A landed cost you can defend when you set trade prices
Bulk in, bulk out, with freight and duty spread across the units that carried them, and customer accounts that carry terms and a credit limit rather than a hope.
Purchase orders
24 open · ₦48,120,000 committed
| Reference | Supplier | Status | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
PO-1042 Jul 22 | Acme Supply | Pending | ₦12,400,000 |
PO-1041 Jul 21 | Nord Textiles | Confirmed | ₦8,750,000 |
PO-1039 Jul 20 | BrightPack | Received | ₦3,120,000 |
PO-1036 Jul 18 | Cedar Goods | Received | ₦23,850,000 |
PO-1034 Jul 17 | Loom & Co | Draft | ₦1,540,000 |
What the week actually looks like
None of this is a software problem yet. It is the shape of the trade, and it is what the setup below is built around.
01
The cost on the invoice is not the cost
Freight, duty, clearing and handling all landed somewhere. If they are not on the unit, every trade price you quote is guessing in the same direction.
02
Deliveries arrive in pieces
Half a container now, the rest in three weeks. A system that can only receive an order in full turns that into a fiction on both dates.
03
Credit is managed by memory
Everybody knows which customers are good for it, until the person who knew is on leave and somebody releases another pallet.
How it runs instead
Four steps, in the order this trade meets them. Everything else is a keystroke away, not a module you buy.
- 01
Raise against real terms
Suppliers carry the terms they actually give you and the lead time they actually deliver on, and the order is raised against both.
- 02
Receive what turned up
Take in what arrived and leave the rest outstanding on the same order. Nothing is closed early and nothing disappears.
- 03
Spread the cost that came with it
Freight, duty, insurance and handling are allocated across the lines by value, so the unit cost is what the unit actually cost you.
- 04
Sell on account
Customer accounts hold terms and a credit limit, invoices track what is owed and what is overdue, and the receivable is a number rather than a feeling.
The screens you open on
Bulk in, bulk out, and a landed cost you can actually defend when you set trade prices.
- Purchase Orders
- Suppliers
- Transfers
Set at signup and changed whenever you like. It decides what you land on, not what you can reach.
- Partial receiving across staggered deliveries
- Freight and duty spread over the units that carried it
- Customer accounts with terms and credit limits
What wholesale & distribution usually switch on
Settings, not plans or add-ons. Turn any of them on later, or never.
- Lot numbers and expiry dates
- Received against a batch, watched by the day, and written off with a reason when they turn.
- A sell unit that isn't the stock unit
- Buy the bottle, sell the pour: sixteen to a bottle, priced per pour and counted per bottle.
Where you trade
Clearing costs are the whole argument
For anyone importing into Lagos, Tema or Mombasa, the gap between the supplier's invoice and the cost on the shelf is where the margin actually lives, and it lands weeks after the goods do. Additional costs are allocated to the lines that carried them and the margin is recalculated, so the trade price you set in month two is based on what month one really cost.
3 depots
one set of numbers
“My buyers kept their own spreadsheets because they didn't trust ours. They've deleted them.”
James Cole · Director, Cole & Sons
Questions from wholesale & distribution
Can I price differently per customer?
On the order, yes. The unit price on a line is yours to set, so a trade order goes out at trade terms. What does not exist yet is a stored price list per account that fills itself in, so today somebody types the agreed rate. Accounts do carry their own payment terms and credit limit.
How is cost calculated?
Weighted average, moved by every receipt at what that receipt actually cost including the additional costs allocated to it.
Do you handle part-payment?
Yes. An invoice can take more than one payment and shows what is still outstanding, which is how most trade here settles.
Most of you are two of these at once
A hotel is a bar, a kitchen and a shop. You never pick one and lose the rest.