Wholesale

Business Central for Wholesale

ERP for wholesalers: purchasing, pricing and shipments managed from one system. See typical project budgets.

Wholesale companies face specific processes that an out-of-the-box system covers poorly. We implement Business Central so it fits your reality — not the other way around.

Industry challenges

Complex customer- and volume-based pricing
Late deliveries and cash-flow gaps
Manual order and invoice matching
No single view of margin

How it works in your industry

In wholesale, money freezes in two places: the warehouse and receivables. Business Central controls both: customer- and volume-based price lists apply automatically, credit limits block shipments to debtors, and an ageing report builds in seconds rather than days.

The purchasing loop runs from actual demand: the system proposes vendor orders by reorder point or forecast, considering lead times. The result is less dead stock and fewer stockouts at the same time.

Where the money actually sits in wholesale

Stage	What the system records	What it gives you
Customer pricing	Price lists by group, volume break and agreement	The same customer is quoted the same price by every salesperson
Order entry	Availability checked against stock and inbound deliveries	You stop promising goods that are already committed elsewhere
Credit control	Limit, payment terms and overdue balance on the customer card	The decision to ship is a rule, not a favour
Fulfilment	Reservations, part shipments, back orders	A partially fulfilled order stays visible instead of being forgotten
Invoicing	Invoices raised from the shipment, not retyped	Disputes about quantities largely disappear
Margin	Actual cost of the goods sold against the invoiced price	You see which customers are genuinely profitable

The four problems that come up most

Nobody knows the real margin per customer

Gross margin at company level hides the picture completely. Once cost is tracked per item and revenue carries a customer dimension, the report that ranks customers by contribution takes seconds to run — and it is very often not the ranking the sales team expects.

Price lists that live in someone's head

Business Central holds price and discount rules by customer, customer group, quantity break and date range. Special terms stop being an informal arrangement with one salesperson and become something that survives that person leaving.

Credit exposure discovered too late

Limits are enforced at order entry with a defined override path. The useful question during scoping is not the limit itself but who is allowed to release a blocked order, because that is where the process usually breaks.

Slow-moving stock nobody writes off

Ageing analysis by item and location shows what has not moved in ninety days and what capital is tied up in it. Most wholesalers find the number uncomfortable the first time they see it.

Decisions to make before you start

Your price hierarchy — which rule wins when a customer qualifies for two of them.
Who can approve a discount beyond the standard band, and whether that needs an approval workflow.
Credit policy: limits, terms and the override route for blocked orders.
The costing method — FIFO, average or standard. Compared in inventory costing methods.
Dimension design before go-live rather than after — retro-fitting analysis to posted transactions is painful. See dimensions.

Key BC capabilities

Flexible price lists & discounts

Receivables management

Automated purchase orders

Margin analytics by customer

Discuss your project

Frequently asked questions

Can we set different prices for different customers?

Yes. Business Central supports price lists by customer group, volume, period and currency, applied automatically on the order.

How do we control receivables?

The system shows debt by customer and ageing, automatically blocks shipment when a credit limit is exceeded and generates reminders.

Will I see margin per order?

Yes, margin is calculated at order entry based on actual inventory cost.

How do we set different prices for different customers?

Through price lists by customer group, order volume and effective period. The correct price is applied automatically, and deviations from the rules require approval.

Can we block shipment to a customer in arrears?

Yes. The credit limit is checked when the order is entered, and the system blocks shipment to a customer with overdue debt until it is approved by the responsible person.

How is the real margin on a deal calculated?

Cost includes item charges — freight, duty, insurance — allocated across document lines. Profit is calculated from full landed cost, not from the supplier price.