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Wholesale and distribution

Stock, purchasing and quotes that run on one set of numbers

A distributor moves stock, purchasing and sales into one ERP, connects the B2B portal to it, and gets quotes drafted from live prices and stock.

Building-materials distributor, 25 people

Stock on hand

  • TThermal insulation board 10 cmMain warehouse · reorder point set420
  • FFacade adhesive 25 kgMain warehouse · purchase order open86
  • RRoof membrane rollSecond warehouse34
  • CCorner profile 2.5 mBelow reorder point12
Tools we typically use
Odoo or a custom ERP, PostgreSQL, n8n, Pipedrive or HubSpot, WooCommerce, Claude or GPT models, Your accounting software

The build at a glance

4systems connected
1source for prices and stock
5manual hand-offs removed
1approval step before a quote is sent

The sector

A distributor earns on availability and speed: the customer wants to know today whether the goods are in stock, at what price and when they can be delivered.

The answer depends on data that sits in several places, such as the warehouse records, supplier price lists, open purchase orders and customer-specific terms. Most of the working day in sales and purchasing goes on checking those places against each other. The larger the range, the more often they disagree.

Where the time goes

Stock was kept in one program, purchasing in spreadsheets and customer terms in the heads of the salespeople. A quote meant phoning the warehouse, opening the supplier price list and typing everything into a document. The B2B portal showed stock from the night before, so customers ordered goods that were already sold. Purchasing found out about a shortage when a customer complained. Nobody trusted any single number without checking it somewhere else.

  • Stock levels differ between the warehouse, the portal and the sales spreadsheet

  • Quotes are typed by hand from several sources

  • Purchasing reacts to shortages instead of seeing them coming

  • Customer-specific prices live in individual inboxes

One system around how the work is done

Enquiry to quote

  1. EmailEnquiry receivedSales inbox or website form
  2. AIItems and quantities readUnclear lines are flagged
  3. ERPStock and customer price looked up
  4. CRMOpportunity opened and assigned
  5. QuoteDraft ready for the salesperson

Nothing is sent until a salesperson approves it

  1. 01

    One ERP for stock, purchasing and sales, set up in Odoo or built to measure, depending on how far the process departs from the standard

  2. 02

    Items, customers, suppliers and price lists cleaned and migrated, with duplicates merged before the move

  3. 03

    Reorder points per item, so a purchase order is proposed when stock falls below them and a buyer confirms it

  4. 04

    Enquiries from the website and the sales inbox captured as opportunities, with a quote drafted from live prices and stock

  5. 05

    The B2B portal reads stock and customer prices from the ERP and writes orders back into it

  6. 06

    Invoices handed over to your accounting software without retyping

How the project runs

Four steps, one process at a time

  1. 01

    Map the process

    We follow one order from enquiry to invoice and one item from purchase to delivery, and write down every place the same data is entered.

  2. 02

    Pilot one process

    Stock and purchasing go live first, for one warehouse, with the old records kept in parallel until the numbers match.

  3. 03

    Extend

    Sales, quoting and the B2B portal are connected next, then the handover to accounting.

  4. 04

    Care

    We monitor the integrations, adjust reorder rules as seasons change and add reports as questions come up.

What changes for the team

  • Prices in a quote come from the same record that is invoiced later
  • Purchase proposals arrive on their own and a buyer decides
  • Portal orders appear in the ERP without anyone copying them
  • The owner reads stock value and open orders from one screen

Sales, purchasing and the warehouse look at the same stock figure, and the portal shows what is really on the shelf. A salesperson opens a prepared quote and checks it instead of assembling it. Purchasing sees what is running low before a customer does.

A composite scenario based on typical projects in this sector. It does not describe a named client, and the sample data is illustrative.

The same working day, before and after

What a few ordinary moments look like once the system is in daily use.

BeforeAfter
A customer asks for a quoteA salesperson phones the warehouse, opens the supplier price list and types the quote into a document.A draft with live stock and the customer’s own prices is waiting, and the salesperson checks and sends it.
Stock runs lowPurchasing hears about it when an order cannot be delivered.A purchase order is proposed when the item falls below its reorder point, and a buyer confirms it.
An order arrives through the B2B portalSomeone retypes it into the stock program the next morning.The order is in the ERP at once and reserves the stock.
Goods arrive from a supplierThe delivery note is checked against a printed order and stock is corrected later.The receipt is booked against the purchase order and the portal shows the new quantity.
Month endThe owner asks three people for figures and compares spreadsheets.Stock value, open orders and sales are read from one screen.

Questions from this sector

Does this replace our accounting software?

As a rule, no. Bookkeeping, tax reporting and fiscalisation stay in the accounting software you and your accountant already use, and the ERP hands invoice data over to it. We only look at changing that if you ask.

Odoo or a custom ERP: how do you decide?

We map how you buy, store and sell first. If a standard system covers it well, Odoo is quicker to adopt. If your pricing rules or the way you handle stock are unusual, we build only the modules you need.

What happens to our existing items, customers and price lists?

We clean and migrate them: duplicates are merged, units and codes are aligned, and you check a sample before the move. The old records stay available in parallel until the numbers match.

Can a quote go out without anyone looking at it?

No. The draft is prepared from live prices and stock, and a salesperson approves it before it is sent. The same goes for purchase orders: the system proposes, a buyer decides.

Do we have to switch everything at once?

No. Stock and purchasing usually go first, for one warehouse. Sales, quoting and the portal follow once the team trusts the stock figure.

Use cases in this story

Business automationCRM implementation

Every enquiry in the CRM, without retyping

Enquiries from forms, email and chat become contacts and deals in your CRM, with the right person notified.

Open use case Business automationCRM implementation

Quotes drafted from your price list

A quote is drafted from the deal, your price list and current stock, and waits for a salesperson to approve it.

Open use case ERP and business systemsBusiness automation

One stock figure in every system

Stock levels kept in step between the warehouse, the ERP and every sales channel.

Open use case

More sector stories

Accounting and bookkeepingClient documents collected, read and ready for the bookkeeperAn accounting office gets one place where clients hand in documents, an AI step that reads them, and a bookkeeper who confirms before anything is posted.Accounting office, 10 peopleRead the story E-commerce and retailFrom paid order to shipped parcel without copying dataAn online store connects the webshop, the warehouse, the courier and support, so an order moves on its own and customers can check its status themselves.Online store with its own warehouse, 15 peopleRead the story Hospitality and tourismEvery guest enquiry answered, in the guest’s own languageA holiday rental agency brings enquiries from every channel into one CRM, gets replies drafted in the guest’s language for staff to approve, and turns bookings into tasks for cleaning and maintenance.Holiday rental agency on the Adriatic, 12 peopleRead the story

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