Commercial management refers to the unified management of all sales processes such as: quotes, invoicing, customer receivables and supplier management. It is planning and organization software, at the heart of the company’s activity, straddling customer relations and operations.
What is business management software?
Definition
Commercial management software is professional solutions that promote unified management of points of sale. It is also called ERP Retail or point of sale. It can manage different functions of a retail store and allows all businesses to optimize their activity chain from stock to issuing invoices:
- Management of invoices and purchase orders
- Management of delivery notes
- Purchasing and sales management
- Monitoring customer payments and reminders
- Management of suppliers and purchase prices
All these modules allow you to continually work on up-to-date data.
How it works ?
Commercial management solutions are made up of modules . You access an interface online and carry out actions related to each module to which you have subscribed:
- Invoicing management to create quotes and invoices, send them to the customer and archive them.
- Customer and supplier relationship management to view customer and supplier debts, contracts, send reminders, etc.
- Purchasing and sales management and inventory management to track production flows and manage inventory in real time.
- Financial management to track your organization’s financial flows and interact with your accountant.
These solutions are interoperable with your internal information system in order to optimize certain processes:
- Enrich your CRM with the latest requests from your customers, payment information, etc.
- Automate the sending of invoices to your accounting tool so that it records the associated accounting entries
- Etc.
What are the main features of commercial management software?
Retail management software allows professional and secure sales management. Point of sale management software provides an overview of the commercial activity of the point of sale or network.
To address the functionalities of these SaaS management solutions, we can detail the main modules.
Billing management
Using customizable models and blocks , you create your quotes, invoices, down payments, purchase orders, delivery notes, etc., and send them to your customers.
On each invoice, you can apply personalized rates , sales and other promotions . You can also save recurring promotions and apply them with a single click. The invoicing tool centralizes all your invoices and ensures flawless traceability.
Some tools have a collaborative space where your customers and suppliers can view a history of transactions carried out. Commercial management software complies with regulatory obligations regarding electronic invoicing (security and confidentiality).
Customer and supplier relationship management
Point-of-sale software stores your customers’ business history : quotes, paid, unpaid and pending invoices.
You can also categorize your customers :
- To build loyalty operations for the best customers
- To control outstanding amounts or apply restrictions
- To obtain a statement of customers awaiting payment or billing
- Etc.
You manage all your customer receivables and can schedule automatic reminders .
Concerning your suppliers, you manage the payment deadlines specific to each one directly in the tool.
Purchasing, sales and inventory management
Online, you manage your stocks in a just-in-time manner :
- Supplies : definition of minimum and maximum stocks to be respected, definition of a purchasing quantity, choice of supplier, etc.
- Stock movements: entries, exits , transfers
- Inventory valuation according to the accounting method of your choice: CUMP, FIFO, LIFO
In real time, view stocks and perform excellent stock management, access the price catalog charged by your suppliers and optimize order management.
Cash register management can concern a point of sale or, on the contrary, be deployed in a network of stores. It also allows the sales manager and management to obtain statistics: periodic sales by item/category, average basket, best seller, best items by store, etc. This IT solution can be interfaced with EBP commercial management software.
The data from your purchases and sales is automatically transferred to your accounting tool to be recorded in your accounts.
Organizational management
Commercial management tools are central to the commercial and strategic management of your company (from VSEs, SMEs to large companies).
Analysis tools allow you to view key performance indicators ( KPIs ) in real time:
- Cost structure analysis
- Invoiced and prospective turnover, cash flow
- Deliveries in progress and delays
- Amount of customer receivables and supplier debts
- Etc.
A dashboard allows you to produce tailor-made KPIs in order to improve the productivity or margins of your company, for example.
Your business data is backed up and secured in a cloud.
Who uses retail software?
Commercial management tools are transversal. They are used by the different functions:
- Salespeople and sales assistants to produce quotes and invoices
- Purchasing and logistics managers to manage company stocks
- Accountants to record accounting online
- Financial managers to carry out a financial diagnosis of the company
- Etc.
Finally, the company manager uses the tool to develop the strategic management of his organization and develop his activity.
Why use business management software?
Commercial management software is a powerful configurable tool for managing a business. However, they have some disadvantages.
Benefits
- Reduction in the cost of processing information: saving time (simplification of administrative tasks) and responsiveness
- Reduction of the risk of error linked to multiple entries
- Tools that centralize data from different divisions and enable cross-functional sharing
- Collaborative spaces with suppliers and customers
- Clear, detailed and current vision of business operations
- Just-in-time inventory management
- Interoperability with internal accounting tools
Disadvantages
- Solutions which can turn out to be very expensive if you are looking for a tailor-made tool
- Versatile solutions that do not replace the use of specific tools in large structures (inventory management, procurement, invoicing, etc.)
- Tools that are not suitable for all businesses: a service business does not need an inventory management tool for example
Free business management software
- Bitrix24
- OpenConcerto
- Oxygen
Commercial management solutions for start-ups
- Sky
- Evoliz
- Sage 50cloud
- Sellsy
Business management tools for SMEs
- Axonaut
- Cegid
- Celge
- EBP
- Quickbooks
- Sage 100cloud
- Salesforce
- Oxygen
