Industry · Wholesale & distribution
POS and stock system for Kenyan wholesalers
Wholesale is a margin business running on volume, which means it is destroyed by small errors repeated often. Two per cent lost on receiving, a quantity break applied by memory, a customer's agreed price forgotten by a new clerk — none of it is dramatic and all of it comes straight off the bottom line.
The specific difficulty is that a wholesaler buys in one unit and sells in several. Stock arrives in cartons and bales, leaves as cartons to some customers and singles to others, and is counted in whichever unit the storeman finds practical. Systems that model one unit per product force the business to keep two sets of figures and reconcile them by hand.
What solves it
Cartons in, pieces out
The conversion factor lives on the product, so receiving 200 cartons of 24 adds 4,800 sellable pieces and the cost per piece is derived rather than estimated.
Quantity breaks
The price steps down at the volumes you set, applied by the system. A clerk cannot forget the break and a customer cannot argue it.
Customer-specific price lists
Each account's agreed rates apply automatically at the counter and when they order through the online shop.
Purchase orders and goods-received notes
Receive against what you ordered so a short delivery surfaces at the gate, before the invoice is paid.
Delivery zones with real rates
A drop in Industrial Area and a drop in Nakuru are priced differently, and the fee is reported separately from the goods.
Ageing receivables
Trade customers buy on account. The debtor list ages by days outstanding so credit control is a routine rather than a crisis.
A worked example: two per cent on receiving
You order 200 cartons of cooking oil at KES 1,200 a carton — KES 240,000. The lorry arrives, the storeman counts what he can, and the invoice for 200 cartons is paid on Friday. Six cartons were never on the lorry.
That is KES 7,200 on one delivery, and it is invisible: the stock figure was increased from the invoice, so the system and the shelf disagree by six cartons and nobody knows until the stock take. At that point the shortfall is indistinguishable from theft, breakage or a miscount, so it gets written off as shrinkage and the supplier is never asked about it.
Receiving against the purchase order changes the arithmetic. The goods-received note records 194, the difference against the order is on screen before the invoice is approved, and the conversation with the supplier happens while the lorry is still in the yard. On a business buying KES 4,000,000 of stock a year, catching two per cent is KES 80,000 — many times what the software costs, from one procedural change.
- →PO says 200 cartons at KES 1,200
- →GRN records the 194 that actually arrived
- →The difference is visible before payment, not at stock take
- →Cost per piece derives from the carton price you really paid
The features this trade leans on
Each one goes deeper than this page does — start with the first.
Buying, suppliers and approvals
Purchase orders, goods-received notes, supplier bills and the cost figure every margin depends on.
Prices, price lists and promotions
Wholesale and retail off one product, quantity breaks, customer-specific lists, VAT-inclusive display.
Delivery that pays for itself
Zones with their own rates, so the delivery fee covers the delivery instead of eating the margin.
Reports and real accounting
Double-entry books — trial balance, P&L, balance sheet — not a CSV export to somebody else's software.
Questions from this trade
Can I buy in cartons and sell in single units?
Yes. The conversion factor is held on the product, so a receipt of 200 cartons of 24 becomes 4,800 sellable pieces in one movement and the cost per piece is derived from the carton price. Stock can be counted in cartons or pieces, whichever is practical.
Can different customers have different prices?
Yes, in two ways that combine. Quantity breaks step the price down by volume for everyone, and a customer-specific price list holds an individual account's agreed rates. Both apply automatically, at the counter and on the online shop.
How do I stop losing stock on deliveries?
Receive against the purchase order. The goods-received note records what actually arrived, and the difference from what was ordered is visible before the supplier invoice is paid. Catching short deliveries at the gate is the single highest-return control in a wholesale business.
Can trade customers order online?
Yes, and they see their own agreed prices when they do, because the storefront reads the same price lists as the till. Web orders and counter orders move the same stock and appear in the same reports, tagged by channel.
Does it handle delivery charges by area?
Yes. Delivery is priced by zone rather than one flat fee, so a nearby drop and an upcountry run are charged what they cost. The delivery line is reported separately from goods so you can see whether the service pays for itself.
Can I use it for more than one shop?
Yes. Branches share one product catalogue but hold their own stock, so a transfer between them is a recorded movement rather than a re-count. Reports run per branch or across all of them, and staff permissions are set per branch — a Kisumu supervisor does not need to see Nairobi's margins.
Can I sell online with the same system?
That is the point of it. The storefront reads the same products, the same branch stock and the same price lists as the till — there is no sync job and no separate ecommerce subscription. A web order and a counter sale move the same stock and land in the same report, tagged by channel so you can see which one is actually growing.
Will it show me my profit?
Yes, and from a real ledger rather than a sales total. Every sale posts to a double-entry chart of accounts, so you get a trial balance, profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow — not a CSV to hand your accountant. Margin is visible per product, per branch and per channel, because cost is tracked on the way in through purchase orders and goods-received notes.
Try it in your wholesale & distribution
Fourteen days, no card, no hardware to buy. Import your product list or let Amina build it from a photo of your price list.