Getting started as a manufacturer or distributor

This walkthrough takes a manufacturer or distributor from a new account to making, stocking and shipping its goods, with purchasing and wholesale running on the same records. There is no calendar: the app opens on Inventory. Follow it in order.

1. Create the business

1. Choose Start free on BookNovi's site, or Create an account on the sign-in page, and make your account. The guided setup starts on its own.
2. Type the company's name under The business’s name, pick Manufacturing and distribution under Other kinds of business, and choose Next.
3. Check the Time zone, type the address and phone (or leave them for later), and choose Next.
4. Under What do you sell and book?: say yes to fulfillment if you store and ship goods for other brands, and to the sales CRM if you have reps calling on accounts. Choose Next.
5. Say how many people work there, how you heard of us and, if a rep or a partner gave you a code, type it in. Choose Start my business.

Inventory, wholesale and shipping are on for every maker.

The business opens with What to do next: the steps of this walkthrough as a list that ticks itself as each gets done, under the top bar and in your menu at the top right. Your free trial starts the same day; see Plans and billing.

2. Stock places, bins and units

1. Open Inventory, Setup, Where stock is kept. Add a location group for each building, and the locations in it: receiving, the floor, finished goods, quarantine. Set what each is for: received into, picked from, and available.
2. Under Bins, lay the warehouse out in aisles, bays and levels, and print their labels.
3. Under Units of measure and How units convert, add the units you buy and use in (drum, gallon, ounce, case) and how they convert.
4. Under Stock rule, decide whether stock may ever go below zero.

See Warehouses, bins and pick lists. Stock kept in more than one place, such as your warehouse, your plant and a 3PL, is followed location by location with advanced inventory, which manufacturing builds on; each building's address and hours are set in Admin.

3. Vendors and materials

1. Under Vendors, choose Add vendor for each supplier, with terms and lead time.
2. Under Parts, choose Add part for every raw material, component and package, and for each finished good you stock. Switch on lot numbers and expiration dates where they matter.
3. On each part, add who you buy it from on its Vendors tab, and set Reorder at and Order up to.

4. Formulas and finished goods

1. Under Formulas, write each blend by weight or by percent, with its batch size.
2. Under Finished goods, write each kit or filled unit from the parts it takes.
3. Under Make, pick one, say how much, check the stock it will take, and finish it: what was used comes out, and what was made goes in at what it cost.

See Formulas and production.

5. Production runs

If a contract manufacturer makes for you, open Production and start a run: what it makes, the maker, the materials each unit takes (yours or theirs), and waste. Send your materials, receive the finished goods back, and enter the maker's bill. Their charge becomes part of what each finished unit cost.

If you make it yourself, switch on manufacturing under Inventory, Setup, Manufacturing: your tanks, lines and rooms, the runs placed on them by priority and due day, the materials each week needs and what to buy by when. See Manufacturing: the schedule, materials and purchasing.

6. Purchasing

Open Purchasing. The Worksheet lists what to order and the day to order it by, from each item's forecast; see Purchasing: what to order and when. Build the order, review it, send it to the vendor, and mark it issued. Receive it under Receive when it arrives. A repeating order becomes a Standing order. Imports from abroad are followed in Shipping, under Coming in.

7. Products, wholesale and the store

1. Make a product of each finished good you sell (open the part and choose Make a product of it).
2. In Products, Wholesale, set up account types, price lists and terms, and switch on applications under Store settings.
3. Take orders for an account from the wholesale catalog, or let buyers order from your store.

See Wholesale.

8. Shipping and freight

In Shipping, Settings, connect your parcel carrier accounts and your LTL freight carriers, add boxes and where you ship from, and your GS1 Company Prefix if you have one. Orders wait under To Ship: buy a label, or book freight with its bill of lading. See Shipping.

9. Fulfillment for other brands

If you store and ship for others, open Shipping, Clients. Each client gets a short code, its own items, the shipments it sends in, its orders, its rates and its invoices, and a portal at your store. See Fulfillment for other businesses.

Best practices

• Get units right before anything else. A formula in grams, materials bought in drums and sold in bottles all depend on the conversions.
• Turn on lot numbers and expiration dates for every material and finished good from the start. A recall or an audit needs them.
• Count a few bins every day (the ones counted longest ago first) rather than closing for a full count.
• Let the reorder levels and lead times drive purchasing, and look at the Worksheet every morning.
• Keep the receiving dock its own location, set not to be picked from, so nothing ships before it is put away.