Commercial sales are typically open account transactions, where the goods are shipped and delivered before payment is due, usually within 30 to 90 days of delivery. This is advantageous for the buyer, but the seller runs the risk of non-payment. In international sales, the risk of non-payment is magnified for a variety of reasons, including the scarcity of reliable credit and other business information about the buyer, communication difficulties, the difficulty of enforcing payment obligations in foreign countries, currency and exchange risk, and political risk.

Trade finance offers a diverse set of tools for mitigating non-payment and other risks inherent in domestic and international commercial sales transactions. This Toolkit provides a guide to Practical Law's continuously maintained trade finance resources.