You confirm a customer order, and the item is short in one warehouse. Three people each open a different tool before anyone can tell the buyer a ship date.
That pause is where a distributor either keeps the sale or loses it. The best ERPAn ERP system connects a company’s core processes—such as sales, finance, inventory, manufacturing, and service—in one place so teams can work with shared information. for distributors is the system that keeps stock, sales, purchasing, and delivery records tied to the same order. A long feature list does not answer the customer.
This article walks one hypothetical order through five modules worth testing before you buy: customer records, field work, finance, projects, and people. I treat those modules as building blocks, not as a scoreboard of every product on the market. I also say where a straight stock-and-ship business may skip one. Run the same shortage in any demo. If the seller cannot show who sees the short, who buys the replacement, and who tells the customer, keep looking.
Say the order is 40 cases for a retail account. Warehouse A has 12. Warehouse B has the rest, and a purchase order is due Thursday. Sales, the buyer, and the warehouse lead should not need a phone chain to see that.
1. SIX CustomerFlow
The order starts with a person, not a stock line. If the account manager’s notes live in email, the promise on the quote can disagree with what the warehouse can ship.
SIX CustomerFlow keeps conversations, leads, opportunities, and next steps on one customer journey, and it can connect that record with analytics, ecommerce, and the rest of the platform. For a distributor, the useful part is not a bigger contact list. It is that the person who owns the account can see the order they already promised.
In the hypothetical, the buyer calls because 40 cases were confirmed and only 12 are in Warehouse A. The account owner should open one customer record and see the open order, the short, and the incoming purchase, then call back with a split shipment or a revised date. They should not rebuild the story from three inboxes.
Where the customer record earns its place
A 2025 B2B commerce survey found that only 25% of surveyed brands had fully integrated ecommerce with ERP, so many teams still rekey orders that started online, as reported in the State of B2B eCommerce 2025. That gap shows up as a wrong price, a missed contract, or a ship date nobody owns.
Customer-specific price: The quote should carry the price the account really gets, including breaks and contract terms, so the order does not get retyped later.
Promise you can defend: Availability and incoming supply should be visible from the same customer order, or the ship date is a guess.
One next step: A shortage needs an owner, a callback, and a status the warehouse can see.
Practical rule: Don’t store the customer’s delivery window in a CRM note if purchasing and stock cannot read it.
You may not need a full lead pipeline if you sell only to a stable set of trade accounts and almost never chase new logos. You still need the account, the price, and the open orders in the same place as stock. A CRM that cannot see the short will not fix the phone chain.
2. SIX ServiceFlow
Some distributors never roll a truck. Others install, repair, or deliver and set up what they sell. Those are different jobs, and the software should not pretend they are the same.
SIX ServiceFlow covers the path from the first request to the signature and the invoice. Office staff plan the visit, assign a technician, check parts, and record work on site. Field and office teams share the current job, so a completed visit can move into billing, stock, and the next service call. Our mobile access lets technicians, drivers, and warehouse staff pull stock, tasks, and approvals on a phone or tablet.
Independent distribution benchmarks put best-in-class inventory accuracy at about 98.5% or higher, against roughly 92% for median performers, a gap described in the ERP Lenz guide to measuring ERP success. A technician who loads the wrong part, or a driver who leaves with 12 cases instead of 40, is the same accuracy problem in a van.
What to test on a field job
Parts on the job: The work order should reserve the same item the sales order already shortened, not a second stock figure in a service app.
Who is qualified: Assign the person who can do the work, and show the appointment before they leave the yard.
Close the loop: Time, parts used, and the customer signature should post back so finance does not wait on a photo in a group chat.
A practical field servicesField service is work performed at a customer’s site, such as installation, maintenance, repair, or technical support. guide is worth reading before you scope visits, parts, and invoicing: field services management software.
Skip this module if you only ship cartons and never send a person to a site. Buying field scheduling you will not use adds screens, training, and another place for stock to drift. If you do install or repair, test a hypothetical where the part is short in the van and available in Warehouse B. The job should show the transfer, not a side spreadsheet.
3. SIX FinanceFlow
The commercial decision is not finished when the truck leaves. Someone still has to invoice the 12 cases you shipped, hold or bill the backorder, and explain margin if you paid for expedited freight.
SIX FinanceFlow ties invoicing, expenses, payments, budgets, accounting, and reporting into one controlled process, so finance and managers can see cash, cost, revenue, and profit from the same activity. Information entered once, including costs and documents, should be the figure finance uses. We do not treat the ledger as a second warehouse.
The U.S. Census Bureau reported an inventories-to-sales ratio of 1.28 for merchant wholesalers in November 2025, excluding manufacturers’ sales branches and offices, down from 1.32 in November 2024, in the Monthly Wholesale Trade report. Wholesalers held about $1.28 of inventory for every $1 of sales that month. You cannot manage that coverage from a sales export and a separate stock file.
What finance should see on the short order
Ship 12 now and 28 later, and you may have two invoices, one credit if the customer refuses the split, and extra freight that belongs on that order. A cost center that only stores salaries will hide that freight. A profit view by account or product line will show it. The difference is spelled out in cost center vs profit center.
If the invoice cannot point back to the shipment and the shortage, month-end becomes a reconciliation project.
Partial shipment: Bill what left, and keep the remainder open so revenue and stock stay matched.
Expedite cost: Put rush freight on the order that caused it, not in a general expense bucket.
Close: Managers should drill from margin to the order, not wait for a spreadsheet rebuild.
You still need finance if you never do projects or field work. You may not need heavy budgeting tools on day one if a bookkeeper only posts invoices and payments. You do need the invoice, the stock relief, and the cash view to come from the same order. A finance suite that imports a weekly file will recreate the three-tool delay at month-end.
4. SIX ProjectFlow
A distributor signs off on a second warehouse: new racking, a stock transfer, barcode labels, and a cutover weekend. That job has a start, a budget, and three teams touching it. A routine pick, pack, and invoice order has none of that. Confuse the two and you either buy project software nobody opens, or run the actual project in email threads.
SIX ProjectFlow connects planning, tasks, budgets, and costs on one shared record. Managers can assign work, sequence the tasks, and watch spending against delivery. Because it sits on the same data foundation as sales, stock, and finance, the project pulls the same items, people, and costs as the order flow. A kitting program costed on the project reflects the same component prices a sales quote would use.
A Mint Jutras survey of 315 manufacturers and distributors found that 67% rated their ERP implementation successful or very successful, 31% saw only partial success, and 41% finished at or under budget, according to the Ultra Consultants summary of that survey. Treat the rollout itself as a project with an owner, a data-cleansing task, and a test of the 40-case shortage before go-live. Go live without that owner, and the rollout lands in the partial-success group the survey counted.
When a project record helps the order
Use a project when the work crosses teams and carries its own budget. The hypothetical branch fit-out needs racking, a stock transfer, staff training, and a cutover weekend, with tasks naming who moves the items and who signs off on count accuracy. A one-off sales order for 40 cases needs none of that structure.
Implementation: Map quote-to-cash and the shortage path before you configure screens.
Customer programs: Kitting, store rollouts, and seasonal resets can sit on a project with a cost and a due date.
Ordinary orders: Leave them on the sales, stock, and purchase flow. A project wrapper will only slow the pick.
If every order is pick, pack, and invoice, skip this module until a real cross-team job arrives. Adding it “because it is included” trains people to ignore it.
5. SIX PeopleFlow
Follow one order far enough and every step ends with a name. Sales owns the callback when a delivery comes up short. Purchasing owns the replacement receipt. A picker owns the count that keeps the stock figure honest.
SIX PeopleFlow connects employee records, working time, skills, and day-to-day HR administration. Managers can see who is trained for a picking zone or a delivery vehicle and which roles sit behind each account. On a hypothetical short order, the record ties the customer callback to the sales rep, the new purchase line to the buyer, and the stock adjustment to the one person authorized to post it.
A 2024 study reported that 21.3% of surveyed small and medium-sized enterprises used ERP systems, including 19.2% of small firms and 31.3% of medium-sized firms, in the Acta Oeconomica paper on ERP use. Smaller firms run leaner admin teams, so people data tends to live in memory and spreadsheets. That holds until two employees each assume the other called the customer back. The module only pays off once you name an owner for items, prices, and warehouse locations.
For a wider view of how ERP handles this work, from employee records to everyday processes, see the guide to human resource management in ERPs.
Staff the handoff, then stop
| Job on the order | Owner | What the record keeps |
|---|---|---|
| Count the short bin and post the adjustment | A trained warehouse user | The skill or authorization behind the posting |
| Approve the replacement purchase line | The buyer, with a named backup | Coverage when the primary owner is away |
| Work the cutover weekend | The people on site | Their time charged to that job |
Permissions follow the process. Write down who may change a promise date and who may only read it.
You can delay a full HR suite if payroll sits with an accountant and only a few users need records. Roles come first either way. A distributor running three tools often has three versions of who may change a quantity. Put the role on the order first, and add skills and time tracking when managers start using them.
In 2024, 41.1% of 860 global wholesale and distribution respondents named procurement and supply-chain disruption as a major growth challenge, in SAP Insights research. That pressure lands on named people. When the buyer sees the same shortage the sales rep promised to fix, the follow-up happens without a second meeting.
How the Five SIX Modules Relate to Distribution Work
A short order tests how well a distributor’s systems connect. Sales needs to see what is available; purchasing needs the short quantity; delivery and finance need the final shipment recorded accurately. These five modules support different points in that flow, but a distributor may not need all of them.
| Module | Order step it supports | Skip if |
|---|---|---|
| SIX CustomerFlow | Keeps customer records and interactions available when sales reviews an order or follows up on a short shipment. | Sales can manage customer relationships with its existing tools and does not need shared customer records. |
| SIX ServiceFlow | Connects a service request to scheduling, parts, on-site work, customer approvalAn approval is a formal decision that allows a request or action to proceed. An ERP system can route approvals and record who made each decision., and invoicing. | The business sells and ships goods without technician visits or service work. |
| SIX FinanceFlow | Carries billing and financial records through order completion, including when a shipment is partial. | The company’s current finance system already handles billing and controls, and does not need connected operational records. |
| SIX ProjectFlow | Tracks tasks and costs for a customer-specific rollout or other work managed as a project. | Orders are routine, with no project tasks, milestones, or costs to track. |
| SIX PeopleFlow | Supports workforce records and processes for the people responsible for order handoffs. | A small team can manage its records and responsibilities outside the ERP without disrupting the order flow. |
The order-level value depends on the handoff, not the module count. If a short shipment changes the customer promise, stock allocation, purchase requirement, delivery record, and invoice, the relevant modules need to share that information. Add modules where they connect work your team actually performs; leave out those that do not support a real process.
Choose the Best ERP for Distributors by Testing Your Own Orders
Five real orders will show you where an ERP earns its place. Take them into a demo or trial: one shortage, one partial shipment, one price exception, one return, and one ordinary pick. Follow each one from the customer call through availability, purchasing, fulfillment, delivery, and invoicing. Ask who sees the step first, which record changes, and what finance posts. On the shortage, check where the alert lands and who owns the new promise date. On the return, check whether the receiver can close it inside the system. If a step ends in a spreadsheet, the fit is not there yet.
European midsize firms faced the same question decades ago. A multi-country study reported that 27% had installed ERP in at least one functional area in 1998, with adoption projected to reach 56% by 2000, in a University of Galway paper. The deciding factor then, as now, was process ownership: a named person for the shortage call, the promise date, and the partial invoice. Your five orders expose who holds each of those today.
Talk with a SIX expert about your order flow, including the shortage that frustrates you most. If you are also comparing other platforms, read our guide to 11 Odoo alternatives, which lines systems up by workflow fit, integrationIntegration connects systems so they can exchange information or coordinate actions. An ERP integration helps link business tools and reduce manual transfers between them., flexibility, implementation effort, and total cost. Teams already weighing Microsoft tools can also review Business Central with HR Management 365 and then run the same five orders there. Bring your item master, your warehouses, and one ugly backorder. That test will tell you more than a feature count.
SIX ERP connects sales, purchasing, stock, delivery, finance, and the people who run them, so a short item does not vanish between tools. We map those steps to how your warehouses and orders really work, including mobile updates for the floor and the road. Visit SIX ERP and bring one real shortage with you.
