Builders merchant software

Credit is the business

For most independent yards, the majority of turnover goes out on account. That makes credit control the single most important thing the software does. Not the till speed, not the reports — whether you can see, at the moment goods are about to leave the yard, that this customer is already forty days late on two invoices.

PlanIt EPOS keeps every account’s terms, credit limit and live balance on one screen, and enforces the limit as part of the sale. When an order would take a customer past their limit, the system says so and stops. An authorised user can override, and the override is recorded rather than remembered.

• Aged balance across current, 30, 60 and 90+ days
• Payments allocated to specific invoices, not swept against the oldest
• Statements produced monthly or on demand and emailed automatically
• Credit notes with a reason recorded against them
• A projection of what the account will owe once outstanding orders are delivered

Delivery scheduling and the yard

The difference between a good day and a bad one in a builders merchant is usually the loads. An order that is priced correctly but arrives on Thursday when the site needed it Tuesday is a failure regardless of what the invoice says.

Lines on an order can be split between collection and delivery. Delivery lines are scheduled onto a date and a vehicle, which produces a picking list for the yard — what to load, from which location, for which customer and which site. Proof of delivery is recorded against the order, so a dispute about what actually arrived has an answer that is not a driver’s recollection.

Site contacts

Account customers can have multiple sites and contacts. A load goes to the site, the invoice goes to the office, and the person who signed for it is recorded against the delivery. That removes a surprising proportion of month-end argument.

Branch stock and transfers

Once you have a second yard, stock accuracy stops being a matter of walking outside and looking. PlanIt EPOS tracks quantities per branch and per location within a branch — counter, racking, bay, outside storage — so the figure on screen tells you where the goods actually are.

Movements between branches are recorded as transfers rather than typed in as adjustments at both ends. Every movement, including adjustments, carries a reason and an audit trail, which means that when a number looks wrong you can follow it back to what happened rather than guessing.

Group-level reporting rolls the branches up, so you can see total stock value and total margin without exporting anything.

Quotations and bulk pricing

Material take-offs are quoted, not rung through. A quotation in PlanIt EPOS is built at the customer’s own pricing, held for an agreed period, and converted straight to an order when the job starts — with the prices you quoted, not the prices that have moved since.

Volume pricing that does not depend on goodwill

Products carry quantity breaks, so a pallet prices differently from a bag and the step-down happens automatically. That matters because volume pricing applied by memory is applied inconsistently: the customer who asks gets it, and the customer who does not, does not. Breaks work alongside customer trade bands and contract prices rather than instead of them.

Month end without the evening

Deliveries and counter sales post to the account through the month. At month end, statements are produced for every account with an outstanding balance, showing invoices, credits and allocated payments, and go out by email from your own address.

Because payments are allocated against specific invoices rather than swept against the oldest balance, the statement a customer receives matches the invoices they think they have paid. That single detail removes most of the phone calls that follow a statement run.

Buying and goods received

Purchase orders are raised from live demand: recent sales, the supplier’s lead time and the cover you want. Suggested orders explain themselves in plain English — how many units a week are moving, how long the supplier takes, how much cover is left — so you can judge the suggestion rather than trust it.

Deliveries are booked in against the purchase order, including partial ones. Stock rises when the goods arrive, the outstanding quantity on the order reduces, and costs update from the delivery. A part-received order stays visibly part-received rather than quietly closing.

Moving from your current system

Most independents are moving off something that runs on a server in the back office, or off a combination of a till and a spreadsheet. Both are workable starting points.

1. Export products and customers to CSV from your existing system.
2. Bring in supplier price files to establish current costs — PDF, Excel or CSV.
3. Configure branches, tills, VAT, price bands and account terms with us.
4. Enter opening account balances so aged debt is right from day one.
5. Go live on a quiet day, with someone on hand for the first sales.

Onboarding is included in the subscription, and there is no long-term contract at the end of it. PlanIt EPOS is a monthly subscription priced on tills, branches and users rather than a share of your turnover.