wholesale credit application, require one or more company owners to sign a personal guarantee — with a separate FCRA written authorisation from buyers based in the United States, when your published guarantee includes an FCRA PDF. B2B Onboard captures the acceptances and a signed document with an audit trail. It does not pull credit, score, decide, or opine on enforceability.

Available on Growth and Pro (with credit applications).

What it is — and what it isn’t

A personal guarantee is a conditional, US-oriented instrument: a company owner agrees to be secondarily liable for the company’s trade-credit obligations. It is bound to a specific credit application — the signed record references the credit application it was signed against.

  • It collects each guarantor’s identity (full legal name, home address, email, phone, ownership %) on a secure, tokenised signing portal.
  • It records the acceptances — one for the personal guarantee and, for buyers based in the United States when your published version includes an FCRA PDF, a distinct one for the FCRA written authorisation — captured independently, each required.
  • It produces a signed artifact — a combined PDF (your guarantee wording + your FCRA authorisation when it applies + an appended acceptance certificate) plus the captured IP, timestamp, version, and an optional drawn signature.
  • It surfaces the status — required / pending / signed — on the company’s Guarantee card and in the Action required worklist.

The guarantee wording and, where applicable, the FCRA authorisation text are yours. Both are merchant- and counsel-supplied. B2B Onboard never authors, infers, or summarises-as-advice either text. It does not pull an owner’s credit, score, underwrite, advance funds, or report to a credit bureau. A guarantor is secondarily liable, so US adverse-action obligations differ from a co-applicant’s — that determination and any notice are your (your counsel’s) responsibility, not the app’s. The app does not “ensure compliance” — it is decision support only.

Publishing your wording

In Settings › Guarantee, upload your counsel-supplied personal-guarantee wording (PDF) with a version label and publish. The FCRA is US law about consumer reports on the guarantor, so the separate FCRA written-authorisation text (a second PDF) is requested from buyers based in the United States, when your published guarantee includes an FCRA PDF. US stores must include one; other stores can add one (optional) for their US buyers, or leave it out and publish the guarantee wording alone. The buyer’s country comes from the company’s Shopify address (or, failing that, its registration application), falling back to your store’s country. If a US buyer’s company has a guarantee but your published version has no FCRA PDF, its Personal guarantee card shows a warning. The version label identifies which wording was in force when a guarantor signs, and is recorded on every signed artifact.

Until you publish a version, there is nothing to sign — the signing link shows a neutral state. Publishing a new version does not change any previously signed artifact; each one keeps the version it was signed against.

Sending the signing link

A guarantee is always tied to a company’s credit application, so it only applies once a credit application exists. From the company’s page, open the Personal guarantee card and choose Issue link to mint a secure, single-use, expiring magic link you can copy and share (or Email to customer to email the same secure link to the company’s contact using the Personal Guarantee Signature Request email template, editable under Settings → Email Templates). The email mentions the separate FCRA written authorisation only for buyers based in the United States, when your published version includes one; every other buyer is asked to review and accept the guarantee alone. Issuing a link marks the guarantee required and pending on the credit relationship.

You ask per company. There is no automatic rule: publishing your wording asks nobody to sign, and the app never requests a guarantee on its own. You send or request a guarantee link from a company’s page (Personal guarantee card) whenever you decide one is needed.

The guarantor opens the link, enters each owner’s identity, reviews the linked PDF(s), checks the acceptance box(es), types their name, and optionally draws a signature. The link is single-use — it is consumed on submission. To capture multiple owners who sign separately, issue one link per signing session.

What gets recorded

On submission, B2B Onboard requires the guarantee acceptance and, for a buyer based in the United States when the version includes one, the FCRA authorisation — if one is missing the submission is rejected. It then captures the connecting IP, the timestamp, and the in-force version, stores the drawn-signature image (if any), and generates a combined signed PDF: your guarantee wording, followed by your FCRA authorisation (buyers based in the United States only), followed by an acceptance-certificate page that lists the signer, the guarantor identities, the acceptance flags, the version, the referenced credit application, and the signature.

The signed artifact is immutable — it is never edited or overwritten. Each guarantor’s signed PDF is available to Preview or Download from the company’s Personal guarantee card.

Staying on top of pending guarantees

When a guarantee is required but unsigned, the company appears in your Action required worklist with a Guarantee review badge. Open the row to jump to the company’s Personal guarantee card to re-send the link or review the signed document. This is informational — it does not gate or block your credit decision. Whether a signed guarantee is a condition of approval is yours to decide.

Plan availability

Personal guarantees are a credit-module feature, available on the Growth and Pro plans alongside credit applications. On lower plans, the Guarantee settings page and card show an upgrade prompt and no links can be generated.