For small and medium sized businesses, QuickBooks is the go-to accounting software. For a manufacturer, wholesaler or distributor, QuickBooks doesn’t quite cover all your needs when you have customers, sales reps and inside staff who need to place and manage orders and access customer and product information. While you want to limit access to QuickBooks to your back office, by adding order management software, you can easily share information with everyone.
Below you will find 10 tips on what to look for when purchasing order management software for QuickBooks.
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Seamless Integration
One of the most important requirements of a QuickBooks order management software system is that it syncs flawlessly with QuickBooks. The real power of a system is that it leverages the work you are already doing in QuickBooks so there is no need to manage a separate database. A system should provide continuous synchronization with your QuickBooks item list, pricing, inventory levels, customer list and complete customer transaction history.
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Customized Order Forms
You want to be able to create dynamic, rich and powerful web order forms that make ordering fast, easy and attractive to your customers and sales reps. When they are customizable, customers are able to see only products that they normally order to make placing reorders much faster.
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Customized Prices and Discounts
By using QuickBooks special prices, you are able to offer customized prices to customers. You can set up special discounts too. With this type of automation, customers and independent sales reps never have to pick up the phone or send an email asking about their specific pricing. It’s all right there.
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Real Time Inventory Status
Ensuring that your software syncs with QuickBooks inventory is a big benefit for customers and reps placing orders. With real time inventory status, they will immediately see what is available and can order accordingly. No more calls telling them their items are out of stock after an order has been placed. And if they do place an order for an out of stock item, you can enter a message to let them know the availability.
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Warehouse Integration
Communicate electronically with warehouse integration to 3rd-party warehouse systems. Transmit your orders directly to the warehouse and eliminate warehouse data entry and data entry fees. Get shipment confirmation and tracking information as it happens. And it will be instantly available to your customers and sales reps too.
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24/7 Access
One of the biggest benefits of order software is that customers and sales reps can place orders at any time, day or night, and on their smart phone, tablet or computer. The convenience of finding immediate answers to simple questions themselves and placing orders directly into the system without having to rekey the order will speed up the order process.
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Order and Shipment History
Having the ability to look at past orders and shipment history can give your sales reps a leg up. When they meet with their customers it is a great way to recommend new orders right on the spot. Customers can go ahead and reorder based on past orders with minimal work.
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Payments and Credits
Those mundane calls from customers or sales reps to your back office about customer payments or credits can be eliminated, enabling them to focus on their work. It’s all in the system.
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Track Orders
Customers and sales reps always have the latest updates to where shipments are after they’ve placed their orders. This gives customers the power to plan for their products arrival. This can really be a bonus with limited cash flows.
10. There’s a Report for That
Finding a system with excellent reporting capabilities is a must. Customizable sales reports can be helpful for the wholesaler planning their next orders, or to check on sales rep progress in the field. Reports for the customer who wants to see what is in their pipeline and for the sales rep’s performance review, there should be a report for everyone.
Implementing an order management system will save time and money by having orders delivered in real time to your QuickBooks company file and keep your online information accurate and up-to-date. Wow your customers and sales reps with tools that empower them to help themselves and streamline processes at the same time. 
