In today’s digital age, the importance of efficient order fulfillment cannot be overstated. 80% of customers say the delivery experience influences their future buying decisions and 75% of consumers are willing to pay more for faster shipping. These figures clearly demonstrate the critical role order fulfillment plays in customer satisfaction, brand loyalty, and ultimately, business success. 

In this article, we will delve deeper into the world of order fulfillment, exploring order fulfillment process, best practices for optimizing the process, and insights into ensuring your customers receive their orders quickly and efficiently.

What is order fulfillment?

Order fulfillment refers to the entire process of receiving, processing, and delivering customer orders for products or services. It encompasses a series of steps that take place from the moment an order is placed until the customer receives the ordered items.

The goal of order fulfillment is to efficiently and accurately meet customer demands while minimizing errors and delivering a positive customer experience.

Importance of order fulfillment

Order fulfillment process

Order fulfillment best practice 

Conclusion

Order fulfillment is a critical process that spans the entire journey from order placement to product delivery. Its significance is rooted in fostering customer satisfaction, encouraging repeat business, and building a positive brand reputation. 

Efficient order fulfillment not only contributes to reduced operating costs but also plays a key role in customer retention, market expansion, and adaptability to changing market dynamics. By automating the order fulfillment using WMS, businesses can improve inventory management, reduce errors, and optimize tracking through barcode and RFID features.

If you want to streamline overall business processes, from accounting, purchasing, sales, and many more, you can consider ERP implementation.

Learn more: What Is ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) – A Complete Guide

Glossary

The rapid development of business and technology today has pushed business owners to adapt to various new technologies that facilitate business processes, one of which is wholesale distribution software.

This software assists you as a wholesale store owner in easily managing transactions and various activities that are usually done manually. Currently, there are many wholesale distribution software providers in Indonesia.

The abundance of these providers often confuses wholesale store owners in choosing the best one for their business. Therefore, this article will guide you to learn more about wholesale distribution software, starting from its benefits to the top 8 recommendations.

What is wholesale distribution software?

wholesale distribution software is a solution in wholesale business processes that includes delivery, financial management, manufacturing, finance, and CRM, integrating them into a single software.

This enables workflow automation and faster operations. For example, you may want to set up automatic ordering from a specific vendor when the inventory level reaches a certain threshold. Centralized data from the entire organization also allows materials to be automatically ordered, reducing the manual effort required. With this automation, employees can focus on other more productive tasks.

Read more: What is a Wholesaler? Definition, Benefits, and 4 Challenges

Benefits of wholesale distribution software

The presence of wholesale distribution software is undoubtedly beneficial for business owners. All aspects related to store activities can be automated and efficient, resulting in increased profits.

In addition, wholesale distribution software has several other benefits, including:

• Facilitates inventory management: Wholesale stores often struggle with inventory tracking, especially if the store has an online channel. Therefore, using wholesale software is a suitable choice as it includes features to automate recording of incoming and outgoing stock, as well as enabling tracking of items during the shipping process.
• Streamlines product promotion: wholesale distribution software helps gather detailed information about customers, such as their preferred products. With this data, you can easily provide recommendations to customers and prepare better marketing strategies.
• Automates report generation: Sales reports are crucial for any business as they provide valuable insights into business data. With wholesale distribution software, you can automatically generate these reports and access them through a centralized dashboard, without the need to visit the store directly.

Overall, wholesale distribution software enhances the efficiency and productivity of business operations, enabling business owners to focus on growth and providing better service to customers.

8 best wholesale distribution software

Currently, there are many options for wholesale distribution software that you can choose from. To help you choose the right wholesale distribution software, here are 8 recommended wholesale distribution software options:

1. Impact Wholesale Distribution

Impact is an all-in-one platform used by businesses to optimize processes. Impact Wholesale Distribution is a solution for streamlining wholesale store management. This software allows you to track inventory movement, view the profitability of each product, and manage customer satisfaction.

It is also integrated with Tokopedia and Shopee, making the demand fulfillment process seamless. Additionally, it offers various helpful features and integration with other modules such as accounting, CRM, and inventory management.

Features:

• Multichannel order management: Purchasing and order fulfillment can be done through a single dashboard integrated with Tokopedia and Shopee marketplaces.
• On-time delivery: Transparent ordering and shipping processes enable easy tracking and ensure timely delivery.
• Warehouse management: Easily track inventory movement using barcodes and simplify inventory ordering. You can also estimate the amount of inventory needed for operations.
• Real-time reports: Get real-time reports on your entire business process to improve decision-making quality and enhance sales team performance.

Pricing:

• Basic: Rp4 million/month
• Standard: Rp6 million/month
• Custom: Contact a consultant via WhatsApp

2. QuickBooks Commerce

QuickBooks Commerce is a wholesale distribution erp software suitable for small and medium-sized wholesale and e-commerce companies in various industries.

QuickBooks Commerce combines manufacturing workflows, sales, order management, CRM, and distribution. It also automates order routing and can be integrated with EDI software through the B2B E-Commerce portal.

Features:

• Batch and expiry tracking: Allows tracking of product expiration and order fulfillment. The system includes a Stocktake tool for adjusting and transferring stock.
• Order fulfillment: QuickBooks Commerce offers fast order fulfillment through item action workflows. It can integrate with ShipStation and other third-party add-ons to provide shipping and return specifications to 3PL.
• Customer relationship management: The CRM tool in QuickBooks Commerce can automate discount processes by collecting customer information such as mailing addresses, billing details, average purchase types, and purchase sizes.
• Multi-channel inventory management: You can manage orders from all sales channels in one centralized location using this system.

Pricing:

Pricing varies based on the selected package, which includes Founder, Lite, Small Business, and Business, starting at $39/month/user.

3. NetSuite Wholesale Distribution

NetSuite Wholesale Distribution is wholesale distribution software that centralizes various operations to automate and streamline essential business processes. Businesses of different sizes and industries, such as energy, finance, advertising, hospitality, manufacturing, retail, logistics, and transportation, use this system.

Features:

• Order management: NetSuite controls the process from sales quote entry to order fulfillment.
• Workflow: The program has prebuilt omnichannel engagement functionality and includes configured financial management applications with marketing support.
• Warehouse management: Multi-warehouse support is available through this tool. It can optimize, store, allocate, and configure inventory through features like barcode labeling, warehouse activity dashboards, expiry tracking, and shelf-life tracking.
• Customization and visibility: Organizations can view customer-related information, products, orders, and inventory in one centralized place with NetSuite.

Pricing:

• NetSuite Mid-market edition: $2,499/month
• NetSuite Inventory Management Cloud Services: $599/month
• NetSuite Demand Planning Cloud Services: $599/month
• NetSuite WMS Cloud Service: $999/month
• NetSuite Full Access Users: $99/month/user

4. SYSPRO

SYSPRO ERP is wholesale distribution software solutions suitable for large companies with distribution or manufacturing operations. The solution is modular and can be customized to meet the organization’s needs.

Useful modules for wholesale stores include invoice and warehouse management. The system also includes secure electronic data interchange, paperless invoice delivery, and 24/7 automatic ordering.

Features:

• Lot Traceability and Serial Tracking: This tool allows you to trace products from their origin to the final destination and analyze sources of defects.
• Order Management: SYSPRO ERP facilitates collaboration with suppliers and customers for the entire ordering and delivery process.
• Lean Inventory Management: SYSPRO ERP automatically monitors KPIs and provides a balance between inventory investment and service levels.
• Cost Tracking: This feature identifies and tracks cost elements of products, including backorders and order policies.
• Product Information: SYSPRO ERP offers an integrated environment for managing large inventories and assists with warehouse replenishment and order fulfillment.

Pricing:

The cost of SYSPRO ERP starts at $199 per user per month. The more additional modules, the higher the cost will be.

5. Acumatica

Acumatica is a wholesale retail software that centralizes essential business functions such as finance, distribution, field service, manufacturing, and CRM. The program is available for both on-site and cloud-based implementations, making it a versatile choice for various companies, especially small and medium-sized ones. Industries served include manufacturing, technology, software, services, e-commerce, retail, and distribution. Personalized expert support and training opportunities are also available for customers.

Features:

• Requisition Management: Helps organize complex distribution by obtaining quotes, gathering requests, managing purchases, and fulfilling orders.
• Inventory Management: Allows users to view real-time inventory information, supports multiple warehouses, and includes expiration date tracking.
• Purchase and Sales Order Management: Provides online sourcing and manages purchase orders from multiple locations, coordinates sales processes, and provides real-time customer service data.
• Acumatica Accounting Suite: Integrated with distribution management, customer management, manufacturing, project management, and field service products.

Pricing:

Pricing is not displayed on the website. You can find out the pricing by entering your business requirements and scale on the Acumatica website.

6. Square Register

Square Register is a wholesale distribution application that facilitates payment transactions through Android and iOS devices anytime, anywhere. In addition, Square Register offers a variety of features to meet your business needs.

Features:

• Real-time sales
• Easy management of inventory and convenient transaction processes
• Detailed business analysis
• Secure digital receipt storage
• Provides comprehensive sales reports

Pricing:

$39/month or $799/year

7. Jubelio

Jubelio is wholesale distribution software that can streamline wholesale store operations by connecting to all your sales channels. Jubelio POS allows you to manage all stores through a single dashboard equipped with various features.

Features:

• Promotion management
• Inventory management
• Report management
• Outlet management that facilitates branch store management

Pricing:

• Basic: Rp350/order with a minimum purchase of 5,000 orders
• Professional: Rp250/order with a minimum purchase of 60,000 orders
• Enterprise: Rp150/order with a minimum purchase of 300,000 orders

Read more: What is a supplier? Their role & 6 criteria to look out for

8. Oktopus Solution

Oktopus Solution is another wholesale software that you can consider. This software offers a variety of features to enhance business efficiency, including fast payment transactions and easy inventory management. The store application can be used for various types of stores such as computer stores, electronics stores, pharmacies, and more.

Features:

• Direct access to sales reports
• Product display features that facilitate showcasing products in your store
• Streamlines order tracking and delivery processes
• Membership and reward programs for customers

Pricing:

Not mentioned on the website.

Conclusion

These are just a few recommendations for the best wholesale distribution software available. It’s important to assess your specific business needs and evaluate the features, pricing, and compatibility of each software before making a decision.

You can choose the one that suits your needs. You can also try the free demo of the best wholesale distribution software, Impact, to find out the benefits you will gain.

Accounting software is an application that is designed to handle and keep track of an organization’s day-to-day financial transactions, such as managing fixed assets, controlling costs, managing revenue, overseeing accounts receivable and accounts payable, producing reports, and conducting analyses.

Currently, accounting software is widely used in businesses ranging from small to large scale. However, small businesses often encounter obstacles in the form of high accounting software prices, resulting in financial management processes being done manually.

Intuit’s report revealed that accounting software is regarded as a crucial element by 89% of small businesses, with 63% reporting that it has boosted productivity and saved them time. However, the question is where to start and how to identify the necessary features to look for.

Therefore, we recommend 9 best accounting software small business and medium business owners:

9 Best Accounting Software Small Business in 2023

Here the list of 9 best accounting software small business recommendation in 2023:

1. Impact Accounting

Impact Accounting is regarded as one of the best accounting software for small businesses located in Indonesia. This accounting software offers various features that can boost your productivity and efficiency in manage financial, include:

1. Automation of business processes from sales journaling, invoicing, purchasing, inventory, payroll, and bank reconciliation
2. Easy and automatic budgeting, taxes, and eFaktur (PPh 21, 22, 23, 25, PPN, etc.)
3. Real-time financial reporting

Impact Accounting is also integrated with other software, such as:

• Inventory software (to ensure availability and optimize warehouse processes)
• Purchase software (to purchase the right items at the right time)
• Sales software (to manage sales orders and ensure timely payments)

Pricing:

By subscribing to ERP Impact, you can obtain this software at a starting price of Rp99 million. Additionally, you have the option to request the addition of modules, with prices starting from Rp250.000.

Read more: What is ERP?

2. FreshBooks

To ensure efficiency in the accounting software, make sure to consider your business needs, especially those related to taxes. Ensure that the software you select complies with applicable laws and can integrate with other software needed by your business.

One of the best options to meet all of these requirements is FreshBooks. FreshBooks offers various packages with rich features and a user-friendly interface. The basic FreshBooks Lite package is very affordable with:

• Unlimited invoices
• Expense entries
• Time tracking
• Estimates.

But it is limited to only five clients. You can upgrade this small business accounting software to the Plus or Premium package to add more features and increase the number of clients.

Pricing:

• Lite: $8.50/month
• Plus: $15.00/month
• Premium: $27.50/month
• Select: Custom pricing

3. QuickBooks

QuickBooks is a leading small business accounting software in the world with over 4.5 million businesses relying on its services. QuickBooks offers features at an extremely affordable and transparent price. All QuickBooks packages come with exceptional support, an easy-to-use mobile application, and more than 700 app integrations.

QuickBooks also offers a special package for new entrepreneurs who are starting their businesses, namely Simple Start. This package comes with simple yet essential functions such as:

• Income tax estimation
• Phone support, and
• Payment invoicing.

The Essentials package adds multi-currency support, bill and payment management, and increases the limit to three users.

Pricing:

• Simple start: $17/month
• Essentials: $26/month
• Plus: $36/month

4. ZohoBooks

Zoho Books is known as one of the simple and user-friendly small business accounting software that is also very helpful. This accounting software for small businesses has several features, include:

• Control and manage multiple projects
• Assign specific tasks to employees, and
• Manage expenses for various projects.

Zoho Books also offers a high-quality free package that is suitable for small business accounting, although the paid packages are also very beneficial. The free package is only suitable for small businesses as it doesn’t offer important features such as bank feeds and email support.

Zoho Standard allows up to three users to easily track, reconcile, and budget, and manage up to 5,000 invoices. Zoho Professional adds billing, multi-currency handling, reporting tags, purchase approvals, and up to 10 workflow rules.

Pricing:

• Standard: $10/month
• Professional: $20/month
• Premium: $30/month
• Elite: $100/month
• Ultimate: $200/month

5. Xero

Accounting should make your financial records visually appealing, easy to read, and accessible. Therefore, Xero is the right choice for stylish and streamlined accounting software for small-scale sole traders, with impressive features, including the ability to easily integrate with merchant account services, which is especially suitable for small-scale sole traders who need to reduce VAT.

However, although Xero offers 24/7 support, it does not have a phone support number or live chat option, and responding to messages may take an unknown amount of time.

The Basic or starter package offers great features such as:

• Invoicing and quoting
• Billing
• Bank transaction reconciliation, and
• VAT returns to HMRC.

However, this package comes with some strict usage limitations, where users can only send 20 invoices and quotes and enter five bills per month.

Pricing:

• Starter: $25/month
• Standard: $40/month
• Premium: $54/month

6. CloudBooks

You can test and evaluate Cloudbooks for free before making a final decision to use the accounting application. Cloudbooks offers ease in creating your financial reports, starting from creating projects, invoices, to tracking expenses. The invoicing feature in the paid version of Cloudbooks will be very helpful for small and medium-sized businesses, as it will simplify the billing process and help manage business finances more efficiently.

By using the invoicing feature on Cloudbooks, you can:

• Easily organize and send invoices to your customers
• Speeding up the payment process
• Optimize your business financial reports
• Help you to make better decisions based on accurate and up-to-date financial data.

Pricing:

• Team plan: $9.99/month
• Agency plan: $19.99/month
• Lifetime plan: $999/month

Read more: 15 Best Accounting Software to Boost Your Business Efficiency

7. Accurate

Accurate Lite is one of the accounting software solutions that is very helpful in managing financial reports. Many small business owners have chosen Accurate Lite as their digital platform for managing their business accounting. This application is very convenient and easy to use, and can be accessed anytime and anywhere.

By using Accurate Lite, you can enjoy various features:

• Easily manage projects, invoices, and expenses.
• a very high level of accuracy when creating financial reports,
• Integration with various services and platforms,
• Integration with online payment services and the option to import and export data easily.

Pricing:

Rp277.500/month and Rp2.664.000/year

8. Book Keeper Accounting

Book Keeper Accounting is one of the accounting software for small business that can assist users in creating business financial reports easily, from bookkeeping to managing individual inventory. With its user-friendly interface, this accounting application is very suitable for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs who want to start managing their finances more effectively and efficiently.

In addition to its ease of use, Book Keeper Accounting also offers an affordable price for users who want to access all the available features. By subscribing, users can enjoy various features such as sales report creation, payment receipt management, and more.

Pricing:

• Pay-As-You-Go: $125/hour for support
• Monthly: $399/month
• Weekly: $549/month

9. Jurnal

Jurnal offers a cloud-based platform as its main advantage. Cloud enables you to access financial reports easily from anywhere and anytime. Not only suitable for small and medium-sized businesses, but also suitable for large-scale businesses.

Jurnal by Mekari is also equipped with additional useful features, such as:

• Financial recording,
• Invoice creation,
• Cost tracking,
• Asset management,
• Expenses, and
• Inventory of goods or services.

Pricing:

• Pro: Rp449,000/month
• Enterprise: Rp809,000/month
• Enterprise+: Rp1,169,000/month

Kesimpulan

When you are searching for the best accounting software for your business, it is essential to look for specific key features such as ease of use, and integration capabilities with other software. If the features and price are suitable for your small business, then you can implement it effectively.

One of best accounting software for small business is Impact accounting, which offers various business automations and integrations with other software to help maximize profits.

Are you a business owner looking to streamline your business processes? If so, implementing ERP is the right choice!

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is an integrated software intended to automate company business processes and help you see your business more broadly. In its implementation, you certainly want to gain profit (Return on Investment) from ERP implementation (ERP ROI).

Therefore, here is further explanation regarding ERP ROI, ERP ROI analysis, ERP ROI calculation, and tips to increase its profitability.

What is ERP ROI?

ROI or Return On Investment is a ratio used to measure the effectiveness of an investment. ROI is calculated by comparing the net profit earned with the amount of money invested. Investors usually use ROI to determine their next business strategy and develop new businesses.

Meanwhile, ERP ROI is the profit ratio given by ERP investment (expressed as a dollar value) against the total cost of ownership (TCO) or investment. ROI in ERP is expressed as a percentage.

Read also: What is ERP?

Benefits of implementing ERP

Before calculating the ERP ROI, it is important to establish the reasons why your business is investing in ERP and what is expected to be achieved. Here are some benefits of the ERP system that can bring advantages to your business.

Tangible benefits can be easily measured. Some tangible benefits of ERP implementation are optimized inventory levels, reduced purchasing costs, and minimized days outstanding in accounts receivable.

In addition to tangible benefits, there are also intangible benefits that are difficult to measure such as business process efficiency and automation, reduced errors, improved customer service, faster and more accurate accounting practices, and better information and reporting. Both affect your ERP ROI in several ways and should be calculated when measuring the success of ERP implementation.

Calculating ERP ROI

ERP implementation has two main phases: initial installation and sustained use by employees to optimize the new technology. In the initial installation phase, companies often rely on ERP vendors to assist with implementation, which requires a lot of costs. In addition, this process also includes data migration from the previous system to the new ERP.

The second phase is sustained use supported by employee training and ease of use to maximize the ERP ROI. Many successful implementations focus on initial employee training to learn the ins and outs of their new system. The costs incurred in both phases become components that can be used for ERP ROI analysis.

Here is a formula for basic ERP ROI calculation:

ROI = (total investment value – total investment cost) / total investment cost x 100%

When calculating investment costs, there are several aspects that must be considered, namely license costs (on-premise ERP), subscription costs (ERP cloud), consulting costs, implementation costs, and hardware costs.

Tips for increasing ERP implementation profits

To maximize the ERP ROI, there are several tips you can apply as follows:

1. Prioritize training

To make the new ERP system profitable, employees must adopt new work processes and utilize software to the fullest. Employee training will increase the initial cost of implementing the new ERP system, but this investment will provide quick and long-term results by increasing ROI.

Employees who are not trained and encouraged to use the new ERP system tend to continue to use spreadsheets and manual processes, reducing the impact of this investment.

2. Do continuous evaluation

In order to maximize ERP ROI, it is important to continually evaluate and refine the approach being used. Business leaders are advised to evaluate the costs and returns on investment of ERP solutions at least once a year, compare it with baseline figures, and consider new ways to reduce costs and extract value from the system and data it provides.

Cloud-based ERPs like Impact allow businesses to set department and company-wide KPIs and track them closely to ensure they continue to improve their business performance.

3. Get support from top management

The success or failure of ERP implementation depends on the company’s vision and commitment to using the new solution. Every executive, department head, and manager should support and understand the important role of ERP in driving growth and success. This is the key to transformation and bringing employees together on the journey.

4. Be realistic about costs and benefits

Estimating the cost of implementing new technology is quite difficult, especially for small or medium-sized companies that are transitioning to more advanced ways of working. Many businesses seek help from ERP vendors or their implementation partners for guidance on timing, costs, and how to train employees effectively and efficiently.

It is also important to accurately measure the benefits of the new ERP to get a complete picture of ERP ROI, including tangible and intangible benefits.

5. Avoid common ERP implementation mistakes

Some common mistakes often hinder businesses from realizing the full potential of ERP systems. The most common mistake is treating ERP implementation like traditional technology implementation, with a single upfront cost and a short return on investment period. However, in reality, most successful ERP implementations are done gradually over time, with ERP ROI calculated at each milestone achievement.

Read also: Role of ERP in Digital Transformation

Conclusion

ERP is a solution for automating business processes to be more efficient and effective. ERP implementation is now widely used in various fields of business, ranging from manufacturing, retail, to food and beverage. However, in its implementation, ERP implementation often does not have a positive impact on the company’s ROI and tends to hinder it.

Therefore, special strategies are needed to increase ERP ROI and provide maximum benefits. To maximize ERP ROI, you can use Impact ERP, which provides free consultations with experts and integrates the entire company system to provide maximum benefits.