What SAP already knows, and what the app could do with it

Account status wherever the account appears

A chip on the client list and the client page: "Owes $4,120 · $1,850 overdue · 30 days EOM · limit $10k", and a red ON HOLD when SAP says so. The order desk sees it above the SAP number field, so nobody keys an order for a stopped account and rings back later. The customer shop shows the hold as a banner with the branch number, and an order placed while on hold lands on the desk flagged instead of sailing through. A rep gets a ping the morning an account in their book goes on hold or over its limit. Three accounts are on hold today, and 618 of the 836 sit on the $2,000 default limit, so the over-limit ping only fires for accounts whose limit was actually set.

Who it helps: the desk (no awkward callbacks), reps (they hear it from the app, not the customer), branch managers (credit control from the phone). Customers see only their own balance and due dates.

Days to pay, and who to visit before month end

Each account's average days to pay over twelve months, and in the last week of the month a card for managers: "6 accounts over 60 days, $23k, ranked".

Who it helps: Matt, Montana, branch managers.

Find an invoice by the customer's PO number

The PO number and the desk's comment sit on every SAP invoice. Customers and reps can search by it. It is the thing customers ring the desk for most.

Who it helps: customers, the desk, reps. Half a day.

Prove every portal order reached SAP, automatically

The order file the desk imports already stamps "Lays Trade LT-n" on the SAP order. Reading that stamp back, the app can match each portal order to its SAP order exactly, then move it along on its own: keyed, out for delivery when the delivery note appears, delivered and invoiced when the invoice does. The customer's timeline shows each SAP number as it happens. Every pilot order ends up with its SAP order, delivery and invoice numbers on one screen.

Who it helps: Matt (proof the customer ordering works end to end), the desk (no manual status taps), customers (they see it is in the system).

Backorder dates a customer can be told

Match each open order line to the purchase order for the same item at the same branch. The client page and the customer's "On order with Lays" say "expected around Tue 16 Sep" per line, or, for staff only, "no purchase order raised yet" in red. Managers see "14 order lines past their promised date" on Today, so the branch rings the customer first.

Who it helps: reps (the most common question they cannot answer from the app today), customers, Josh (the "not even on order" list is his).

"It landed" pings

Goods received since the last sync, matched to waiting order lines, ping the rep ("Toitoi's 14G teks landed at Wanaka, 12 of 12") and the customer's login. Purchasing gets the short-shipped list.

Who it helps: reps, customers, Josh.

Delivery notes become the run

Open delivery notes for a branch appear in the run builder as suggested stops with SAP's address and the customer's PO, one tap to add. There were 54 open delivery notes in SAP at the time of checking, all from that day, so the 7pm run is closing them cleanly. Today most of Wyatt's stops are typed in by hand because the order never touched the app. After 7pm the stop matches the invoice it became, so delivery history is complete for phoned-in orders too.

Who it helps: the desk (no re-typing addresses), Wyatt (his day is built for him), customers.

SAP's delivery instructions on the stop

"Ring before delivery", "leave at gate 2", "site closed Fridays" already live on the customer card in SAP. Show them on Wyatt's stop, the desk order and the phone order.

Who it helps: Wyatt, the desk. Half a day.

One quote list per client, and a chase list that writes itself

The client page lists open SAP quotes beside the app's own. Today shows each rep "quotes to chase": open quotes in their book from the last month or so, oldest first. Trends shows quote-to-order conversion per rep and branch, measured from what SAP actually converted.

One thing the check turned up: SAP has 1,733 quotations still open, and 1,603 of them are older than 90 days, so quotes are never closed off once they are won or lost. Of the 344 quotes raised in the last six months, 57 became orders, about one in six. The app can list the stale ones by rep and age for a one-off clean-up, keep the chase list to the 130 that are still live, and show conversion per rep from then on.

Who it helps: reps, Matt Welsh (conversion by person, with real numbers), the desk (no double quoting). Quote values follow the same three-month window reps already have.

Known sites at checkout and on phone orders

Since SAP has no site addresses, the app builds each account's sites from its own record: every delivery stop Wyatt has signed off, every portal order, and the account's default address. Customers pick "Site A / Site B / new address" instead of typing, reps get the same picker on a phone order, and the list gets better with every delivery.

Who it helps: customers (three taps), the desk (no re-typing), Wyatt.

People on the account

Every active contact with Call, text and email buttons (roles are mostly blank in SAP, so the app lets reps tag them). When a customer login is approved, the app offers the account's other contacts as extra logins.

Who it helps: reps (the foreman's mobile without ringing the office), the customer invite process.

New accounts that have not ordered yet

"3 accounts opened this month, 1 has not ordered yet" on Today for the rep and the branch manager, and an automatic follow-up two weeks after the first order.

Who it helps: reps, branch managers.

Hot Points, with the history behind the balance

Reps already see the balance. Customers never do. SAP also holds the whole Hot Points ledger: 5,360 transactions, each earned when a payment comes in, and a point is a dollar. Against those 5,360 earns there have been 48 spends in total, so nearly every dollar earned is still sitting there. Customers can see their balance and history on their Account page with a plain "$42 of Hot Points to spend", and a rep sees which accounts are sitting on a big balance before a visit. That turns the scheme into a reason to come back. No prices involved.

Who it helps: customers (a reason to log in and to spend), reps (a closer on a visit).

Available stock, not just on hand

Every stock chip shows what is actually free and, when different, "8 on hand, 5 promised", so a rep does not sell the same box twice. Reorder and transfer suggestions use the same number.

Who it helps: reps, the desk, Josh.

Retired items, pack sizes, supplier part numbers

The 66 items SAP marks retired drop out of search and the shop. SAP's pack-size fields are blank at Lays, so the app reads "box of 100" off the item name, counts in boxes, and lists the names it cannot read for Josh to tidy. The 370 supplier part numbers already keyed in SAP go onto the purchase order file so suppliers see their own codes, and a Sika or Soudal code typed off a box finds the item.

Who it helps: customers and reps (no "three screws or three boxes"), the desk, Josh.

Real lead times and the stock ledger

SAP has no minimum or maximum levels set at Lays, so the app's reorder page is the system. It gets better with real supplier lead times measured from PO to receipt, and the movement ledger explains dead and negative stock ("last sold 14 months ago, last received 3 months ago"). If Josh wants SAP's own alerts, the app can hand its minimums back to SAP.

Who it helps: Josh, and the stock-turn number on Purchasing.

Alternatives the app learns

SAP's alternative-items table has eight rows, so it is not the answer. The app can learn alternatives as staff teach them (the way the search already learns words), offer the substitute and where it is when an item is out, and hand the list back to SAP.

Who it helps: reps, customers, the counter.

True margin

SAP has the profit on every one of the 97,806 invoice lines, so branch margin on Trends and the MISC report can use the real posted cost instead of today's average cost, and margin by client, rep and product group becomes available. Never shown to reps, managers, office or customers.

Who it helps: Matt and Montana.

Discount discipline

Only about two lines in a hundred carry a manual discount, which says pricing runs properly on tiers and special prices. A small view of where those discounts go (by rep, by customer, what they add up to) still earns its place, and the fix for a repeat customer is a proper special price, which the app can prepare for SAP.

Who it helps: Matt, Montana, branch managers (leakage nobody can see today).

Pilot price check

Before a customer is invited onto the ordering portal, compare what they were actually charged over six months with what the app would quote. Any line where the app comes out higher gets fixed in SAP first, so a rep quoting from the phone never contradicts the counter.

Who it helps: the pilot customers' trust, reps, the desk.

An "SAP outbox" in Admin

Rep reassignments made in the app (so the next import stops undoing them), special prices a manager approves, minimum levels Josh sets, taught alternatives, visit notes so they show in SAP too, and stock transfers once received. One page, a download per file, and a check on the next import that it landed. On the day a live SAP connection exists, each of these becomes a direct write instead of a file.

Who it helps: Gert and Josh (no double keying), everyone who has ever had an assignment overwritten.