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| Food Distribution Module: The inventory and order entry modules handles items that are sold by cases and weight. The item is define and a price and cost by weight is assign. The weight per item can be fixed or variable. When a fixed item is sold the system multiplies the fixed weight by the price. When the weight is variable then system request the weight of each box or the total weight and multiplies this by the price. The system tracks inventory by weight and by cases simultaneously. PRICE/COST CONTROL MODULEAt the heart of our system is a powerful Pricing Module that provides you with the capability to handle all the special deals, contracts and exceptions that are so common in food distribution. The flexibility of this system allows you to ignore the exception capabilities and create a very simple pricing structure, or incorporate any or all the complexities of your pricing requirements. The system will allow pricing formulas by customer which can be easily maintained and eliminate most manual price overrides. HIGHLIGHTS
VARIABLE WEIGHT PRICINGPricing by weight (LB or KG)
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 | 'market' or 'total' cost based on gross margin
percentages
| 'market' or 'total' cost based on straight
percentages
| 'market' or 'total' cost based on 'cents plus'
| 'list' price down by percentage
| 'list' price down by cents down | |
The system also allows full matrix pricing. The matrix allows customers and groups of customers to have their own price/cost list/formulas.
The matrix follows:
Groups of customers
Particular customer
The unique combination of elements in the matrix allow the following rules to be set:
| The overall optional administration cost
percentage set (hidden overhead cost), can be overridden. You might select
this option to set a different percentage or to omit the cost to calculate a
price.
| An exact markup percentage to be used at the
time of order entry or invoicing can also be set. This allows an unlimited
number of brackets for pricing.
| The item file allows you to choose by item
either total cost, market cost , or list price to calculate prices. The
matrix allows you to override this and choose which cost to use.
| Cents up from cost or cents down from list can
be defined.
| Like contract pricing you can also define a
set price at the item level which is date sensitive. You can control the
cost elements which are used to determine a set price. You also have the
features to insert and maintain all the way down the matrix to the item
level, the percentage formula to be used to automatically recalculate set
prices on a periodic basis. Permanent modules can be setup which allow
advance pricing changes to be established and worked on in advance with
automatic date activation. These modules can be setup for a customer or a
group of customers which fall into the same pricing method.
| Another feature of matrix pricing is that set
prices which are date sensitive can have minimum quantities attached to them.
| All parameters within the matrix are permanent
or date sensitive.
| The matrix also allows advanced changes to be
entered. They will automatically move over on the proper date(s).
| The matrix concept may not be what you use for
the majority of your customers. This powerful tool can be used for the
chains or individual customers who know your costs and supplier rebates and
demand a specific formula for their price calculation. Matrix will allow you
to do this exception setup so you are avoiding manual price overrides. | |
Contracts or 'pricing profiles' allow other exceptions to the rule. A contract number can be attached to any number of customers. A contract is date sensitive and can be set up in advance while the current contract is in effect.
The contract and the products attached to it can provide the following:
| a fixed set price |
OR
| a percentage up or down which would be used to calculate at time of invoicing |
OR
| a deal off amount to offer only to customers attached to the contract. |
Through the purchasing system any number of cost changes, and/or out going specials or deals can be entered and stacked up, all being date sensitive.
The total/landed cost is calculated automatically by the system by a user defined formula which defines which costs are to be included or excluded. You also maintain products a market cost. At the item level you can define which cost should be used for product up charges for price calculations.
Broken case pricing features allow you to control which items can be 'broken' . Have the regular full case sell price divided by the number of units within the case.
For street accounts you can offer 'flyer' specials. These can be a special price or dollar/cents off or free cases offers Ex: 1 free for every 10 purchased. These out going deals to the customer are date sensitive and show on your general price books.
You can also simply indicate at the customer level whether or not to allow a customer to have this discounts deals.
Deals off can be setup for groups of specific customers by using a feature in our contract / profile pricing.
These specials and deals can also be tracked to provide a history of the promotions showing sales by customer.
This system allows you to establish multiple promotions on an item(s) and offer them to selected customers. You can maintain these in a matrix format to reduce maintenance. You can assign customers the matrix from high to low by:
| all customers
| customer type
| a customer | |
You can offer a special price, dollar off.. You can also reverse the dollar off to make them up charges from certain situations such as royalties charged.
These promotions are all date sensitive and include a tracking reporting system of promotions given by customer.
The invoice can print one or more promotions below the line item showing what was given as well as the from/to date the offer is active.
This feature allows you to provide periodic rebates to selected customers based on their purchases from you. You can choose to automatically create an entry to their accounts receivable statement.
Various types of rebate calculations can be calculated. They include:
| Percentage or amount by product
| Percentage by selected product groups
| Percentage by selected product categories
| Multiple overall percentages to issue separate
checks
| Sliding scale percentages based on sales | |
For part or all of your product line you can set up volume purchase discounts. This can be done at the product level or certain products can be grouped together to be part of a formula. This can be offered to all customers or you can select only certain customers. An invoice will total quantity purchase by product or group of products and then go against the formula(s).
The formulas are setup with a sliding scale of minimum quantities purchased. By formula you can choose to offer a dollar off amount, or free goods.
You can also setup groups of products with individual bracket prices at the product level. The brackets correspond to the sliding scale (e.g. 10, 15, 20, 25, 50 cases). Based on the quantity, individual prices within that bracket will be used for that group of products on the invoice.
The system allows you to setup and define any discounts or surcharges you wish to offer at the invoice level. This user defined pricing tool also allows you to setup your own discounts and surcharges without program changes.
If you use common carriers for all or some of your customers or your own truck for in town or out of town you have the capability to setup outgoing freight charges.
| You can setup customers to use a specific
freight table.
| Products can be segregated by type (i.e.
Fresh, Grocery).
| A freight table(s) can be setup as a flat
rate, rate per CWT, sliding scale, rate per unit, or rates by type of
product.
| By customer you can
calculate freight and show it separately on the invoice.
| Freight charges can be added or changed before
the time of invoicing.
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In addition to a warning at order entry time for products sold below cost, we also provide a warning for manual price overrides and for price tolerance at the product level based on an optional plus/minus tolerance by percentage . These warnings allow you to optionally set up at the product level lows and highs. At the low side you may allow your salesreps to go lower but not lower than a certain percentage over cost. The high level eliminates many keying errors where you charge a ridiculous price, and helps on credits and customer service levels.
Sale books can be printed to suit all your requirements and are designed so sales people have the information they need and can even be printed before the prices become effective.
| Up to six price brackets .
| COSTS (or coded costs) can be
optionally printed.
| UNIT OF SELL and UNIT OF PRICE are
clearly indicated (e.g. sold by the piece but priced by the pound).
| Can be printed in whole or in part by
CATEGORY or SUPPLIER.
| Priced Order guides of selected
products can also be produced for specific customers customized to their
products used and their pricing structure. | |
Listings can be produced of new products stocked for salesreps awareness.
The flexibility provided in this overall set up will eliminate programming changes to the maintenance, set up and selection programs and leave custom programming to the formats of labels needed and the type of printer being used.
| Allows an authorization file by retail store
and department within which can be accessed online in order entry for
authorization of products and which prevents unauthorized products from
being shipped.
| Automatic printing of retail
pricing at the store/department/ promotional display level can be printed on
invoices or case labels.
| Shelf labels can be printed for selected
stores with bar code labeling.
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The Contract Pricing system lets you set up
specific customer pricing. Contracts are primarily used for customers or a group
of customers that have "set" or confirmed price, a deal off,
percentage add on to cost, or 'cents plus' pricing structures. An overall cost
can be established by product. Contract effective dates and deal dates are
automatically monitored by the Order Entry system.
| Set price per product
| Individual deals
| Set percentages on cost
| Advanced working file/date sensitive changes
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A set selling price can be entered for a product. Whenever a customer assigned to that contract purchases the product, and is within the effective dates for the contract, that price will be used.
In addition to outgoing deals/specials that are available for everyone, you can also limit specific deals to apply to certain customers or group of customers, within a specified period of time.
A product on a contract can also be confirmed for a specific percentage above cost. As your costs fluctuate the customer's selling price will also change. If you have confirmed, for example, a 10% up charge above cost to a customer, the selling price will be based on the up charge over today's cost.
There is no need to be in a "crunch" to enter in revised contract prices at the last minute. A working copy of contracts is available which allows you to revise prices in advance. You will have the opportunity to verify pricing and submit them to your customers before they come into effect. New contract revisions will automatically be transferred to come into effect on the starting date.
Contracts can be printed for internal use or for distribution to your customers showing confirmed prices.
| Reports can be generated showing all products on contract or all products carried. |
The power and flexibility of the Price/Cost Module combines with customer profile information to unlock the potential of the Order Entry/Invoicing system. Created specifically for the food distributor, it provides the ability to process orders with speed and accuracy, thereby maintaining a high customer service level. Whether you operate in a one shift operation or multi shift operation, it has the flexibility to handle all food distribution operations. This proven system will streamline your operations and thereby allow management more time to focus its energies on sales and profit.
| Customer profile maintained
| Online screen entry
| Online order guides
| Hand held remote order entry units
| Restrict customer buying to limited products
| Inventory display during entry
| Edits and warnings
| Purchasing inquiry during entry
| Sell to zero display during entry
| Lot inquiry and allocation
| Access to invoice history
| Special instructions/comments
| Alpha search on customer/product numbers
during entry
| Non inventory products
| 'Sample' or 'no charge' products
| Automatic substitutions
| Direct shipments
| Online search/add on to order
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| Load capacity reporting
| Let down of product for replenishment
| Confirm orders received display
| Customers over credit limit or with due
invoices with orders report | |
| Segregation by picking section
| Bulk picking capabilities
| Various methods of printing
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| Simple "no change" processing of
order
| Weighted product entry and totaling
| Substitution capability
| Freight/minimum order surcharge override
| Picker code recording for pieces count
statistics | |
| Flexible invoice format
| Duplicate copies of invoices / bill of lading
| Variable weights printed on invoice
| Suggested retail pricing (SRP)
| Reprint invoices | |
| Driver's trip report/manifest produced
| Lost sales tracking | |
Special instructions can be entered at the order level for the picker and/or for the driver. Also, comments are available to print under each product line product. For example: on 40 LB bananas, ½ ripe ½ green.
Orders taken for advance delivery can be entered into the system immediately and the Order Entry system will take care of merging them automatically when they are due to be delivered. On all advance orders inventory quantities are not reserved until the order becomes current.
If a customer or product number is not known at the time the order is to be entered it can be found easily by using the alpha search feature to pick up and insert the correct number.
If a special product is brought in for a customer on a onetime basis, it can be processed through the system along with the regular order for that customer without impacting your inventory or without having to set that product up as a stock product. This enable you to handle 'special order' items efficiently.
Substitutions at Order Entry time can be done automatically without the entry person's intervention. Conditional, unconditional, and recommended substitutions by product allow you to have the system automatically substitute based on available inventory, or view substitute items only. Unlimited substitute products can be handled per product. 'Unconditional substitutions' are an excellent way of reducing inventory of similar items.
Direct shipments (from supplier to customer) can be invoiced by the system and reflect in sales and accounts receivable without affecting your inventory.
At order entry time an immediate print of an invoice can be requested bypassing the picking and releasing steps. If you have a "Cash and Carry" operation you can request an immediate print of a pick document and request an immediate print of an invoice after it is picked.
Display/update by route/stop/customer of all orders is provided and allows easy manipulation to switch one route/stop to another. Weight and cube per stop and total by route are displayed online. Picking documents, invoices and the driver's manifest can be sorted by route/stop.
This report or display can be selected at anytime to further prevent orders being shipped to accounts over their limit. In addition there are edits and warnings at order entry and the warnings can be printed with the pick lists. This orders will be put on hold until credit authorization is receive.
One method of printing picking documents is with one customer's order per picking document. Another method is to produce multiple picking documents by customer, by sections of the warehouse, for example: freezer, cooler, dry goods. This allows for simultaneous picking of orders.
Certain groups of products can be designated for "bulk" picking, for example, the freezer. Whenever picking documents are selected for printing, an additional bulk summary listing by route would be produced for only those products.
Picking documents can be selected for printing either individually by order, all orders ready for picking, or only certain route(s). The picking documents and/or labels can be sorted by picking section and slot location.
In the system setup, orders for the same customer and the same delivery date can be automatically combined into one order at picking. You can also exclude certain customers from this option.
If an order is picked as ordered, a simple function prepares the order for invoicing. Only items with short shipments and catch weight products require line product changes. The system edits for variable weight items to make sure the weights get recorded.
Releasing an order prepares it prior to invoice printing. Variances from the quantity ordered can be easily entered. For products that are variable or "catch" weight, the system checks that all actual weight(s) are entered. Catch weights can be entered in one total or individually on a catch weight screen which will total them for you. For example: If 98 pieces were ordered then a screen would display 98 areas for the weights to be entered. You can system wide choose to have these weights entered twice to be verified. These individual catch weights are saved and can be printed on the invoice.
If substitutions have been made in the warehouse, these can easily be entered and the invoice will indicate the product ordered as "out" and the substituted product as "sub".
All freight and minimum order surcharges are displayed and can be changed or removed at your discretion.
The sequencing and grouping of items on the invoice has been made extremely flexible to meet the needs of your customers. You can setup a general sequence overall and / or setup a different sequence for certain customers.
Some examples of our existing setup options allow you to choose invoices to print in sequences by: product #, category / product number, by brand alphabetically, by product description alphabetically, by brand / description alphabetically, by slot number pick sequence and others.
You have options to print sub totals, and summary information in total or by category / department on the invoice. You can also control the skipping to a new page.
You have the added features of setting up for selected customers a cross reference of their item number to your item number. You can also relate their defined departments / categories to your item number. Their exact sequence for printing each item can also be optionally setup. This allows printing your item number and their item number on the invoice. Their department totals with their department description can print.
We provide standard invoice formats which match the space to print the sizes used in our system of our brand, pack size, description, etc. Only the company logo and terms and conditions need to be changed. This avoids extra programming costs of trying to use up an existing supply of invoices and the problems of trying to squeeze larger descriptive fields provided with our software into areas on another form where the space might not be available.
But you can use the ones you have now if that is your decision.
There is also a provision for customers to print Bill of Lading copies on their own custom forms. This can be done individually for orders or for all.
For variable weight items, an option allows you to have the weight of each piece or case printed on the invoice when several pieces or cases of the same item are ordered. This makes it easy for your customers to check their order at delivery time.
Suggested retail pricing can print for selected customers.
Invoices can be reprinted anytime from the invoice history. This enables you to make copies of invoices without searching through files. You also have the feature of recalling an invoice by date on the screen from the history and zeroing down to the line item to view how the line was priced, the cost used, and deals supplied.
During the day, you have the ability to reprint current invoices by selection if you have had printer problems or damaged the original invoices.
Along with the invoices produced for a route/truck, a driver's trip report/manifest is also printed. It prints all the stops he has to make on that trip. The invoice amount and terms are printed and optional areas are provided to write cash received and arrival/departure times by stop. By route, optional pages are provided for his over/under cash report balancing and refrigerated temperature logging and truck maintenance notes. A summary copy of this report can be kept in the office as well in the event you wish to get in touch with a driver during the day.
In addition to reports that can be selected at any time, numerous daily reports include sales and profitability reports detail or summary by product group, category, salesreps, territory , and item. There are over 35 available day end reports which can be optionally setup to be automatically produced.
CDI provides tracking of lost sales. Lost sales quantity and amounts are kept. Besides reporting and displays, this information is interfaced into the purchasing system.
For the eternal question: Do we have it in stock? Your profit and customer goodwill hinge on that question. Proper inventory management and control is important in any business, but in food distribution it is absolutely vital.CDI's Inventory Management Module was designed to handle weights and broken units as well as provide meaningful and accurate "to the second" information.
| Handles multiple warehouse locations
| Tracking of multiple costs
| Automated lot tracking
| LIFO (last in, first out) reporting
| Weight and broken case quantities handled with the same product number
| Case and weight tracking
| Automatic main / sub allocations for product
| Powerful online inquiries
| Flexible reporting | |
The system handles multiple warehouse locations and associated inventories allowing information to be displayed or printed by individual warehouse or all locations combined. With one system you can invoice and ship by warehouse location. If you use 'public' warehousing in various locations you can maintain your inventory balances with their associated lot numbers.
Last cost, and average cost are maintained by warehouse location and are available for displays and reporting. The purchasing system allows you to establish formulas for which cost elements are to be used for the inventory cost and, also a cost which allows markups for ongoing pricing. When a receipt is processed the last cost is updated and a new weighted average cost is calculated. The pricing system allows you to use a pricing based cost and a market cost.
Quantities maintained in inventory also keep a broken case quantity within the same product number. All quantities displayed or printed always show whole and broken case. Extended cost values include broken case quantities. All our systems were designed for the food industry with weight, full and broken case capability.
CDI
The system allows you to inventory and purchase under a 'main' product number and set up one or more 'sub' products sold by another unit of measure. The 'sub' products will automatically draw inventory from the 'main' using your established conversion factors, for example, if you bring lettuce in by the case of 24's and sell 24's. You also repack to 12's and 6's with different pricing structures. Another example would be for turnips, cabbage, etc. where you bring them in and sell by standard case weights, or for smaller quantities you can set up a sub where it is sold by the pound even though you purchase by the case (e.g. Bananas).
The new warehousing features of inventory control provide full stock locater options and lot control.
The purchasing system will produce a receiving document awaiting the receipt of the products from the supplier. This document shows the normal home slot picking location and overflow zone areas. These can be changed at receipt time after put away if the home slot or zones were moved. For a simple operation this form is used for put away and the inventory balance for an item is kept as one total regardless of how many slots it is located in. Picking documents can show the same home slot picking slot with the overflow zones. The pickers if they run out of product can refer to overflow zones on the pick document and ask for the home slot to be replenished.
| At receiving time you can request pallet labels be printed based on order
quantity or actual quantity received. The system will determine the number
of labels based on qty per pallet.
| For a more sophisticated approach at receiving time you can call the
original purchase order up on the screen and you can confirm the quantities
received in whole or by item. Based on existing inventory by slot balances
maintained you can request a put away listing and/or pallet labels which can
do the following:
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If you are using the full stock locater system you can choose to use the following:
| Based on quantities ready to be picked you can choose to produce listings
or labels to replenish the pick slots before hand. This can be for each pick
and / or case pick areas.
| This can be for a whole shift or for selected routes or "waves".
| When you select a replenishment listing an "image" is kept of
the suggested movements. Changes can be made to this "image" and
after the actual transfer the system can automatically update the from / to
slot movement of quantities. | |
All inventory quantities are up to date the second they are effected. The online inquiries allow immediate access to all inventory information without running a report. Access to all inquiries can be done by product number or by alpha search
Some of the inquiries include:
| Period to date displays allow you to scan through all transactions
relating to the inventory balance of a product in the sequence they
happened. The new quantity on hand for each transaction is displayed.
Reference to purchase order number and supplier name is given for receipts,
and customer number, name and invoice number are shown for all shipments.
| Summary browsing allows you to scan through groups of products by brand,
size or parts of a product description showing available quantity on hand.
| Summary screens by product show a complete picture for a product. Quantity
on order, allocated, on hand, costs and extended inventory values. period, and year to date quantity summaries of receipts, adjustments,
returns and shipments.
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Reports are available on demand, daily, weekly and periodically. Some of the reports available are:
| A one line per product "inventory activity" report lists the
opening balance along with total receipts, adjustments, returns,
requisitions, shipments as well as closing balance and percentage of
inventory turns. Selections can be made for weekly, period, and year to
date.
| An inventory flow of material tracking report will give an opening balance
and all the transactions which effected the quantity on hand. Receipts refer
to purchase order numbers, and shipments show the invoice number, customer
number and name. Details print in the sequence they occurred with the
quantity on hand balance at the time. This audit report will aid in tracking
down any inventory discrepancy.
| Inventory transaction reporting by type of transaction showing costs and
extended cost values.
| Flexible selection of inventory movement reporting allows analysis of
overstocked and under stocked products and calculates the number of weeks
supply based on past weeks shipment activity.
| Minimum/maximum quantity reporting of those products over or under
selected quantities.
| Inventory valuation reporting in summary or detail showing all extended
values based on average, last and landed cost.
| Quantity on hand reference listings by product or slot.
| Optional pre picking list of product picking slots which might require
replenishment.
| Item Movement Analysis Reporting by product .
| Additional reports include; Excessive Inventory Report,
Supplier Short Shipment Report
| All reporting is available by all products or selections of various
categories of products.
| Single or combined warehouse selections.
| Reporting is produced in sequence by product grouping and categories. | |
With this system you have the ability to take an 'image' of inventory balances and costs prior to a physical inventory and continue regular processing of orders. Counts can be entered after and variances updated.
| Counts sheets produced by product grouping or by slotting sequence before
a count
| Cycle counting set up capability
| Automatic inventory adjustments made anytime
| Missing sheet number report
| Costed inventory variance reporting by group and category
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See the rest of the Inventory Module , Order Processing and Warehouse and Accounting Modules features in this page.
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