3.1.
Overview
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The purpose of the GRIA Trade Account Service is to support the creation and management of trade accounts. Each trade account represents a trust relationship between the service provider and a user (the account holder), who is responsible for all service access on their account.
The account holder can allow others to charge (i.e. bill) services to their account, and can monitor billed usage to check that it is sensible. The service provider trusts the account holder to manage access responsibly, whether they are an employee leading a collaborative project, or an external user paying for the services provided. The account thus represents the "root of trust" between a service provider and remote users.
The service provider also assigns a credit limit to each account (thus limiting their financial risk exposure), and records any payments or charges on the account. The Account Service keeps track of the account holder's liability, and provides a mechanism to check credit (i.e. whether a bill would take the amount owed above the credit limit). Note that while a credit check would fail if the corresponding amount would exceed the available credit, a bill will still be processed, so the account still records the amount owed to the service provider (see below). The idea is that another service should check credit before committing to provide a service for a user, can go ahead if the credit check is okay, and can always bill afterwards for services delivered.
It is important to emphasise that the trade account service is not a replacement for a banking service. It records money that a customer owes to the service provider, rather than money they actually have. It does not guarantee (the way a bank has to) that these records will be 100% complete and accurate, which is not feasible without reliable networks, as operated (for a fee) by clearing banks. A service provider therefore cannot get money from the accounting service, or treat the balance of an account as cash that can be used to pay others, but can use the account service to generate invoices to send to customers. When the customer pays a bill (via a cheque in the post for instance), the payment should be recorded on the account so as to keep a correct record of the amount owed by the client.
