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Choosing an ERP for a distribution company: 12 questions to ask

For owners and managers of distribution companies comparing ERP systems. You will leave with twelve questions to put to every vendor, a way to test the answers in a demo, and a way to compare what each system really costs.

Choosing a system4 min read

The short answer

Ask every vendor the same twelve questions about your ordinary day: offline van sales, server-enforced credit and discounts, lots and expiry, units, counts, posting, period close, e-invoicing, several companies, roles and what is not built yet. Have each answer shown on screen with your own data, not described. Then run a week of real transactions in a test account and compare the full first-year cost.

Key takeaways

  • Before any demo, write down your ten most common transactions and your five worst recent problems.
  • Send the questions ahead, so the demo shows answers instead of the standard tour.
  • Ask to see offline selling with the rep’s phone in flight mode, and what happens when the signal returns.
  • Get the list of what the system does not do today in writing, including how data gets in and out.
  • Compare first-year cost, not monthly price: licences are often the smaller part beside setup, migration, training and printers.

Start from your day, not the feature list

Feature lists all look the same. What separates systems is how they handle your ordinary day: a rep without signal, a customer over their limit, a short-dated lot, a month that will not balance. Write down your ten most common transactions and your five worst recent problems before you see a single demo.

Then ask every vendor the same questions, in the same order, and have them show each answer on screen with your data rather than describe it. The twelve questions below are a starting point; add your own.

TipSend the questions to vendors before the demo, so the time is spent showing answers rather than giving the standard tour.

Questions 1 to 3: the field

For a distributor, the van and the rep’s phone are where most errors start. These questions test whether the field and the office run on one set of rules.

  • Can a rep sell, invoice and collect with no signal, and what happens to those documents when the signal returns? Ask to see it with the phone in flight mode.
  • Is each van its own stock location, and is the day closed with a count of stock and cash that the office approves?
  • Are credit limits, discount ceilings and the rep’s catalogue enforced by the server, so the rep app cannot get round them?

Questions 4 to 6: stock

Stock is where distributors lose money quietly. These questions show whether the system tracks stock the way your warehouse actually holds it.

  • Does it track lots and expiry dates, and pick soonest expiry first by default when no lot is named?
  • Can each item be bought, stored, sold and counted in different units, such as cartons and pieces, with the conversion kept per item?
  • Can you count one bin at a time while the warehouse keeps working, with an approval before the difference posts?

Questions 7 to 9: money

An ERP earns its name when operations and the books are one record. If anyone has to re-key the day into accounting, you have two systems, not one.

  • Does every invoice, payment and stock movement post its own journal, and can you click from a journal to the document behind it and back?
  • Once a month is closed, is it closed against every channel, including the till and the vans, and can it be locked for good?
  • Is e-invoicing built and in use for your country, from every channel you invoice through, including invoices made offline?

Questions 10 to 12: the company and control

These questions decide whether the system fits the company you will be in three years, not only the one you are today.

  • Can you run several companies under one account, each with its own currency, fiscal year and document numbers, and report on them together?
  • Who can do what? Ask how roles are set, whether the server refuses what a screen hides, and what the audit trail records.
  • What does the system not do today? Ask for the list in writing, and ask how your data gets in and out: imports, exports and links to other systems.

Test the answers and count the full cost

A yes in a meeting is not an answer. Ask for a test account with your own items, customers and prices, and run a week of real transactions through it, including the awkward ones: a return, a credit hold, a short count, a closed month.

Then compare the cost of the first year, not the monthly price. Licences are often the smaller part; setup, data migration, training and printers add up.

Finally, speak to two customers of each vendor who run a business like yours, and ask what took longer than promised.

TipAsk each vendor to price the same scope in writing, so you compare like with like.

Checklist: ERP selection checklist

  • Write down your ten most common transactions
  • List your five worst recent problems
  • Send the same questions to every vendor
  • Have every answer shown on screen, not described
  • Test offline van sales in flight mode
  • Run a week of real transactions in a test account
  • Get the list of what is not built yet in writing
  • Compare the full first-year cost
  • Call two customers of each vendor

In Axon Suite

How Axon Suite handles it

In Axon Suite the rep app sells, invoices and collects offline and syncs when the signal returns, each van is its own stock location whose day closes with a count of stock and cash the office approves, credit limits are checked on the server in the office and the rep app alike, lots carry expiry dates and leave soonest expiry first, and every invoice, payment and stock movement posts its own journal into periods that, once closed, refuse postings from every channel. Each subsidiary keeps its own currency, fiscal year and numbering, each user holds one role whose levels the server enforces, and e-invoicing is built for Saudi Arabia and Jordan, with other countries listed only once their filing is built. Not there yet: consolidation across companies, bank statement import, reorder suggestions, single sign-on, more than one role per user, and ready-made connectors to other systems.

Feature

Selling from the van with no signal

Check-ins, orders, invoices, payments and returns are saved on the phone when there is no signal, then sent once it returns. Each one keeps the day of the sale and is sent only once, however often it has to retry.

Open: Selling from the van with no signal
Feature

Every journal names its source

Every automatic journal names the document that posted it, and every invoice, bill and credit note lists the stock movement and journals it raised. One click takes you from one to the other.

Open: Every journal names its source
Feature

Roles that decide who does what

Every user holds one role, and every role holds a level per area: View, Create, Edit, Full or Approve. Without the level, the screen turns read-only and the server refuses the change all the same.

Open: Roles that decide who does what
Feature

Several companies, one account

Add every subsidiary with its own currency, country, fiscal year, time zone and document numbers. A user works in one subsidiary, or across the whole account with a switcher in the top bar.

Open: Several companies, one account
Feature

File imports that land whole

Bring in customers, vendors, items, the chart of accounts and journals from a CSV file. Every row passes the same checks as one typed on screen, and one bad row means nothing is saved.

Open: File imports that land whole

Before you go

Questions owners ask

How long does an ERP implementation take for a distributor?

It depends on the number of companies, warehouses and vans, and above all on how clean your data is. Ask each vendor for a dated plan with named steps, and treat a promise with no plan as no promise.

Should we choose the system that does the most?

Choose the one that handles your daily work well and is honest about its gaps. Features you will not use still cost money to set up and slow staff down.

Can we bring our existing data across?

Usually masters and opening balances, yes; full transaction history is rarely worth the effort. In Axon Suite customers, vendors, items, the chart of accounts and journals import from CSV, and a file imports whole or not at all, with every refused row listed.

Glossary

Terms in this guide

Open the glossary

Keep reading

Your next guides

  1. How to start van sales: vans, routes, stock and cashVan sales and routes · 5 min read
  2. Month-end close for a distributor, step by stepBooks and month-end · 4 min read
  3. Getting ready for e-invoicing: what a distributor needs in placeE-invoicing · 4 min read

See your own van sale reach the ledger in 30 minutes.

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