Cashflow OS for distributors

How a distribution business actually runs

Most distributors buy from one or a few principal companies, hold stock in a godown and sell on credit to a few hundred retailers and sub-dealers. The day usually looks like this:

• Morning: salesmen leave on their beat, each covering an area or a set of shops on fixed days.
• Through the day: orders come in by phone, WhatsApp or a written order book. Payments are collected as cash, cheque or UPI.
• Evening: orders are punched into Tally, invoices are printed, goods are loaded for next-day delivery.
• Month-end: outstanding is chased, scheme claims are made to the company and the books are tidied for GST.

The weak point is the gap between the market and the Tally PC. Everything the salesman learns has to travel back to the office before it becomes a number anyone can use.

Where the money gets stuck

Distribution margins are thin, so credit control decides whether the year is good. A simple example: if you sell ₹30,00,000 a month and the market takes 45 days on average instead of the 30 you agreed, roughly an extra ₹15,00,000 is sitting with retailers instead of in your bank. That is working capital you are financing, often with a CC limit.

The fix is boring but effective: bill-wise outstanding, an ageing view and a salesman who knows the exact pending bills before he walks into the shop. Our guide on credit control for distributors covers the policy side; the tooling side is about putting the numbers where the conversation happens.

What Cashflow OS does for a distributor

Cashflow OS is a mobile and web app that works on top of TallyPrime. A small Windows connector on your Tally PC keeps a synced copy of the books, so the team sees the same figures Tally shows.

• Outstanding on the phone: bill-wise receivables with ageing, party by party. A salesman can see what a retailer owes before collecting.
• Statements on WhatsApp: send a party statement as a PDF in Tally's format, or a simple Hindi हिसाब page.
• Orders into Tally: salesmen can create sales orders with lines and GST from the field; once the owner switches writing on, the connector posts them into Tally, which validates each entry. Orders from frontline staff can be set to need approval first.
• Price lists: dealer types such as A, B and C with layered discount rules, so the rate a salesman uses is the rate you decided.

Running the field team

With the field force module switched on, you can mark dealer locations, set areas and route plans, and see recommended visits. Salesmen check in at a visit with their location, add notes and photos, and apply for leave in the app. The owner gets a performance view of the team.

The salesperson role matters here: a salesperson sees items and their own customers, not the company's accounts. You can give the whole team the app without opening your Balance Sheet to them. The staff app gives each salesperson a Today screen with customers to attend, visits, orders and collections, and they can record what they collected. For planning the beat itself, see sales beat planning.

A typical day with Tally and Cashflow OS

Nothing here replaces Tally. Invoicing, GST and the final books stay in TallyPrime; Cashflow OS removes the retyping and the waiting.

Before you start

• Clean up party names and groups in Tally first. The app shows what Tally has, so duplicate ledgers stay duplicate.
• Use bill-wise details for debtors in Tally, or ageing will be thin. Our note on bill-wise details explains why.
• Decide who approves salesman orders and keep writing into Tally off until you have tested a few entries.
• Map each salesman to his customers so the salesperson view shows the right list.