Wholesale Distribution
When stock value doesn't match Xero or MYOB, landed cost lives in a spreadsheet and orders get retyped between systems, we connect your inventory, warehouse, ordering and accounting systems so the numbers agree.
- 20+ years connecting business systems
- Works with the accounting, job and CRM systems you already use
- Fixed quote after a free chat
The Problem
Most wholesalers and distributors have good software. The trouble is in the gaps between it. The inventory app says one stock value, Xero or MYOB says another. Landed cost is worked out in a spreadsheet after the container has been sold. The goods received not invoiced (GRNI) account keeps growing, backorders live on a separate list, and the stock take variance gets written off because nobody has time to find out why.
When you bring us in, we look at the whole path from purchase order to supplier invoice to customer order to the accounts, which is your procure to pay and order to cash process, and find where information is retyped, delayed or lost. Then we fix the process and connect the systems so stock, cost and money move through once, and the reports come out of the systems instead of a spreadsheet.
You keep the software you know. What changes is that it agrees, and you get a monthly picture of stock, margin and supplier liabilities you can trust.
The Systems a Wholesaler Usually Runs
Each piece does its own job well. The problems start where one hands over to the next.
Inventory app
Cin7, Unleashed or similar. Holds products, stock on hand, purchase orders, sales orders and often the price lists.
Accounting
Xero or MYOB. Holds the stock value on the balance sheet, supplier bills, customer invoices and GST: the numbers your accountant and the bank see.
Warehouse or 3PL
Your own warehouse, or a third-party logistics provider with its own system. It knows what is physically on the shelf.
Ordering channels
A B2B ordering site or Shopify store, reps, email and phone orders, and for some customers EDI or a portal.
Suppliers and freight
Supplier price files, freight forwarder and customs broker invoices, and carrier bookings with StarTrack, Toll, Australia Post and others.
The spreadsheets
Landed cost workings, backorder lists, customer pricing, the GRNI reconciliation and stock take variances. Usually where the real process lives.
Where the Data Gets Retyped
If more than a couple of these happen in your business every week, the numbers at month end are built on re-keying.
- Supplier price lists retyped or pasted into the inventory app, so cost prices and sell prices drift out of date.
- Purchase orders built in the inventory app, then emailed to the supplier, with order confirmations and changed delivery dates tracked in someone’s inbox.
- Freight forwarder, customs broker and duty invoices keyed into Xero or MYOB as expenses, weeks after the stock was received and sold at the wrong cost.
- Customer orders from email, reps or a portal retyped into the inventory app, and backorders kept on a separate list.
- Stock take counts and 3PL stock reports compared line by line against the inventory app, and adjustments entered twice.
The Four Problems Behind Most Month Ends
Landed cost arrives late
If you import, the supplier invoice is only part of the cost. Sea freight, local delivery, the customs broker's fees and duty usually turn up on separate invoices, often weeks after the goods are received. Cin7 and Unleashed can add these costs to a shipment, but only if someone enters them against the right purchase before the stock is sold. Otherwise stock is costed at supplier price, the extra costs land as expenses, and margins look better than they are. More in how to calculate landed cost on stock.
GRNI nobody can explain
Goods received not invoiced is the stock you have taken in but not yet been billed for. It should be a short, explainable list. In practice part shipments, price changes and invoices entered against the wrong purchase order leave a balance that grows until someone journals it away, hiding real liabilities and mistakes. See goods received not invoiced explained.
Stock value doesn't match the accounts
The stock on hand report in your inventory app and the inventory account in Xero or MYOB should agree. They drift apart when adjustments, write-offs and stock take variances don't flow through, when costs are posted straight to the inventory account, or when the timing of receipts and bills is out. A reconciling journal follows, and the cause is never fixed. Read why Cin7 or Unleashed stock value doesn't match Xero or MYOB.
Pricing and orders in too many places
Customer-specific pricing, contract rates and buying group deals often live in a spreadsheet, so a rep, the B2B ordering site and the person on the phone can quote different prices for the same product. Orders arrive by email, portal, EDI and phone, and backorders are tracked apart from the stock that will fill them.
The whole chain from purchase order to paying the supplier is covered in the procure to pay process for wholesalers and manufacturers.
The Reports Owners Ask Us For
None of these are exotic. They are hard to get only because the data sits in different systems that don't agree.
- True margin by customer and product, after freight, duty and customer-specific pricing.
- Stock value that matches the inventory account in Xero or MYOB at month end, without a reconciling journal.
- A GRNI balance you can explain line by line: what was received, from which supplier, and which invoice is still missing.
- Backorders by customer and by supplier, with the expected arrival of the stock that will fill them.
- Committed spend: open purchase orders and shipments on the water, not just bills already entered.
A Worked Example
This is a hypothetical business, put together from the kind of problems wholesalers describe. It is not a client.
Before
Say you import hardware and sell it to trade stores. You run Unleashed for stock, Xero for the accounts, a B2B ordering site for regular customers, and a 3PL holds most of the stock.
A container is received at supplier price. The freight forwarder's and customs broker's invoices arrive later and go into Xero as expenses. Customer price lists sit in a spreadsheet. The 3PL's stock report never quite matches Unleashed, and month end waits on your bookkeeper reconciling GRNI and stock value.
You suspect some products are sold at a loss once freight is included, but you can't prove which.
After
Each shipment gets a record that collects the supplier, freight, broker and duty invoices as they arrive, and spreads them across the stock in a way your accountant has agreed. Unleashed and Xero both carry the landed cost.
A GRNI report lists every receipt still waiting on an invoice, by supplier. The 3PL's stock is compared with Unleashed automatically and only differences go to a person. Price lists are kept in one place and pushed to every channel.
What changes: month end starts from numbers that already agree, and margin by customer and product includes the real cost of getting stock here.
What We Build and Connect
Process first, then the systems and data behind it.
Purchasing, landed cost and supplier invoices
Purchase orders, receipts and supplier invoices tied together, with freight and duty applied to stock.
- Landed cost captured per shipment and posted to stock
- Matching purchase order, receipt and supplier invoice
- Supplier price files loaded instead of retyped
- Landed cost and stock integration
Inventory app to Xero or MYOB
When the built-in connection isn't enough, we build one that posts stock movements and costs the way your accountant wants.
- Stock value that agrees with the balance sheet
- Stock take variances posted with a reason
- Exceptions reported rather than silently skipped
- Inventory management consultant
Warehouse, 3PL and freight
Orders to your warehouse or 3PL without retyping, with despatch, stock and tracking sent back.
- Orders out and despatch confirmations back
- 3PL stock compared with your inventory app
- Consignments and tracking without copy and paste
- Warehouse integration
Orders, pricing and B2B channels
Orders from a B2B site, Shopify, portals, EDI or email in one process, with customer-specific pricing kept in one place.
- One price list source for every channel
- Backorders visible against open purchase orders
- EDI and portal orders loaded, not retyped
- Shopify inventory integration
When an inventory app genuinely can't handle the way you work, we can build what is missing around it, or a custom inventory management system that still keeps Xero or MYOB for the accounts.
Who Does the Work
Kenomont is a business systems consultancy founded by Aaron Chambers, with 20+ years designing and connecting business systems. We work with businesses across Australia remotely and travel when a project needs it.
The same kind of problem shows up in our long-running work outside wholesale. We built a purchase order approval system for a large retirement living provider that has been in daily use since 2014, and a forestry export platform for Australian forestry companies, running since 2012, with weighbridge ticket data flowing in from the weighbridge system since 2015.
We can work alongside your accountant, bookkeeper or the partner who set up your inventory app or accounting software.
How an Engagement Starts
1. Free chat
A no-obligation conversation about what is going wrong, which systems you run and what you have tried. If we are not the right fit, we will say so.
2. Audit, if needed
If the cause isn't clear, the $5,000 Process & Systems Audit maps purchasing, receiving, orders and the accounts, and gives you a written report on what to fix first.
3. Fixed quote
We scope the work, agree the accounting treatment with your accountant or bookkeeper, and give you a fixed quote and a timeline.
4. Build and handover
We build and test against your real data, run it alongside the old way until the numbers agree, then hand over with documentation. Support after that is available if you want it.
When You Don't Need Us
Plenty of wholesalers don't. If you run one inventory app and one accounting package, and the built-in connection between them (for example Cin7 or Unleashed to Xero or MYOB) is set up properly, it is often enough. In that case the cheaper route is to have your bookkeeper or the app's implementation partner check the settings and the stock accounts.
If the problem sits inside one product, such as setting up a price list, that product's support team is the right place to ask. If you are choosing between inventory apps, our Cin7 vs Unleashed comparison is a good start.
We are most useful when the problem sits between systems or in the process: landed cost that never reaches stock, GRNI that won't reconcile, a 3PL or B2B channel that doesn't connect, or reporting that needs data from several places. If you think you may have outgrown Cin7 or Unleashed, that is worth a conversation too.
Related Services
The services wholesalers and distributors most often need.
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FAQ
What does it cost to fix the gaps between our inventory, warehouse and accounting systems?
Costs vary widely depending on the size of the business, how many systems are involved and how much needs to be custom-built, so we scope every project first and give you a fixed quote after a free initial chat. If you are not sure what to fix first, our $5,000 Process & Systems Audit gives you a written report on what to fix and in what order.
How long does a project like this take?
It depends on what is involved. Loading a supplier price file is a much smaller job than rebuilding how landed costs flow into Xero or MYOB. You get a timeline with the fixed quote, and larger work is staged so the first fix is in use before the next starts.
Do we need our own developer or IT person?
No. We do the design, build, testing and handover. We need time with the people who run purchasing, receiving, sales orders and the accounts, plus access to the systems. If someone already looks after your systems, we work with them and document everything.
Will it work with the systems we already use, like Cin7, Unleashed, Xero or MYOB?
Usually, yes. We work with what you already run: Cin7 or Unleashed, Xero or MYOB, Shopify or another B2B ordering site, your 3PL or warehouse system, and supplier or customer files and portals. We only suggest replacing something when keeping it would cost you more, and we tell you why.
Why doesn't our stock value match the inventory figure in Xero or MYOB?
Common causes are adjustments that never reach the accounts, freight and duty posted as expenses instead of stock cost, an unreconciled GRNI balance, journals posted straight to the inventory account, and month-end timing. We find which apply to you and fix the process and the connection so the figures agree and stay that way.
Can you help with landed cost and goods received not invoiced (GRNI)?
Yes. We set up how supplier, freight, customs broker and duty invoices are matched to the right shipment and spread across the stock, and how receipts without a supplier invoice are tracked, so stock cost and the GRNI balance can be explained line by line.
What happens if Cin7, Unleashed, Xero or MYOB change how their connections work?
Vendors do change their connections from time to time, usually with notice. We build on their published connection points, document what each integration depends on, and set up alerts so a failure is noticed straight away, not at month end. Support after handover is available.
Can you work with our accountant or bookkeeper?
Yes, and we prefer to. We agree the treatment of stock, landed cost and GRNI with them first, then make the systems post it the same way every time.
Should we replace our inventory app with a bigger system instead?
Not always. Fixing the process and connections around the app you have often goes further. If you have genuinely outgrown it, we help you weigh the options, which can include ERPNext running purchasing, inventory and orders alongside Xero or MYOB, which keep the accounts.
Not Sure Where to Start?
Book a free chat and tell us where stock, cost or orders stop agreeing. If the cause isn't clear, our $5,000 Process & Systems Audit maps your purchasing, warehouse, ordering and accounting systems and gives you a written report on what to fix first.
Or call 1300 470 091, email [email protected], or try the self-assessment.
Free Resource: Inventory Integration Toolkit
A guide (PDF) to finding and fixing the gaps between your inventory, warehouse and accounting systems, with a worksheet for mapping your own systems.
Get the Free Toolkit