FMCG distribution software for the route, not the office
An FMCG distributor’s day happens in a van. Orders, deliveries, returns and collections all occur at a counter twenty kilometres from the office, and anything typed up in the evening is already a day out of date and an argument waiting to happen.
| Loaded | Sold | Returned | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cases | 184 | 162 | 22 |
| Value | 2,46,800.00 | 2,18,400.00 | 28,400.00 |
| Collected | — | 1,86,200.00 | — |
What FMCG distributors use it for
Van as a warehouse
Stock loaded onto a van is still your stock, in its own location, reconciled at the end of the route against what sold and what came back.
Route-wise everything
Orders, sales, collections and outlet coverage per route and per day, so a weak route is visible in a week rather than a quarter.
Schemes and free quantities
Buy-ten-get-one and slab discounts applied at the point of order, with the free quantity issuing from stock and costed properly.
Collections at the counter
Money taken at the outlet settles against that outlet’s open invoices immediately, so the ageing is right that evening.
Near-expiry on the route
Short-dated stock flagged before it is loaded, not after it comes back as a return.
Outlet coverage
Which outlets were visited, which were skipped, and which have not ordered in three weeks.
How an FMCG distributor sets it up
- Define routes and outlets. With each outlet’s location, so a check-in can be geofenced against the counter it claims to be at.
- Make each van a warehouse. Load it in the morning as a stock transfer, settle it in the evening.
- Put the salesmen on the app. Orders, free quantities, returns and collections at the counter, against live stock and live balances.
- Settle the route. Loaded against sold against returned against collected. Any gap is a conversation on the day.
FMCG questions
Can I run van sales with stock on each vehicle?
Yes. Each van is a warehouse: stock is transferred to it in the morning and settled in the evening against what was sold, what came back and what was collected, so shortages surface on the day rather than at month end.
Does tBiz handle schemes and free quantities?
Buy-x-get-y and slab discounts are applied when the order is taken, and the free quantity issues from stock and carries its cost — so the margin on a scheme is the real margin.
Can I see which outlets were not visited?
Yes — outlet coverage per route per day, including the ones skipped and the ones that have not ordered for several weeks, which is usually where the lost revenue is.
Do salesmen need a data connection all day?
They need one to place an order and record a collection. Patchy coverage delays the sync rather than losing the entry, but a route with no signal at all is a genuine limitation worth testing first.
Related
Settle one route properly
Put one van on the app for a fortnight and compare loaded, sold, returned and collected.