Understanding how to streamline operations is crucial for any wholesale business looking to reduce costs and improve efficiency. One powerful solution is adopting wholesale distribution software. This software automates various processes, reducing manual labor and operational expenses. Transitioning from basic accounting software, Excel spreadsheets, or multiple standalone solutions to an all-in-one system can dramatically enhance your business's efficiency. Although this switch requires an investment of resources, becoming comfortable with a robust solution reveals numerous ways to automate processes across all business departments. Here are some key areas where automation can deliver immediate and significant benefits.
Automate Accounts Receivable
Accounts receivable turnover measures how often your company collects its average accounts receivable within a year. This metric is pivotal as it indicates your efficiency in extending credit to customers and collecting funds promptly, directly impacting cash flow. Automating accounts receivable processes can significantly reduce the administrative time needed to collect payments and improve your cash flow and turnover ratio. With wholesale distribution software, you can set criteria based on a customer's account. If these criteria are met, the system will automatically email the customer regarding their overdue account, including payment submission details. This automation saves hours of manual work reviewing accounts and notifying customers.
Streamline eCommerce Operations
If you haven't automated your website order management, you're missing a substantial opportunity to save costs and expand your customer base. Website eCommerce automation starts with integrating your existing websites into your back-end wholesale distribution software. For wholesale businesses, this may involve integration with a B2B online order portal, a customer-facing B2C store, vendor portals, or marketplaces like Amazon. Real-time bi-directional integration means that when a customer places an order online, it automatically generates a sales order in your wholesale distribution solution for picking, packing, and shipping. Inventory levels are updated across systems instantly. When new inventory items are received into your warehouse, the information is automatically published online, allowing customers to see available stock in real-time. This integration automates various aspects of the online order process, eliminating the need for additional data entry staff when order volumes increase.
Enhance Shipping Efficiency
Automating the shipping process with wholesale distribution software allows you to update accounts, create invoices or other reports, email customers, and print documents with just a status change or other pre-determined actions. For example, once an order is packed, changing the status to “shipped” can automatically print packing slips and box labels while emailing the customer with the invoice and tracking information. Depending on your specific warehouse layout and methods for picking, packing, and shipping, there are multiple ways to further automate the shipping process.
Automate Reporting
Regularly reviewing business metrics is essential for understanding your company's performance and identifying new opportunities or threats. Automating the reporting process can have a significant impact. You can automatically email reports to relevant stakeholders at regular intervals and send exception reports highlighting anomalies in the system. This ensures that when something unusual occurs, the appropriate personnel are immediately notified, addressing issues proactively rather than waiting for quarterly or year-end reviews.
Conclusion
Utilizing wholesale distribution software such as Blue Link ERP to automate processes can provide considerable benefits for your business. From reducing manual work in accounts receivable to streamlining eCommerce operations, enhancing shipping efficiency, and automating reporting, this technology offers a comprehensive solution to improve efficiency and cut costs. If you're a wholesale business owner or distribution manager looking to elevate your operations, consider integrating wholesale distribution software to take full advantage of its powerful automation capabilities.
