Most distributors and wholesalers in Pakistan run on a mix of Excel sheets, a register, WhatsApp and one person who remembers everything. It works, until the business grows past what that person can hold in their head. This article is about recognising that point, and what to replace the spreadsheets with.
Seven signs you have outgrown Excel
- Nobody trusts the stock figure. The sheet says 40 cartons, the warehouse says 28, and nobody knows which is right.
- Dealer balances are argued, not looked up. A dealer disputes what they owe and finding the answer means searching invoices by hand.
- Orders arrive on WhatsApp and get lost. An order is confirmed, then forgotten, then delivered late or not at all.
- Month-end takes days. Closing the books means copying numbers between sheets and hoping nothing was missed.
- Only one person knows how it works. When they are on leave, the business slows down.
- Two people edit the same sheet. Someone saves over someone else's changes and a day's work disappears.
- You can't answer simple questions quickly. Which products make money? Which dealers pay late? What should we reorder this week?
If three or more of these sound familiar, the spreadsheets are costing you more than a system would.
What an order and inventory system should cover
You do not need everything on day one. The parts that matter most, in the order most distributors need them:
- Orders. Every order recorded once, with its status from confirmed to dispatched to delivered.
- Inventory. Stock that changes automatically when goods come in and go out, per warehouse.
- Invoicing and the dealer ledger. Invoices generated from orders, payments recorded against them, and every dealer's balance always up to date.
- Roles and an audit trail. Staff see what their job needs, and every change records who made it and when.
- Reports the owner actually opens. Sales, stock value, overdue balances and what to reorder.
Later, as the business grows: a dealer portal where dealers place orders and check balances themselves, multiple warehouses with transfers, dispatch and delivery tracking, purchasing, integrations with accounting and SMS, and a mobile app for field staff.
Buy or build?
Off-the-shelf software is cheaper to start with and fine if your process matches how it works. Distributors often find it doesn't: special pricing per dealer, credit limits, schemes and discounts, returns from the market, and the way your field staff actually take orders.
A custom system is built around your process instead of forcing you into someone else's. The risk is cost and time, which is why it should be done in phases, with the first phase live and useful early.
What it costs with us
We publish our ranges so you know in thirty seconds whether we fit your budget:
- Discovery: PKR 50,000 (about one week). We map your process and write a scope listing every screen, with a fixed price for the build. The scope is yours to keep even if you hire another developer, and the fee is credited in full against the build.
- Phase one system: PKR 300,000 to 600,000 (typically 6 to 10 weeks). Orders and inventory, invoicing and the dealer ledger, roles and audit trail, reports, and your existing data migrated in.
- Full platform: PKR 800,000 and up, delivered in phases: dealer portal, multiple warehouses, dispatch tracking, purchasing, integrations and a mobile app.
International clients see the same ranges in dollars on the pricing page.
See one before you decide
We built a working order and stock system for a distributor that you can click through without signing in. It shows stock value, open orders and dealer balances, the screens an owner looks at every morning. Open the business systems page to see it, or tell us how your business runs and we will point you at the nearest thing we have built.
