Many small distributors chose Quickbooks as did many startup businesses. However, when you’re talking about specialized software for wholesale distributors, Quickbooks is not the answer. It begins to slow down quickly as transaction volume rises. In addition to speed and performance issues, there are many other tell-tale signs that you need specialized software for wholesale distributors. Operational efficiencies, inventory and warehouse problems and lack of 3rd party software integration are some of the compelling reasons to consider specialized software for wholesale distributors like Accolent ERP.
Software like Quickbooks was designed to be generic accounting and bookkeeping software for a wide variety of businesses. And maybe it does a good job at that. However, it lacks the features and functionality that software for wholesale distributors must have.
Signs You Need Specialized Software for Wholesale Distributors
Let’s take a look at some of the signs that your business might be outgrowing your current software:
1. Your Costs Are Skyrocketing Due to a Lack of Control
Feature |
Sign |
Profitability |
You are leaving money on the table because you don’t have the complex pricing features that you would get with specialized software for wholesale distributors. This would allow you to optimize pricing and get the highest prices. |
Powerful pricing tools |
Software for wholesale distributors allows multiple contracts, and specified contract hierarchies, matrix pricing, quantity breaks, special pricing and still minimize your pricing maintenance. You need this. |
Business Intelligence |
You need specialized software that allows for groups, categories, sub-categories, multiple warehouses, complex pricing. You cannot properly analyze results, visualize your data or make data-driven decisions. |
Matrix Pricing |
You are losing money because your pricing is not optimized for different customer tiers or product families and you cannot maintain all your multiple pricing features easily. |
Inventory Tracking is Poor |
Inventory management is the core requirement for software for wholesale distributors. You must be able to closely manage inventory and replenishment. If you are experiencing frequent stock-outs you are driving up shipping costs and degrading customer service. |
Costly overhead of outdated systems |
On a total cost of ownership basis, legacy on-premises systems are difficult and expensive to maintain compared to current Cloud-based software for wholesale distributors |
Unnecessary writeoffs |
If your software is not designed for your specialized wholesale distributor workflows, it may be causing you many extra steps, lost sales and unnecessary write-offs. |
Cash Flow Issues |
Moving to Cloud-based software for wholesale distributors delivered through a SaaS subscription avoids big upfront expenditure for software and servers and helps your cash flow. |
High HR Costs |
If your software isn’t optimized for your business, your staff will be inefficient, make unnecessary mistakes, and have to fumble around with paper systems and spreadsheets. This inevitably leads to high turnover and high HR costs. |
2. Employees and Processes are Inefficient
Feature |
Sign |
Mobility and Access |
Your on-premises system does not accommodate users in the field or employees working remotely. You cannot accommodate tablets or smart phones. This, is slowing your process and reducing efficiency. |
Month-End Closeouts Take Too Long |
You struggle with inconsistent record keeping. You require one centralized data source, so month-end close-outs can take hours instead of days. |
Employees Can’t Pull Reports |
You’d benefit from libraries of pre-programmed reports as well as easy-to-use report builders that will allow team members to quickly and easily get the information they need. |
Manual Methods |
Your software does not support electronic payments, so everything has to be done by paper checks. An automated AP system can eliminate the need for paper in your accounting systems. |
3. Badly Need Features Available in Software for Wholesale Distributors
Feature |
Sign |
BoM |
You need a Bill of Materials that allows for unlimited levels of nested BOMs to track your processes and costs including labor. |
CRM |
You are losing sales because you don’t have an integrated CRM and/or the ability to integrate with a third-party CRM application that your salespersons like. |
Customer Service |
Customer service reps cannot easily look up orders statuses or customer accounts. Customer service reps don’t have access to customer dashboards. |
eCommerce |
You are losing traction because you are not selling online on established eCommerce platforms and you cannot give your B2B customers and online self-0service portal. |
EDI |
You need EDI automation to reduce human error and allow you to serve multiple trading partners that require electronic transaction processing. |
Landed Cost |
You purchase goods overseas and need to keep track of multiple landed costs, insurance, sea freight, clearing and forwarding, import duties and tariffs, port demurrage, drayage costs, etc. |
Lot Tracking |
You need to comprehensively track lots, expiry dates and serial numbers. |
Multiple Units of Measure |
You need multiple units of measure because you buy in one unit and sell in others. |
Alternates and Accessories |
You do not have a good way of keeping track of all the alternates and accessories related to each product you sell. |
3rd Party Freight Billing |
Your customers’ want to use their FedEx & UPS accounts not yours and you cannot accommodate this. |
4. You Cannot Manage Your Warehouses Effectively
Feature |
Sign |
Picking Efficiency |
You need inventory by location, pick tickets generated based on location to increase picking efficiency, and packing and shipping. |
Warehouse Transfers |
You need to account for warehouse transfers and/or set up discrete business units by warehouse. |
Generate and Print Barcodes |
You would like to scan and print barcodes to increase the efficiency of all of your processes. |
Wireless Scanning |
You want to take advantage of wireless scanning devices for picking, packing, shipping PO receiving, put-away and physical inventory processes. |
5. Lack of Integrated Systems
Feature |
Sign |
Visibility Across Departments |
You need real-time inventory and GAAP-compliant accounting across your whole business. |
Too Many Systems |
You are trying to maintain data in multiple systems and it is time-consuming and inaccurate. You require a database that updates in real time and keeps all of your inventory and accounting current. |
POS System Is Disconnected |
You are spending way too much time reconciling POS systems. Automation can help you eliminate wasted time and increase the accuracy of your reporting. |
6. Limited Flexibility
Feature |
Sign |
Integrations With Leading Solutions |
You see many benefits to integrating with applications like Avalara (Sales Tax) or OnPay (AP Automation), yet your current software cannot integrate with them. |
Scalable, Load-Balanced, Secure Platform |
Cloud applications are taking over; you see this in how Microsoft, Google, Adobe and others are migrating their products. You are concerned about future-proofing your business’ investment in software and systems. |
7. Improved Processes
Feature |
Sign |
Batch Process Orders and Invoices |
It’s taking too long to process orders, picking, packing shipping and invoices, one by one. You need robust batch processes. |
Import from Prior Orders |
Salespersons get bogged down because they cannot quickly create new orders from past orders or quotes. |
Your Database is obsolete |
Legacy databases do not adapt well to modern hardware – you need software built on SQL, which runs in the AWS platform, is stable, robust and the industry-standard. |
Quick Customer Snapshots: Purchase History, Aging |
You would love to be able to quickly pull up an AR aging report. |
Rapid Order Entry and Sales Processing |
You are frustrating your customers because it takes too long to process orders. Accolent ERP is optimized for fast order entry! |
Synonyms, Alternate Product Descriptions |
You need to be able to quickly look up products by short names, vendor product codes or manufacturer product codes. |
Now that you have a pretty good idea that you need specialized software for wholesale distributors, let’s examine your options. You can do nothing, which leads to the worst possible outcome. Your frustrations and problems will only mount over time and lost revenues due to inventory and warehousing problems quickly add up. As your transaction volume continues to increase, your system will only become slower. No, doing nothing at all is not an option.
Moving to Specialized Software for Wholesale Distributors
OK. You have decided you need specialized software for wholesale distributors. What now? You can start your search for the most up to date software, and we would like to suggest you consider Accolent ERP. Accolent ERP is specialized software for wholesale distributors that will solve all the functionality problems you are facing and more. Accolent ERP is Cloud-based ERP software and runs completely end-to-end in the AWS public Cloud. Your software and data are more secure with AWS than on your own internal servers. Read this article regarding safety concerns over ERP software.
Selecting and implementing new business software takes time, planning and effort. But the longer you wait, the worse your inventory, warehousing, cost, and operations problems become. We have a very simple process in place that can help you decide if Accolent ERP might be a good solution for you. Contact us today for a demo.