Order Management For A Manufacturing Business

The Day Before

This business sells products made by several manufacturers and earns a commission on each sale. Its real work starts after the customer says yes. One customer order covers several manufacturers, and each one ships, bills and pays its own way.

The team kept all of that in five places: a general-purpose customer tracker, an order add-on bolted onto it, custom code, spreadsheets and email. A normal day sounded like this:

Where does this job stand?Nobody could answer without opening three programs.
I already typed this order once.Every order was typed again in the next program.
Is that quote still open?Old quotes never closed, so the win rate on the report looked far better than it was.
Did the factory pay us in full?Nobody knew. Nothing compared a commission check with the order it paid for.

What We Found

In the Diagnose we followed one real job from first price to last payment and wrote down every place it changed hands.

The root cause was simple: the customer tracker was built to win a sale, and this business earns its money after the sale. Its record stopped at the won deal. Orders, shipments, invoices and commissions lived in the add-on, the spreadsheets and people's heads, so every handoff was a retype and every check was done by hand. Most deals were not even linked to a customer account, and a rule meant to close old quotes had never run.

We told the business what to fix first, what to leave alone (its accounting books stay where they are), and gave a fixed price for the build.

The Fix

One web tool built around how this business actually sells. Every job lives on one record, from quote to order, factory orders, shipments, invoices, payments and commissions. Each step is created from the one before it with a button, so nobody retypes a line, and every record knows the job it belongs to. Then the tool does the checking and chasing that people used to do by hand.

Flow chart for a sample job: 27 connected records in columns, from the project and quote through the sales order, four purchase orders, shipments, invoices, payments and commissions — One sample job: every record, from the quote to the last commission, joined to the one it came from.

What It Does Now

One Job, One Record

BeforeAnswering "where does this job stand?" meant opening the tracker, the add-on and a spreadsheet, then guessing.

NowOpen the order and the whole job is there. Open any invoice, payment or commission and the path back to its quote and customer is one click away.

Each Record Starts From The Last · One Click Each

01Sales OrderFrom The Won QuoteCreate

02Purchase OrdersOne Per ManufacturerCreate

03ShipmentFrom The Factory OrderCreate

04InvoiceFrom What ShippedCreate

05PaymentAgainst The InvoiceRecord

06VendorsWorked Out From The PaymentPay

Quote → Final Payment

One Order, Every Manufacturer

BeforeOne customer order turned into several factory orders, each sold a different way, and every way of selling needed its own workaround.

NowThe order splits by manufacturer, and each one gets its own lane: factory order, shipment, billing and commission. The four ways this business sells (buy and resell, through a distributor, distributor, and direct from the factory) are built in. Pick one per manufacturer and the money follows the right path.

One Order, Split By ManufacturerSample Data

SO-00043 · Town Center JobSample Customer · 4 Manufacturers · 4 Routes

$94,124.60

DepositINV-00053 · 30% · $28,102.38Paid

Manufacturer ABuy & Resell

Factory OrderPO-00098$26,550.00Shipped

ShipmentSP-00094Shipped In Part

BilledINV-00054What Shipped

Money InPMT-00051PaidPaid

Manufacturer BThrough A Distributor

Factory OrderPO-00099$42,880.08Sent

ShipmentNot ShippedStill Open

BilledNot BilledWaits For The Shipment

Money InNothing DueYet

Manufacturer CDistributor

Factory OrderPO-00100$13,770.00Shipped

ShipmentSP-00095Shipped

BilledBy The DistributorNot This Business's Invoice

Commission InMCOMM-00055Came In ShortFlagged · Claim Drafted

Manufacturer DDirect From The Factory

Factory OrderPO-00101$10,474.52In Progress

ShipmentNoneFactory Ships Direct

BilledNo InvoiceDirect Sale

Commission InMCOMM-00056Expected

Sales Order$94,124.60

Invoiced So Far$46,687.38

Balance Due$47,437.22

Still Open1 PO Not Shipped

One sample order split into four manufacturer lanes, each with its own route, shipment, bill and commission.

Quotes Priced From History, Then Closed On Time

BeforePrices came from memory, and quotes nobody answered stayed open forever.

NowEach new quote line starts from what that product was last quoted at, with its usual margin beside it. Lines group into packages, priced as one or line by line. Every day, quotes past their valid date close on their own, and the win rate counts them, so the team sees the real number.

Sample quote grouped by package: products, parts and accessories under one price, with the quote amount and profit shown — A sample quote grouped into packages, with the last quoted price and usual margin on every line.

Ship In Parts, Bill What Shipped

BeforeFactories rarely ship a whole order at once, and tracking partial shipments by hand made double billing easy.

NowEach shipment is tracked against the order, in part or in full, and the invoice is built from what actually shipped. A deposit already paid comes off later invoices, and an order closes on its own once it is fully shipped and paid.

Sample Create Shipment window: ship everything, 25%, 50%, 75% or a custom amount, with the quantity to ship now — Shipping half of a sample order now; the other half stays open for a later shipment.

Every Dollar Checked, Every Chase On One List

BeforeShort commission checks went unnoticed, and late invoices and late shipments were found when a customer called.

NowThe tool knows what each factory owes on every order, so each commission check is compared with it as it comes in, and a short one is flagged with the claim email drafted. When a customer pays, the tool works out where the money goes: what the factories are owed, the profit, each rep's share and what the business keeps. Everything that needs chasing (unanswered quotes, late invoices, late shipments, short checks) lands on one Follow Up list and a This Week board, overdue first.

Sample payment record for a received customer payment: fees, vendor costs, profit and each partner's share shown on one screen — One sample customer payment, split into what goes to the factories, each rep and the business.

Sample This Week board: overdue invoices, overdue commissions, overdue tasks and a quote request past due — The This Week board, sample data: overdue invoices, commissions and tasks come first.

What Changed For The Team

Anyone can open a job and see where it stands, from first quote to final payment.
An order is entered once. The next record is built from it, not typed again.
The day starts from one list of what needs chasing, instead of a hunt across five programs.
The win rate counts every quote that expired, so the team prices and plans from the real picture.
Short commission checks get claimed instead of missed.
The old records were brought over and checked, so nothing from the old setup was left behind.