Distributors: invoice the day it ships, and keep the big accounts.
A wholesaler’s margin is thin, so small leaks matter. An invoice raised three weeks late. An order keyed with the wrong code. A national customer that will only trade electronically. We close those gaps with systems that pass orders and invoices along on their own.
The trade counter is where the cash goes missing
Goods leave the counter or the warehouse. The paperwork follows later, sometimes much later. Every day between the two is a day you are lending the customer money, and some invoices never get raised at all.
Contractors ordering against a project budget add another risk: materials go out for a job that has already overspent, and you find out when the invoice is disputed.
When a big customer sets the terms
National merchants, retailers and contractors increasingly insist that suppliers send and receive orders and invoices in their own electronic format, by a fixed date. Miss it and the account goes to someone who can.
Other providers often start with months of discovery. We start on day one, deliver the part that must work by the deadline, and add the rest after.
| Where it leaks | What it costs | What we change | Proof |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gap between dispatch and invoice | Days or weeks of unpaid goods; some invoices missed | Every order invoiced within 24 hours, reviewed before sending | Miranda |
| Orders over a contractor’s budget | Disputes and bad debt months later | Budget and account checked at the counter before goods leave | Miranda |
| Customer demands EDI | The account, if the deadline is missed | Electronic ordering and invoicing in the customer’s format | Everything Boxed |
| Rejected electronic invoices | A rejected invoice is an unpaid invoice | TRADACOMS files built from sales data, in the merchant’s exact layout | Miranda and Huws Gray |
Source: Miranda, TRADACOMS EDI and Everything Boxed case studies.
A building supplies firm that kept its contract
Miranda supplies building and fencing products, including to Huws Gray, one of the UK’s largest builders’ merchants.
Miranda
Its client required automated ordering and invoicing at renewal. Miranda met it in time, and the contract was renewed.
Everything Boxed
The operations team can answer a customer query about any order or invoice in minutes, from one screen.
What we would look at first
- 1
Days from dispatch to invoice
We measure the gap across a month of orders. It is usually the quickest cash to win back.
- 2
Customer trading demands
Which customers want EDI, by when, and in what format, before it becomes a deadline.
- 3
Order entry
How orders arrive, who types them and how often codes are wrong. AI can read emailed orders for a person to confirm.
Questions
- Which EDI formats do you work with?
- TRADACOMS, used across UK retail and builders’ merchants, and EDIFACT among others. We also connect customers who send orders by other electronic routes.
- How fast can you get us trading electronically?
- We deliver the part that must work by the customer’s deadline first and test it against their real specifications before go-live.
- Will invoices go out without anyone checking?
- Only if you want that. At Miranda the operations team reviews and approves each day’s invoices before anything is sent.
- Do we need a new ERP?
- Usually not. We connect what you have, so orders and invoices stop being retyped.
How long is your dispatch-to-invoice gap?
Book the review and we will measure it, cost it and show what closing it would take.
Max RevittFounder and Director