Blog
Orders, prices, deliveries, cheques, what your customers owe you: articles for the people who run distribution companies.
Applying the right price for each client and depot
A price depends on the client and the depot serving the order. How to settle which price applies, keep it unchanged through the order, and avoid invented discounts.
4 min read
How to take field orders without copying errors
Orders written on a pad get typed again at the office, and that is where errors enter. How a single entry by the rep removes the copying step.
4 min read
Paying sales commissions on what is delivered and settled
Commission disputes start when the rep counts orders taken and the office counts money received. How to open a commission only on an order delivered and settled.
4 min read
Comparing forecast and achieved, month after month
A yearly sales plan helps only if someone keeps measuring against it. How to build it product by product, have it approved, and choose what counts as achieved.
3 min read
What your clients owe you today, and who to chase first
When sales and finance give two different figures for what clients owe, both can be right. How to read receivables by status and by age, and decide who to call.
4 min read
Invoice the whole order, or only what has been delivered?
Staggered deliveries make invoicing error prone. When to invoice the whole order, when to invoice delivery notes, and how advances get deducted without manual work.
3 min read
Partial deliveries: following what is left to deliver
When an order leaves in several trips or from several depots, the remainder gets lost. How to deliver line by line, and close an order that will never be complete.
4 min read
Credit ceilings: who decides, and when the limit frees up
Ceiling, outstanding and receivable are three numbers that often get confused. How to hold a credit limit per client, and why a remitted cheque does not free it.
4 min read
Where is that cheque? Following each one until it is cashed
A cheque in a folder is not money yet. How to follow cheques and promissory notes from receipt to cash-in, and see at once which ones came back unpaid.
4 min read
Seeing the whole chain, from the order to what clients owe
Directors often learn the month's real figures after it has closed. How one chain from order to commission gives the same figures to everyone, to the second.
4 min read