Wholesale distribution, Sydney
Custom inventory and purchasing system for a wholesale distributor
Three spreadsheets and an accounting package replaced by one system covering purchasing, stock on hand and allocation across two warehouses.
Platform
FileMaker, integrated with Xero
Timeline
Discovery four weeks, then three build phases over seven months
Industry
Wholesale distribution, Sydney
Size
38 staff
The situation before
- Stock on hand lived in a spreadsheet updated once a day, so sales quoted from numbers that were already wrong.
- Purchase orders were raised in the accounting system and tracked separately in email.
- Allocation between the two warehouses was decided verbally and recorded nowhere.
What we built
- Purchasing, from reorder point through to receipting against the purchase order.
- Live stock on hand and allocated quantities across both warehouses.
- Pick and pack workflow on tablets in the warehouse.
- A month end reconciliation report that runs in under a minute.
Monthly stock reconciliation cut from three days to four hours.
3 days to 4 hours
Monthly stock reconciliation
Same day
Stock figures now available to sales, previously next day
2 warehouses
Running on one allocation view
The part that surprised me was how much of the first month was spent on our process rather than on software. By the time anything was built, they understood our business better than some of our own staff.
What is next
We are scoping a supplier portal so inbound purchase orders are confirmed without the phone calls.
Book a discovery call
Thirty minutes with the person who would build your system. We will ask about how your business runs today, where the manual work sits, and what you have already tried. You will leave with a view on whether custom software is worth it for you, and a rough range for what it would cost. There is no charge and no obligation.
Or call 02 7208 8867 during business hours.