Multi-warehouse inventory and bins
Stock by warehouse, bin and lot, with available-to-promise that sales can see while the customer is still on the phone.
Distribution ERP software that runs purchasing, multi-warehouse inventory, pick-pack-ship, EDI and financials in one system.
Why distributors call us
Most wholesale distributors come to us at the same point: order volume has outgrown spreadsheets and a small-business accounting package, forecasting is guesswork, and nobody can see stock across warehouses without a phone call.
SAP Business One for wholesale distribution replaces that patchwork with one system for purchasing, inventory, sales orders, warehouse operations and financials, configured around how distributors actually work: landed cost on inbound containers, MRP that turns demand history into buying plans, barcode-driven pick, pack and ship, and margin by customer and SKU.
Requirements
Eight areas where distribution ERP software earns its keep, and the ones we configure first.
Stock by warehouse, bin and lot, with available-to-promise that sales can see while the customer is still on the phone.
Demand history and vendor lead times turn into buying plans, so you order what will sell instead of what ran out last month.
Freight, duty and brokerage allocated to the items they arrived with, so margin by SKU is real, not estimated.
Directed picking, packing and carrier labels from a scanner, with WiSys WMS and ShipEasy working inside SAP Business One.
Orders in, ship notices and invoices out, and a portal where customers check stock, order and pay without calling. BizWeaver and Versago do the work.
Price lists, volume breaks and special pricing by customer, with margin reported by customer, SKU and rep.
Returns, restocking and credit memos tied to the original order, so nothing is reconciled by hand at month end.
GL, AP and AR update from every transaction, with multi-currency and multi-entity when the business needs them.
The Third Wave build
SAP Business One already covers purchasing, inventory, sales, warehouse and financials. What makes it a distribution ERP is the configuration and the add-ons around it. A typical Third Wave distribution build includes:
Every build starts with your item master, your trading partners and your warehouse layout, not a template.
In the video, Vigo Industries describes fast-tracking SAP Business One when demand outgrew its inventory system.
Sub-sectors
Different products, the same operating problems: too many SKUs, too many channels, and margin that moves with freight.
Dealer networks, fast reorder cycles and catalog data that has to stay accurate across every channel. Collicutt Energy runs engine parts and service on it.
Lot and expiry tracking, first-expired-first-out picking and catch weight, with recall reports that run in minutes rather than days.
Serial numbers, returns and long-lead components. Worldwide Supply tracks new and pre-owned networking gear for 200+ brands on SAP Business One.
Style, color and size variants, seasonal pre-orders and retailer EDI. Havaianas scaled its US distribution on it.
Container imports, landed cost and demand that spikes. Vigo Industries fast-tracked SAP Business One when demand outgrew its inventory system.
Lot traceability, expiry dates and quality holds aligned with FDA and ISO requirements, with the paperwork generated from the system.
Client results
Four distributors, four different product lines, one system.
Worldwide Supply
Global network equipment provider Worldwide Supply built its warehouse and asset management on SAP Business One with Third Wave, and uses nearly every module and add-on.
Havaianas (Alpargatas USA)
How Havaianas (Alpargatas USA) added Argentis Apparel and Footwear and a RepSpark ordering site to SAP Business One with Third Wave: more than 3,000 product variations handled, live in two months, and stockouts eliminated.
New Yorker Electronics
How New Yorker Electronics, an electronic components distributor in Northvale, New Jersey, went live on SAP Business One with Third Wave in 2012: an automatic RFQ process, EDI with trading partners, and reporting with real-time queries.
Collicutt Energy
How Collicutt Energy moved five disconnected processes into Versago portals synced with SAP Business One. Supervisors track jobs against quoted cost and hours, and the parts team checks stock from their phones.
Client reviews
I like Third Wave Business systems as they are able to either come up with solutions or have suggested partners we can work with that will help our business. They are constantly innovating and staying ahead to give our business another way to utilize SAP B1 better and more efficiently connect with our customers.
Third Wave Business Systems has been a highly valued partner, consistently helping us solve complex business challenges. They streamline operations, adapt solutions to our specific needs, and provide timely support that minimizes downtime and maximizes efficiency.
How to choose
Most lists of the best ERP for distributors compare vendors. The better question is which configuration fits your operation. Five questions sort that out quickly.
If the answer involves a spreadsheet or a call to the warehouse, the system is not doing its job.
Margin by SKU is fiction until freight, duty and brokerage are allocated to what actually arrived.
Ask to see the integration run on your trading partners, not described on a slide.
Licenses, implementation, add-ons and hosting. Our SAP Business One pricing guide lays out the ranges and what moves them.
Data migration and integrations move the date more than warehouse count. Our implementation timeline guide explains the phases, and the client results above show the kind of distributors we have taken live.