An enquiry, a quote, a job, an invoice. Captured once. Quote to invoice software for South African distributors: it prices an enquiry against the stock you actually hold, raises the purchase order for what is short, tracks the job through to despatch, and invoices off the same lines it quoted.
An enquiry is read into lines the catalogue recognises and priced against what is available, what is allocated and what is in transit. A quote never promises a part that is already spoken for.
An accepted quote becomes an order with the same lines and the same prices. Stock is allocated to it, it enters the picking queue, and the stage it has reached is visible without asking anyone.
Proof of delivery closes the order and raises the invoice off what actually shipped. From there it sits on the aged debtor until it is settled, as one number rather than a spreadsheet.
Five ways of quoting, five pages. An RFQ arrives, it is priced against stock you may or may not hold, what is short gets bought in, and it has to reach an invoice without being retyped. What changes is which part of that is hard. Pick the one that sounds like your week.
Pumps, bearings and industrial supply
Industrial supplies, PPE, chemicals and lubricants, welding and gas.
Electrical and hardware wholesale
Electrical and lighting, plumbing, building materials, tyres.
Auto parts
Auto parts and spares, IT hardware and print, electronics components.
Packaging and labelling
Packaging and labelling, office furniture and stationery, uniforms and workwear.
Medical and lab supply
Medical and dental, laboratory, mining, agricultural, food and beverage, hospitality.
From a list of parts to money in the bank. Six steps, and nothing is typed twice. The quote becomes the order, the order becomes the invoice, and the figures cannot disagree.
The enquiry arrives as a list of parts
A customer sends a request, usually as prose with part numbers buried in it. It lands in one inbox and is read into lines the catalogue recognises, rather than retyped by whoever picks it up.
Priced against stock you actually hold
Each line is checked against the floor: what is available, what is already allocated to another order, and what is in transit. A quote does not promise a part that is spoken for.
What is short goes onto a purchase order
A shortfall raises a purchase order against the supplier who carries that part, with its lead time on it. The customer is told a real date rather than an optimistic one, and receiving closes the loop when it lands.
The quote goes out, and is chased
A quote that nobody follows up is a discount you already gave away. Quotations carry an expiry and sit on a follow-up list, so the ones going cold are visible while there is still something to save.
Accepted, it becomes an order to pick
The accepted quote turns into an order with the same lines and the same prices, stock is allocated against it, and it drops into the picking queue. Nothing is captured a second time.
Despatched, invoiced, and watched until paid
Proof of delivery closes the order and raises the invoice off the same lines. From there it sits on the aged debtor until it is settled, so what is owed and how long it has been owed is one number, not a spreadsheet.
One part, four prices, none of them wrong. A distributor does not have a price list. It has a price per account, per quantity, per contract, and whoever is quoting has to get the right one without looking it up.
- Cash / walk-inR 248.0042%Retail, over the counter
- Trade accountR 212.0033%Held against the part
- WholesaleR 196.0028%Held against the part
- Volume break, 100+R 179.0021%Applied at the quantity quoted
- CostR 142.00—On every line, so margin is never a guess
The tier decides the price
Retail, trade and wholesale are held against the part itself and applied by the account being quoted, so a new person on the counter cannot pick the wrong one.
Quantity breaks apply themselves
A customer asking for a hundred instead of ten gets the hundred price without anyone remembering that a break exists at that quantity.
A quote expires on a date
Validity is stated on the document rather than assumed, so an order placed six weeks later is repriced deliberately instead of honoured by accident.
Margin is visible while it matters
Cost sits against sell on every line as the quote is built, so a thin line is seen before it is sent rather than found at year end.
Everything the flow touches. Quotes, orders, stock, procurement, money.
Every quote out with its value, its expiry, and whether it is going cold while there is still something to save.
Distribution does not lose money on one big thing. It loses it four small ways, every week, and none of them shows up until the year end.
The quote nobody chased
Most quotes are never answered and never followed up. They expire quietly, and the value of the book that went cold is not a number anybody has.
Every quote out carries its value and its expiry, and the ones going cold surface while there is still something to save.
The price that was already wrong
A line priced off a cost that moved, or off stock already allocated to another order. The margin is gone before the order is even accepted.
Cost and availability are read at the moment of quoting, so the number on the page is the number today.
The delivery that never reconciled
Part deliveries, back orders and a credit note nobody linked back. The invoice and what actually shipped stop agreeing, and the customer queries it.
The invoice is raised off despatched lines, so what was signed for and what accounts raised are the same document.
The account that quietly went past terms
Credit extended, then extended again, until the oldest bucket is the size of a month's profit and somebody has to go and ask for it.
What is owed and how long it has been owed sits on one screen, current through ninety days, in rand.
Nothing runs out quietly. Reorder points are held against real movement, so a shortfall is raised as a purchase order before it becomes a lost order.
Held against actual movement, rather than a number somebody set two years ago and never revisited.
The date the customer is given comes from the supplier who carries that part, not from optimism.
Stock booked in lands against the order that was waiting for it, and the short line on that job clears itself.
The screens on this page are the live platform, captured as it renders. The company, its customers, suppliers and every figure are generated for demonstration. No client of ours appears anywhere on this page.
Nothing that already works has to move. The finance team keeps their ledger, the branches keep their stock, and the counter keeps its speed. This sits over the top of all of it.
Your accounting package
Sage, Pastel, Xero or whatever the year end runs on stays where it is. Invoices raised here reach it, and the bookkeeper is not asked to learn a new ledger.
Your branches
Stock sits per branch and is quoted per branch, with what is available at the counter separated from what is sitting at another store or already in transit.
Your part numbers
Your own code, the supplier's and the OEM number all sit on the same line, so nobody has to translate between them mid-enquiry.
Your terms
Credit limits, payment terms and settlement discounts are held against the account and enforced when the order is taken, not discovered at month end.
Your counter
A walk-in is served at the same speed as before. The system is behind the counter rather than in front of it.
Your reps
What a rep quoted, what it was worth and whether it landed is on the account rather than in their own notebook.
What distributors usually ask.
See it on your business.
We build a version around what you sell and how you quote it, and show you it working. No paid audit, no obligation.