Buy it, hold it, ship it, invoice it — on one set of records
Distributors lose margin in the seams — between the purchase order and the receipt, the pick and the invoice, the return and the credit. Alef Solutions runs buying, the warehouse, shipping and the ledger on one item catalogue and one customer record, so none of those seams needs a spreadsheet to cross.
Buying that already knows what it should cost
Purchase orders are built against a workspace-wide supplier price book, so the buyer sees cost, minimum order quantity, lead time and price breaks per item and supplier before anything is committed.
- A supplier price book across every item — cost per unit, minimum order quantity and lead time, filterable by supplier and brand
- A reorder page that groups tripped items by supplier and seeds a draft purchase order at the suggested quantities
- Landed cost applied to a receipt, so margin is measured against what the stock actually cost to land
Inbound that closes the loop with your suppliers
Advance ship notices arrive by hand or over EDI. An imported ASN is previewed line by line — what matched an item, what did not — before it creates anything.
- X12 856 and EDIFACT DESADV import, with a dry-run preview and per-line match status
- Scan-first receiving against the purchase order, then directed put-away to the bin the item is ranked for
- Lots, serials and expiry captured at receipt and carried through every later movement
Outbound that ends in an invoice, not a re-key
An outbound order allocates from real on-hand stock, packs into real cartons and ships. The customer invoice comes off that shipment instead of being typed again somewhere else.
- Allocation by FEFO, FIFO or LIFO against on-hand stock
- A packing station that builds cartons from what was picked, with cases and pallets tracked as handling units
- Ship with an optional customer invoice, priced per line
- Grouped wave picking is rolling out — switched on per account
Returns and the money in the same system
A customer return is taken in against the order or invoice it came from, credited, and either restocked or scrapped. Then aging shows who actually owes what.
- Returns with a restock-or-scrap decision per line
- Customer invoices, supplier bills, credit notes and payments in one finance module
- AR and AP aging, ledger, period close, and profitability by customer, item or cost centre
Modules Wholesale & Distribution businesses use
Start with the module that hurts most; add the rest when you're ready — they share one login and one set of records. See the module library and pricing.
- Inventory
- Warehouse Management
- Purchasing
- Finance
- CRM
- Reports
Questions operators ask
Do we have to replace our accounting system?
No, and most operators do not. The Finance module covers customer invoices, supplier bills, credit notes, payments, AR/AP aging, the ledger and period close — but it does not do tax filing or bank feeds, and we do not pitch it as a replacement for your accountant’s software. Plenty of businesses run both, with operations here and statutory accounts where they already are.
Can we receive EDI from our suppliers?
Inbound advance ship notices, yes — paste an X12 856 or EDIFACT DESADV and preview it line by line, with per-line match status, before it creates anything. That is the limit of what we claim today: there is no outbound 856 or 810, and no general-purpose EDI gateway. If your customers mandate outbound documents, say so early and we will scope it rather than surprise you.
What happens to our supplier price lists?
You upload the one the supplier actually sent — CSV, Excel or PDF. The rows are parsed and matched to your items and you review the match before a single line is written, so a bad file costs you a glance rather than a cleanup. PDF extraction needs an AI provider configured on your account; CSV and Excel do not.
Do we have to buy the whole platform to start?
No. You turn on the modules you need and pay per app, per person — someone who only uses inventory is not billed for finance. Most distributors start with the module that hurts most and add the rest once it is earning its keep.
See it on your operation
Create an account, or tell us how your Wholesale & Distribution business works and we'll show you the fit.