Company News

Deliver better financials for your wholesale and distribution business

STOCK UP ON BETTER BUSINESS INSIGHTS AND PRODUCTIVITY

Using flexible dimensions like item, location, and warehouse, Sage Intacct financials for wholesale and distribution combines wholesale ecommerce and distribution data into a complete, real-time view of your company.

Deliver better financials for your wholesale and distribution business with powerful erp software from Sage Intacct. The wholesale distribution industry is seeing a consolidation at the high-end by Amazon and large public warehouses, who have the automation and scale to dramatically undercut small to medium-sized distributors on a cost per order and cost per shipment basis. Small and medium-sized distributors must add value (e.g., kitting, light assembly) beyond basic distribution to compete, which is where Sage Intacct comes in.

Over 106 years, warehousing and logistics provider Peoples Services has thrived by making it easy for its clients to store and move products.

Yet storing, moving, and utilising financial data was a challenge for the 700-person company. Reliance on an antiquated AS/400 system made it difficult for Peoples Services to manage financial data and leverage it to support informed business decisions.

That’s all changed since the Ohio-based company upgraded from the DOS-based AS/400 to Sage Intacct. Adam Herman, the company treasurer, offers a frank analogy for the switch:

“It was like going from the Wright brothers to the Apollo program overnight,” as Herman says in our new Peoples Services Case Study.

What if you could save 20 hours per month?

Peoples Services knew it needed to modernise financial management to improve efficiency, visibility, and data accuracy. After evaluating Microsoft Dynamics GP, Peoples Services selected Sage Intacct as its ideal cloud financial management platform.

Speeding the month end close by three days

Peoples Services, a network of third-party logistics (3PL) companies with 45 warehouses, 8 million square feet of storage space, and local truck transport services across seven states, has realized remarkable efficiency gains with its move to Sage Intacct. The company has:

  • Eliminated 16 hours a month previously spent on journal entries
  • Saved another four hours a month on consolidations across 10 entities
  • Cut up to three days from month end close time
  • Trimmed eight hours in annual budgeting with custom reports exporting to Excel

 

Plus, Peoples Services no longer needs to engage its original AS/400 programmer, a retired employee now working as an independent contractor, to administer and tweak the system.

“Our AS/400 had quite a bit of custom programming added to it over the years,” Herman explained. “We had to bring in our former in-house programmer as a contractor because if we needed something specific, he was the only one who knew how to do it.”

More Informed and Engaged Management

Instead, Peoples Services is taking advantage of Sage Intacct’s ease of use to provide personalised dashboards to about 36 managers. That equips them with on-demand access to timely information that’s building a more agile and data-driven business.

“Managers have the information they need right on their dashboards,” Herman said. “They can drill down on their own instead of calling us with questions, and that makes for a more informed and engaged management team.”

And each month, accounting couldn’t post journal entries until it had closed out its subsidiary ledgers, delaying the month end. “We’re now able to spread the work out more evenly over the month, instead of having this massive crunch when we start the closing cycle,” Herman said.

Transform your wholesale and distribution tracking and delivery with ERP and accounting software

Free up resources and improve productivity 20%-35%

In wholesale distribution, you need to keep a constant eye on supply chain operations. Whether it’s optimising product inventory, streamlining purchasing, or managing multiple business locations, Sage Intacct gives you complete visibility into real-time performance, automates complex processes, and easily adapts to the unique requirements of your wholesale distribution company.

A bird’s-eye view for wholesalers – with real-time dashboards and reports

Using flexible dimensions like item, location, and warehouse, Sage Intacct combines wholesale e-commerce and distribution data into a complete, real-time view of your company. Slice and dice that view by the performance drivers that are relevant to your wholesale distribution business. See daily logistics like product shipments and customer returns. Monitor inventory velocity to identify hot-selling and slow-moving products. And get complete profitability reports on margins, shrinkage, shipping errors, and stock-outs.

Scale your distribution business with confidence

As your wholesale distribution business grows, your cloud financials can adapt and grow with you – without adding IT resources. Add and report across multiple locations, warehouses, and entities – and consolidate those financials on demand. That lets you share information across your business, while efficiently managing multiple locations, warehouses, currencies, and international operations – with no added headcount.

Streamline warehouse management

Sage Intacct cloud-based financial management adapts to your wholesale business – now and in the future – to cut order-processing costs by 20-30%. Streamline your approvals, generate stock orders, trace inventory, and more. With Sage Intacct, your distribution business gets more done, without the spreadsheet hassles and without hiring additional finance staff.

Don’t let legacy systems hold you back

How many units shipped last month? What’s your most popular item? Who’s your best customer? Which warehouse sees the most turnover?

For distributors still using disparate legacy systems like spreadsheets and homegrown databases, getting answers to these questions in an efficient and timely way can be much more difficult than if they were using ERP and accounting software. Register for our coffee break demo ad we’ll send you a little treat!

REGISTER TODAY