Beverage distributor software checklist

Use this checklist to evaluate any system the team is considering, including the one you have now. The goal is not to score vendors; it is to surface gaps in capability before they become operational incidents.

Inventory

• Multiple warehouses with their own stock balances.
• Batch-level tracking with vintage and expiry dates.
• FIFO suggestion at pick time, not at month-end.
• Stock movements that are typed, audited, and reversible.
• Reorder view combining on-hand, allocated, in-transit, and run-rate.

Pricing

• Versioned price lists scoped to accounts or channels.
• Effective-from and effective-to dates per price list.
• Multiple currencies with daily FX and historical rate retention.
• Excise, fees, and tax handled as explicit lines, not buried in unit price.
• A launch calculator that models channel margins end to end.

Sales workflow

• Quote → sales order → pick list → shipment → invoice as one connected object.
• Customer-level credit limits and payment terms.
• Allocations at batch level, not just SKU level.
• Partial shipments and back-orders handled without manual re-keying.
• Returns that put the right batch back on the right shelf.

Purchasing and supplier flow

• Purchase orders in supplier currency with landed cost calculation.
• Goods receipts that capture batch and expiry at the dock.
• Supplier invoices matched three-way against PO and GR.
• Supplier payments and FX gain/loss recognised correctly.

Reporting and finance

• Margin reporting at SKU, account, channel, and salesperson level.
• AR and AP aging available in one click, not one week.
• Stock valuation snapshots that you can reproduce historically.
• Exports that finance can hand straight to the accountant.

Operational hygiene

• Role-based permissions with deny-wins overrides for sensitive actions.
• Audit log of who changed what, when, and from where.
• New users productive in days, not weeks.
• A real support relationship, not just a ticket portal.