What goes wrong on a wholesale-distribution operation.
The same patterns show up in almost every distributor running on spreadsheets, a generic ERP and a paper POD book — and at least one of them is yours.
Orders with no spine
Telesales calls, standing orders, rep orders and portal orders all land in different inboxes. The warehouse picks from whichever copy it sees first; the invoice goes out against whichever copy finance finds last.
Credit-limit gaps at the doorstep
The driver learns an account is over its limit when the customer refuses to sign. Finance learns when the cheque bounces a fortnight later. Aging reports lag, so dunning starts weeks too late.
Delivery exceptions invisible until the office hears about them
Shorts, refusals and substitutions get scribbled on the POD copy. By the time the office reconciles, the invoice has gone out wrong — or not at all, because nobody’s sure what was delivered.
Manual invoicing dragging DSO
POD paperwork waits for the driver to return to the depot. Amendments and returns delay the invoice run. Customers only pay the bills they receive — and 3–7 days slip onto DSO every cycle.
How RouteMagic solves it
One platform, the whole order-to-cash cycle.
Purpose-built for B2B distributors with a book of pre-orders and a fleet of DSD vans.
Multi-Channel Order Capture
Phoned, standing, quoted or portal — every order lands in one pipeline. Intake stays clean because each order is validated the same way every time.
1 pipelinetelesales, standing, quotes
Livestock & price
ZeroERP re-keying
Warehouse Pick, Pack & Load
Picking is route-based, packing is batch-aware and loading is scan-verified. The right stock goes on the right van, every round.
−50%pick time
0gate disputes
FIFO / FEFOenforced on scan
Route Planning & Dispatch
Drop sequences, time windows and driver manifests are all set before the wheels turn. The round leaves on time, with no morning scramble.
Optimisedstop sequence
Time-windowhonoured at drop
Liveroute monitor
Direct Store Delivery & ePOD
Pre-planned drops can be amended on the spot for shorts, substitutions or refusals. Each one is proven with signature, photo and geo-stamp.
100%geo-stamped POD
1 visitamend, sign, print
Offline-firstpatchy-signal proof
Invoicing & Credit Control
Clean orders clear a pre-invoice review and bill the same day. Credit holds stay tight at order, load or door, so month-end brings no surprises.
Same daydelivery → invoice
Autopre-invoice review queue
Liveaging & exposure
Returns, Credit Notes & Insight
Returns route to good, damaged or quarantine and credit notes close cleanly. Every route, customer and SKU then reports for itself on live dashboards.
100%reason + photo
Livesales dashboards
1 hrmonth-close
Outcomes
The numbers distributors measure after switching.
Real numbers from live wholesale-distribution rollouts.
Same dayDelivery to invoice−50%Warehouse pick time<1%Lines short or mispicked~1 hrTo close the month
Customer spotlight
How Barnies Foods cut wastage 30% and grew sales 25%.
Barnies wholesales short shelf-life bakery — bread, sandwiches, rolls and savouries — to corner shops and forecourts across East Anglia on a fleet of 10 vans, where guesswork is expensive. Manual schedules and duplicate-book dockets meant stock was over- or under-supplied call by call. Now the driver app captures every visit live, historical sales forecast per-store demand, and mobile invoicing ends the office re-keying.
The ones we get asked most from wholesale distributors. Book a walkthrough for anything else.
What software do wholesalers use?
Wholesale distribution software runs the order-to-cash cycle for B2B distributors — order capture, warehouse pick-pack-load, route-optimised delivery, invoicing and credit control on one platform. RouteMagic does all of it in one system, so orders aren’t re-keyed between a generic ERP, a spreadsheet and a paper POD book.
Is there a wholesale distribution software for a small business?
Yes — RouteMagic is right-sized for growing distributors. Start with one team and a few vans, then add warehouses, routes and users on the same platform and data. You get the order-to-cash workflow the big ERPs charge enterprise prices for, without the implementation overhead.
Can you handle standing orders and telesales in the same pipeline?
Yes. Standing Sale Orders auto-generate on the schedule you set; telesales agents take calls against a call cycle and build orders live. Portal orders, rep orders and quotes land in the same pipeline and go through the same warehouse pick / pack / load steps.
What happens when a delivery is short, refused or substituted?
All first-class flows. The driver records the reason, captures a photo if needed, and the order splits or amends cleanly. The invoice reflects what was actually delivered; the rest becomes a back-order, a return, or a cancellation — your rules decide.
Do you handle batches, expiry and FIFO / FEFO?
Batch Management tracks batch numbers and expiry from receipt through delivery. Picking can enforce FIFO or FEFO; expiry is validated on receipt, pack and deliver. Cold-chain temperature can be captured at POD.
How does the Pre-Invoice step work?
After POD confirms the delivered quantities, the order moves to Pre-Invoice. Finance can review exceptions (amendments, substitutions, short deliveries) or let clean orders auto-advance to Invoiced. Skip the step entirely with one setting if you prefer same-second invoicing.
How do credit limits and credit holds work?
Every customer has a Credit Class, a credit limit and a live Customer Balance. Orders over the limit can block at entry, at load, or at delivery — depending on how strict you want to be. Dunning messages fire automatically against aging buckets.
Which accounting packages do you integrate with?
Bi-directional with Sage 50, Xero and Zoho Books. Export to Sage 200, QuickBooks and Tally. Stripe and Razorpay for card / UPI / recurring. Anything else over REST API. Invoices are VAT-compliant for UK MTD and UAE FTA e-invoicing.
See it on your own book of business
Ready to close the loop from order to cash?
Walk-through shaped like your distribution operation
30 minutes
We’ll ask about your routes, credit cycle & accounts package first
