Distributor Management System for Ghana's Auto Parts Trade

Brake components, steering assemblies, airbags and battery units are assigned a serial as soon as a consignment clears customs, not later at the warehouse. Stock releases are locked to that lot or serial number when a dispatch note is raised, and the number carries through to the dealer invoice and the workshop's fitment record. Should a manufacturer call a recall, every unit carrying an affected serial can be traced back to the exact dealer it was shipped to within minutes.

Segment pricing removes what would otherwise be a manual exercise on every order. Trade discounts, cedi-denominated credit terms and launch-period overrides are attached once to a dealer segment, tier-one dealer, jobber, workshop account, lubricant or tyre distributor, rather than reset order by order, so when a rep or dealer keys a purchase order the platform applies the correct price and terms on its own.

Every SKU carries a fitment record mapped to make, model, production year and engine variant, checked against recognised part specifications. An order line that does not match a known serial batch, shows a fitment mismatch, or arrives without a traceable lot number is held in a review queue rather than allocated to a dealer. That single check is what keeps a counterfeit or diverted unit from reaching a workshop counter under a genuine part number.

A dealer or workshop opens a claim against the part's serial number, the GHS invoice reference, the fitment date, and a description or photo of the failure. Technical sign-off happens inside the same workflow, and once a claim clears, one transaction raises the credit note and books the replacement dispatch together, so nothing is left half-updated in a separate spreadsheet.

Every dealer account carries a credit ceiling set in GHS. As MTN MoMo, Telecel Cash, AT Money, POS or bank-transfer receipts are reconciled against the ledger, the outstanding balance updates in real time, and new orders are blocked automatically the moment a dealer crosses that ceiling. Dispatch resumes only once payment clears, with every override logged for audit.

Volume and value schemes sit on top of the base price list with their own start and end dates. Once a dealer's order volume crosses a month-to-date or quarter-to-date threshold, the platform raises the credit note without anyone chasing it manually, and launch bonuses or free-goods offers attach themselves to qualifying orders at the point of sale. Live scheme-return tracking, in GHS, replaces a month-end reconciliation exercise.

Terms vary by account rather than by a blanket rule: a tier-one dealer typically runs on a longer credit cycle than a jobber or a smaller workshop account, and each account's terms are saved once and applied automatically on every order after that. Ageing dashboards surface which accounts are drifting towards their ceiling before it becomes a collections problem, with reminders queued ahead of due dates.

A recall starts with a sweep of the serial register for every unit in the affected batch. Dealer notifications go out immediately, carrying the serial list, the replacement process and a customer-facing notice template, and workshops or end customers can register their own units for follow-up. The recall only closes once each unit is confirmed returned, swapped or written off, with the full chain preserved for audit.

Yes. REST APIs connect to SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics and dealer-side systems already in use, so sales orders, GHS invoices, dispatch notes, goods-received notes, warranty claims, returns and POS or mobile-money receipts move across without double entry. Where a bulk daily sync suits better, SFTP feeds carry master data and serial-level inventory instead.

Each function gets a different lens on the same data: key account managers follow the dealer order book, sell-out and scheme return; operations watches dispatch turnaround and warranty resolution time; finance tracks GHS credit ageing, trade investment and reconciliation across POS and mobile-money receipts. Every view can be drilled down from a region to a single dealer to one serial number.