After paying external liabilities at dissolution whose claim gets priority next?

Correct answer: Partners' loans

The direct answer is option A: partners’ loans. In dissolution, the firm stops ordinary business and its assets are converted into cash so claims can be settled in a prescribed order. First, outside liabilities are paid, because creditors who are not partners have priority. After those external liabilities, loans advanced by partners to the firm are repaid. Only after both of these are settled is any remaining amount used to return partners’ capital, and any final surplus is distributed according to the partnership agreement. Option A is therefore correct. Option B, customers’ orders, is not a payment category in the statutory settlement sequence; orders may be completed or cancelled, but they do not receive the next cash priority. Option C, future sales, cannot be a claim because future sales are not an existing liability. Option D, new investments, is irrelevant because dissolution is closing the firm, not raising fresh capital. The memory order is: outside creditors first, partners’ loans next, partners’ capital after that, and surplus last.