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138 CHAPTER 5 The Fulfi llment Process

Figure 5-12: Port as a shipping point. ©iStockphoto

CREDIT CONTROL AREA
A credit control area is an organizational level that is responsible for cus-
tomer credit. Specifi cally, it determines customers’ creditworthiness, estab-
lishes credit limits, and monitors and manages the actual extension of credit to
customers. An enterprise can choose to manage credit in either a centralized
or a decentralized manner. In a centralized system, a single credit control area
manages credit for customers across all company codes in the enterprise. This
arrangement is particularly useful if customers conduct business with multiple
company codes within the enterprise. As an example, Figure 5-13 illustrates a
centralized model that GBI employs for customers who purchase bicycles and
accessories from both GBI US and GBI DE. In such cases, GBI manages the

Figure 5-13: Centralized credit control area

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