Order processing is a seemingly simple, standard business practice that wholesalers, distributors, manufacturers, and importers deal with every single day. If you’re using QuickBooks, you’ve likely learned where the issues in your process are, and you’ve also probably realized that QuickBooks alone isn’t the solution to those issues.
That’s the thing about QuickBooks — it’s not an all-in-one solution, and it wasn’t ever really meant to be. It’s accounting software that has evolved over the years. It can do a lot…
But it will not take orders for you, update inventory, or provide shipping updates. You need a system built to integrate QuickBooks into a larger order-processing solution.
If you want improved order processing, you must start with the orders themselves.
Many wholesalers, manufacturers, and distributors take orders by phone and email. While this might be fine for a smaller business with a limited clientele, it quickly becomes burdensome and risky for any B2B business with a serious client list.
The problem is simple. When an order must be transferred manually from the intake point to QuickBooks (and/or to fulfillment or to anyone else who needs it), you’re not just losing time that could be made up through automation: you’re introducing the possibility of error.
When software is integrated properly with QuickBooks to automate certain portions of order processing, the chance for error is reduced. When the manual transfer of information (even if “manual” means sending an order via email) is eliminated, that information flows from the order stage to wherever it needs to go automatically, reducing the chance of error. When you get everything connected and flowing smoothly with minimal human interference, the chance of human error is decreased naturally.
But to work properly for your customers and improve your order processing from their standpoint, you need to back all the way up to the order itself — or, instead, how you’re taking the order.
Wouldn't it be more efficient to take orders through dedicated portals connected to both QuickBooks and fulfillment?
Now that doesn’t necessarily mean your customers are locked out of traditional sales methods, but it does mean you have a single place where (ideally) the customer or sales rep can enter their orders, a place where you can enter orders as well if necessary, a place that then automatically sends that order along the pipeline and prevents the introduction of error, an all-too-common occurrence when orders are transferred manually.
A solid B2B customer portal and/or sales rep portal will make the ordering process simpler and more straightforward.
Rather than explaining all the options over the phone or emailing a list of options (along with corresponding inventory) every time a customer is ready to make a new order (a time-consuming process, especially as product availability and inventory levels shift throughout the year), a dedicated portal stays up-to-date with changes in inventory and availability.
This means your customers come to you with fewer questions and may even have no questions at all — they can simply see what’s available and make the order through their dedicated portal (customized specifically to them and their needs) without ever bothering you, and the same goes for your sales reps.
This greatly improves order processing. If your orders are coming through quickly, accurately, and without room for mistakes, the chance of a hiccup later in the process is greatly reduced.
Receiving orders is only one part of the process—now you must fulfill that order, make sure everything is tracked and accounted for, produce and distribute all the proper documents to those who need them, and keep customers and other interested parties up to date about the status of orders.
Again, automation is your friend. Most of the bottlenecks you’ve observed in your own order processing probably come from the movement of an order from one point in the supply chain to another.
If you have the proper software in place, something that integrates not only with your B2B eCommerce platform but also with QuickBooks and the various pieces of software you’re using for fulfillment, then automation becomes a simple matter.
That means documents are automatically generated, inventory levels are automatically updated, key checkpoints in an order's status are automatically updated for both you and your customer, and data flows back and forth throughout your various systems without the worry that someone added or subtracted a zero in an awkward place.
Check out Now Commerce to see just how efficient your wholesale, manufacturing, or distribution business could be. See how easily your wholesale customers and sales reps can enter orders online and how easily those orders will get pushed down the pipeline.