Showroom orders into the ERP without double entry

In many distributor showrooms an order lives two lives. First, the consultant jots it down next to the customer, on paper or in a phone. Second, someone else retypes it into the ERP system. That is double entry, and when we talk about showroom ERP integration and customer order management, it is the problem we tackle first.

Why double entry costs more than time

Retyping looks like a simple office task, but the consequences run through the whole chain:

What a flow without double entry looks like

The idea is simple: the order is created once, on the consultant's terminal, and goes on from there by itself. Along the way, information moves in both directions.

The steps and the data sent are described in detail on the ERP integration page.

What your ERP needs to be able to do

Before choosing a showroom module, check what your ERP can offer. The module connects over web services or JSON, so the first thing to find out is which of the two is available. After that:

• Can it accept a complete order from outside, with customer, products and warehouse?
• Can it send back the "Picked" signal when the goods are ready?
• Can it receive the payment status: the amount, the form of payment, the fiscal receipt data?
• How does it handle a new customer, or a person with no details created in the showroom?

You do not have to answer all of this alone: at the demo we go through these questions together, on your company's data.

When the ERP does not respond

Any integration must allow for outages. Here, sending is retried automatically until the order is accepted, and every exchange stays in the log. Instead of "I think it arrived" you have evidence: what was sent, what was received and when. A log like this also makes it easier to settle disputes between the showroom, the warehouse and accounting.

Two scenarios, two moments of entering the ERP

The flow above is the "ERP, picking, payment" scenario, which fits when goods are prepared in the warehouse. If goods are taken straight from the showroom, the order can enter the ERP only after payment: the "Payment, then ERP" scenario. The difference is explained in the guide to payment modes. The scenario is chosen at implementation and can be changed in settings.

What each person gains

The consultant loses the paperwork; the warehouse receives the order with the same data the customer saw (see the warehouse side); the cashier is left with one code and one receipt; accounting sees the payment immediately. For other links between our solutions and external systems, see wms.md.

Read next

• ERP integration
• Payment modes in brief
• How we implement
• Request a demo