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Distribution and Dealers

Distribution and Dealers is distributor management and field sales for manufacturers who sell through a channel. It keeps your CFAs, super stockists, distributors and dealers, and the retailers they serve, on territories and beats. Orders are priced with channel price lists and a schemes engine, distributor orders become Books invoices shipped from your warehouse, field reps work an offline mobile day, and claims are validated and settled as Books credit notes. Partners have their own portal.

Primary sales are your sales to channel partners (your invoices in Books). Secondary sales are the distributor's sales to retailers (the distributor's own invoices, kept in this app, not in your books).

Who uses it​

  • Distribution admin: owns settings, partners, outlets, products, price lists and schemes; approves orders, schemes and claims.
  • Sales manager (area or regional manager): runs their territories, approves journey plans, new outlets and orders over credit, verifies photos and claims, and watches the live view.
  • Field sales rep: works their beats on the mobile app.
  • Distributor or dealer: an outside user who uses the partner portal.
  • Finance admin: approves credit excesses, large claims and large scheme budgets.

Before you start​

  • Your company is set up in Thoshika and Distribution is switched on for it.
  • Books is on, with your GST registrations, so partners can be customers and orders can become invoices.
  • Inventory is on if you want orders picked, packed and shipped from a warehouse or CFA; otherwise Books issues stock directly.
  • People is on so reps are workers, leave blocks their plans and day start and end become attendance.
  • Products exist as stock items (in Inventory or Books) with HSN and GST rates.
  • Sales managers and reps are given roles limited to their territories or beats.

Set up​

  1. Settings. Review approval thresholds, geofence radius, working hours for GPS, claim SLA, tax treatment options and default margins.
  2. Territories. Build the zone, region, area and territory tree and name the manager for each node.
  3. Partners. Add CFAs, super stockists, distributors and dealers with GSTIN, PAN, KYC documents, serving warehouse, margin, payment terms and stock norm. Each partner is matched to or created as a Books customer.
  4. Products. Link each SKU to its stock item and add brand, category, pack, case size, MRP and must-sell flags.
  5. Price lists. Create primary lists (to partners) and secondary lists (to retailers), with filters, validity and priority. Rates exclude GST.
  6. Outlets and beats. Import or add retailers, group them into beats with visit days, assign a distributor and rep, and optimise the visiting sequence.
  7. Reps and targets. Add reps with their territory, manager and beats, and set monthly value and volume targets.
  8. Schemes. Create your first scheme, test it in the simulator and submit it for approval.
  9. Portal users. Invite a login for each partner that will use the portal.

Key workflows​

Take a distributor order​

  1. The distributor places an order in the portal (or a rep or admin does it for them, or you accept a suggested replenishment).
  2. Prices come from the primary list and schemes are applied. On submit, credit limit and overdue amounts are checked against Books.
  3. Within limits the order is approved; otherwise it goes to the area manager and, for large excesses, finance.
  4. Approved orders become Books sales orders. With Inventory on, the warehouse picks, packs and ships, and shipping raises the Books invoice.
  5. The distributor confirms receipt in the portal. Short or damaged quantities raise a transit claim.

Run a rep's day​

  1. The rep starts the day in the app, which records attendance and, if they have opted in, location.
  2. They follow the beat for the day and check in at each outlet; check-ins far from the outlet are flagged.
  3. At each outlet they can take an order with schemes applied, audit stock, take photos, collect payment or record why there was no order.
  4. They end the day. Everything recorded offline syncs, and the server reprices and flags any differences.

Bill retailers as a distributor​

  1. The distributor opens secondary orders booked by reps in the portal.
  2. They bill them in their own invoice series; stock leaves their ledger by batch, earliest expiry first.
  3. They print the load sheet for each beat and mark orders delivered. Retailer returns go back to stock or to a damaged bucket.

Settle a claim​

  1. Claims are raised by the distributor (damage, expiry, scheme) or created automatically (target, display, price drop, transit).
  2. The app validates each claim against secondary sales, the scheme ledger or distributor stock and trims anything above the validated amount.
  3. The area manager verifies, the admin approves and finance approves large amounts.
  4. Settlement posts a Books credit note to the partner, with or without GST as the scheme's tax treatment says.

India specifics​

  • Primary invoices are raised from the serving warehouse's GSTIN; secondary invoices from the distributor's GSTIN. Place of supply decides CGST and SGST or IGST.
  • Free goods appear as invoice lines at list price with a 100 percent discount.
  • On-invoice discounts reduce the taxable value. Post-supply discounts are settled as GST credit notes or financial credit notes, set per scheme.
  • Benefits that are not discounts are tracked per dealer for section 194R with a threshold flag; TDS filing stays outside this app.
  • These treatments are settings because practice and rules change; confirm them with your CA.

Works with other apps​

  • Books: partner customers, sales orders, invoices, credit notes, credit limits and statements.
  • Inventory: delivery orders, picking, packing, shipping and e-way bill JSON.
  • People: reps, leave, holidays and attendance.
  • CRM: partner accounts and deals for prospective distributors.
  • Analytics: channel figures alongside the rest of the business.
  • Integration Hub: order and claim events for other systems.
  • The mobile app carries the rep's offline day and the manager's team view.

Next steps​