Choose Odoo ERP for Logistics and Transportation Management in Wholesale Companies

Odoo ERP software is an end-to-end solution to manage and streamline business processes. It is especially useful for logistics management in wholesale and retail companies. Companies can resolve critical business processes like accounting, inventory management, warehouse management, supply chain management, CRM (customer relationship management), procurement management, reporting and analytics, and product lifecycle management through Odoo software.

Challenges Faced by Wholesale Companies 

• • Error-prone and redundant data.
  • Too much software to manage operations.
    
  • Slow business operations.
    
  • Difficulty in training staff with different software.
    
  • Difficult to gain insights about how the business is doing.
    
  • Difficult to make informed decisions about cost.

Features and Benefits of Using Odoo ERP for Logistics and Supply Chain Management 

Implementing Odoo for logistics can help businesses manage their operations efficiently. Odoo ERP system offers unique capabilities to execute business operations and resolve challenges faced by wholesale companies.

The following modules of Odoo ensure improved logistic operations in wholesale companies:

1. Accurate Accounting and Invoicing Operations

The Accounting module helps wholesale companies manage activities like transactions, and bookkeeping, as well as generate financial reports. This module is integrated with Sales, Inventory, Purchase, and e-Commerce to manage business operations seamlessly. Odoo helps with document management to avoid errors and data redundancy issues. It is faster than many other ERPs present in the market and performs the following operations:

• • Generating vendor bills quickly.
    
  •  AI-powered capabilities to capture invoice data.
    
  • Capture expense bills through mobile and let AI generate the bill.
    
  • Automated process to import bank statements. Odoo supports 28,000 banks globally.
    

AI-powered tool to match 95% of the financial transactions with the records.

2. Managing Warehouse Operations / Inventory Management

The Inventory management module is capable of managing all warehouse operations of incoming and outgoing items.

• • It automates the process through an interactive dashboard that keeps a check of delivery items, back order items, dropshipping items, and laid items.
    
  • It helps you keep track of every item through barcode scanning operations supported by WiFi, Bluetooth, or USB.
    
  • It can be integrated with renowned delivery services like FedEx. It can easily validate and generate invoices including the cost of shipping. 
    
  • Users can monitor and get access to information about sales, purchases, inventory, etc.
    
  • The forecasting report feature enables users to make informed decisions about ordering products.
    
  • Configuring information for a new warehouse setup is easy through Odoo logistics capabilities. In addition, its reporting feature includes forecasting, traceability, and costing to make informed decisions before implementation. You can also customize reports with filter, group, and drill-down options.
    

The Inventory management module improves logistics operations by integrating with PoS, Sales, Purchase, MRP, eCommerce, and Rental modules.

3. Fleet Management

 

Odoo has a dedicated module for Fleet Management. It is an important application to manage and track company vehicle updates.

• • This includes managing vehicle contracts, receiving emails on their expiry, and renewing or ending the contract through this module.
    
  • Users can streamline services for the vehicles and communicate the same to the service providers, as well as manage invoices.
    
  • This module with its user-friendly UI helps you set up insurance policies for your vehicles.
    
  • Cost monitoring and analysis can be done for service and lease contracts. The Fleet Management module also allows the adding of recurring costs of contracts.
    
  • Adding and managing fuel and repair costs can be also done through the Fleet Management module.

The analysis and reporting feature under the Fleet management application also automatically generates reports for understanding various expenses associated with the vehicles.

4. Shipping connectors

Odoo management system allows adding third-party shipping connectors to help businesses keep track of their shipments in real time. This can be achieved by adding some of the well-known connectors like UPS, FedEx, etc. It can help businesses to make informed decisions for timely delivery of shipments.  

5. Procurement Management (Purchase)

Wholesale companies always need to restock goods so they never run out. This process is tedious without a streamlined and automated process. Odoo’s efficient Purchase application is capable of resolving all procurement-related issues in a few steps. 

• • To make any purchase, businesses can request quotations with the RFQ process, create custom rules for RFQ, and purchase orders to take care of reordering as well.
    
  • Ease of the procurement process using automated as well as customizable purchase agreements. It helps businesses to make the most advantageous move by comparing product lines and making purchases from different vendors.
    
  • Customized vendor bills based on purchases made.
    
  • Makes the procurement process easier with different variants and units for measuring quantity.

 6. Sales

Wholesale companies sell products to different retailers. This is why they need to maintain data about the pricing at which they sell their products to various retail companies. This complex task is simplified by using Odoo. Odoo offers an interactive UI that helps wholesale businesses perform the following functions: 

• • Create professional quotations.
    
  • Use of quote templates to automate processes like applying pricelist and tax for every customer.
    
  • Manage sales orders.
    
  • Maintain an e-commerce portal.
    
  • Customer portal to help customers access necessary information like quotations, sales, and delivery orders.
    
  • Focus on qualified leads using the AI-powered lead scoring function.
    
  • Different programs to keep customers engaged like promotions, loyalty programs, price lists, etc.
    
  • Freedom to set product details like cost, variants available, and much more, integrated with important apps like e-Commerce, Inventory, and Manufacturing.

7. Customer Relationship Management

Odoo ERP provides a CRM application to empower sales.

• • It can help your business manage and track leads and efficiently organize opportunities with the help of Kanban view.
    
  • CRM is capable of enhancing customer engagement through calls, meetings, emails, and quotations. Thus, it is easy to follow up with customers directly from the CRM.
    
  • All communications via email are consolidated in a pipeline within the CRM tool to ensure smooth workflow.

Human Resources

 

Human resource features can include modules like Employees, Payroll, Time-Off, etc. This is an important module to include for the wholesale industry. The benefits of including this module are as follows:

• • It helps streamline processes and makes sure critical deliverables happen smoothly.
    
  • Your company can conduct recruitment, track leaves, grant appraisals, conduct meetings with employees, etc.

Why do Wholesale Companies Use Odoo as Their Business Management Software for Transportation and Logistics Management?

Odoo is an efficient tool for wholesale companies as it provides useful insights for managing different business operations. Wholesale companies can benefit from Odoo in the following ways:

• • Access to real-time data.
    
  • Secures customer data.
    
  • Manage costs efficiently.
    
  • Manage leads and workflows easily.
    
  • Interactive dashboard for accessing important information in one place.
    
  • Integrated applications that share data.
    
  • Avoids the need to buy separate applications.
    
  • Easy for employees to work with.
    
  • Executes any task in a few minutes.
    
  • Can be customized for wholesale businesses to meet business needs.

Conclusion

Confianz understands that every wholesale business has its own set of challenges. This is why we are happy to create custom software solutions using Odoo to cater to your distinct business needs. It will empower you to resolve business issues, manage every aspect of your business efficiently, and save time to grow it too. 

For implementation and workflow optimization contact Confianz today!