B2B Info Center

For small and medium-sized businesses, QuickBooks is the go-to accounting software. For a manufacturer, wholesaler, or distributor, QuickBooks doesn’t entirely 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, adding order management software lets you easily share information with everyone.

Here are ten tips on what to look for when choosing QuickBooks-integrated order management software. 

Navigating a complex order process is likely a familiar challenge for a manufacturer, wholesaler, or distributor. Each step can be riddled with potential obstacles, from receiving customer orders—ideally error-free—to entering them into your accounting system, dispatching them to the warehouse, and ensuring timely shipping. You can streamline these processes by leveraging order entry software, enhancing your business efficiency and growth.

One of the most important factors in the success of a wholesale business is the efficiency of the order fulfillment process. Order management software that integrates with QuickBooks can prevent mistakes and delays in your fulfillment process. Your sales reps and office team will be more productive, and your B2B customers will enjoy 24/7 online convenience that will make you their preferred supplier. 

Independent sales reps offer manufacturers and distributors an innovative pathway to boost sales, explore new markets, and swiftly connect with new customers. For small businesses, hiring full-time sales employees might be challenging, but independent reps and rep groups operate on a commission basis, making them a cost-effective solution. To empower these reps, equipping them with online rep software that seamlessly integrates with QuickBooks is essential. This software provides them with up-to-date information on products, pricing, and inventory. While sales reps can sometimes overwhelm your office staff with data entry and inquiries about order status and tracking, implementing sales rep software is a strategic way to maximize their potential and ensure smooth office operations.

A tailored online order management system for your sales reps and B2B customers offers many advantages. By enabling them to place orders and find answers around the clock, your internal team can dedicate their efforts to strategic problem-solving and business growth rather than routine order entry and customer service tasks. This B2B portal enhances customer service by providing instant access to essential information like inventory, pricing, and tracking numbers, eliminating unnecessary delays. Most of your B2B customers and reps will readily embrace this new B2B portal, streamlining their operations.

As your business grows, so do the number of orders. More orders lead to more invoices, which in turn means more forms, more data entry, and more information being transferred across departments. It's all too easy for a form or crucial piece of information to get lost in the shuffle. An online ordering system, specifically designed for wholesale and seamlessly integrating with QuickBooks, is a powerful tool to maintain efficiency and organization. It streamlines your order management process, closing any gaps where orders might slip through. With such a system in place, you'll experience enhanced accuracy in order fulfillment and improved communication between your team and your customers.

Here are four specific ways an online ordering system can help keep you organized:

An order management system that syncs with QuickBooks has many benefits for a smaller wholesale business. It allows B2B customers and outside reps to efficiently place orders and answer customer service questions so your inside staff can use their talents to grow the business instead of spending their days in QuickBooks. Your customers will benefit, too. Here are five reasons they will love an online ordering system.

In the past, buyers often found themselves at their desks, sifting through piles of paper catalogs to locate a specific product. They would painstakingly fill out order forms by hand, hoping they had noted the product number correctly, or endure long waits on the phone, accompanied by elevator music, as they held for a sales representative. Fortunately, those days are behind us. The internet has revolutionized the way we find products, allowing us to not only locate them with ease but also evaluate, check availability, and place orders with just a few clicks. If your B2B business hasn't yet provided your reps and dealers with an online sales portal, here are compelling reasons to consider doing so:

 Customer retention is an important aspect of any business, including companies that sell B2B. Acquiring a new customer may cost more than keeping an existing one. On top of that, existing customers tend to spend more than new ones do. The math is easy. If it costs less to retain a customer who will spend more, then at least some resources should be spent on improving customer loyalty. 

A comprehensive order management system improves customer satisfaction and decreases costs by increasing communication among all company departments. Whether you are a wholesaler with many different departments or where a few people wear various hats, every wholesale company can benefit from the increased communication of a well-designed order management system.