Software for distribution, with stock that moves on its own from invoices and receipts
In a distribution company, the stock in the system never matches the stock in the warehouse — because nobody has time to enter the same goods twice. The result shows at the point of sale: you promise what you do not have and order what you already have. Zarina CRM links stock movements to the documents that create them: the supplier receipt goes in, the invoice goes out, the stock count adjusts, and every movement keeps its type and its document. Reorder quantities are calculated on real consumption over recent weeks, not on a minimum written once and forgotten. It is installed on your own server, with a lifetime licence.
CRM software for distribution
A CRM application for distribution keeps track of B2B customers, price lists for each partner, orders taken by field agents, stock, deliveries and unpaid balances. It does not run the warehouse for you and does not do your accounting. It solves the chain between order and payment — the place where a distribution company most often loses its margin.
Zarina CRM is installed on your company’s hosting, with a lifetime licence and unlimited users, with no monthly subscription. In a company with field agents, the number of users is exactly the cost that grows fastest in subscription models.
What sets distribution apart from retail
A shop sells to a buyer who pays on the spot. A distribution company sells to other businesses, on trade credit, through agents, with different prices for each customer. Everything that matters follows from that difference.
You do not have one price, you have a price list. The same product goes out at three prices to three customers, depending on volume, contract and the length of the relationship. The field agent needs to see the right price for the customer in front of them, not the list price.
You sell before you get paid. Goods leave today; the money arrives in thirty or sixty days. Each customer has a current balance and, ideally, a limit beyond which they should not receive more goods. Without that limit visible at order time, the decision is made from memory.
The order is taken where the customer is. In a warehouse, orders are written on paper and entered in the evening. The gap between real stock and promised stock is discovered the next morning, when the goods are gone.
Goods also come back. Returns of expired products, goods refused on delivery, returnable packaging. Each has its own route and its own effect on the customer’s balance.
What the application actually does
| What it solves | How it works |
|---|---|
| The B2B customer record | Company details, delivery points, contacts, the contract and the applicable price list — on top of the customer management module. |
| Price lists and discounts | Different prices per customer or per partner category, with volume discounts, applied automatically in quotations generated from the system. |
| Balance and credit limit | The customer’s current balance and overdue invoices are visible at order time, not after delivery — through the payments module. |
| Orders from agents | The agent enters the order from a tablet or phone, and stock is checked on the spot. The flow is tracked in a visual order board. |
| Stock and locations | Quantities with a location field for shelf or zone, with reservation when the order is confirmed — see the inventory and stock module. |
| Procurement | Purchase orders, receipts and due-date tracking, through the partners and suppliers module. |
| Delivery documents | Delivery notes and accompanying documents generated from the order, with automatic document generation. |
| Invoicing | The invoice is issued from the order through the invoicing module, with VAT calculated and its data ready for UAE e-invoicing through your service provider and for your invoicing platform. |
| Returns | Refused or returned goods are recorded on the customer, go back into stock or a separate status, and are reflected in the balance. |
| Alerts | Stock below minimum, customer over the credit limit, invoice overdue — through the notification centre. |
| Role-based access | The agent sees only their own portfolio, the warehouse only the orders to prepare, through role management. |
| Reports | Sales per agent and per route, stock rotation, margin per product and per customer, in the reports module. |
Money tied up in receivables
For a distribution company, the largest amount on the balance sheet is not in the warehouse but with customers. That is where clear terms and exact records pay off.
Payment terms, credit limits and late-payment clauses are agreed in your contracts with each customer. The CRM keeps them visible on the customer record, so the decision to deliver or hold is made with the real balance in front of you, not from memory.
To enforce them, you need exact data: which invoice, which due date, what was communicated and when. A payment reminder sent on the right date completely changes the tone of the conversation with a customer who pays late systematically.
What it does not do
It is not a warehouse management system. It does not optimise shelf placement, does not run picking terminals and does not replace a WMS in a large warehouse with automated flows. It tracks quantities and movements, not the warehouse layout.
It does not do accounting. It issues commercial documents and tracks payments; the books stay in your accounting software and with your accountant.
In trade, the line between a CRM and an ERP gets thin: stock and invoicing matter as much as the customer relationship. If you want to understand which part you actually need, see the explanation of what an ERP system is.
Where data lives
The application runs on your company’s hosting or on a machine your company rents. There is no instance shared between several distributors, and the vendor has no access to the database unless it is granted explicitly, for a specific intervention. The architecture is described on the page about installation on your company’s hosting.
For a distributor, the stake is concrete and commercial: the customer base, price lists and mark-ups are information a competitor would pay for. It is not a compliance discussion, but a question of where your price list lives.
A necessary clarification.What it costs
The licence costs $3,480 excl. VAT, once, for unlimited users. There is no cost per agent, per storekeeper or per location, and no monthly subscription.
For distribution, this is the most visible difference from the alternatives: the number of users grows with the agent network, exactly when you expand coverage. In a per-user subscription model, every new agent is a permanent monthly cost. Details are on the licensing page, and for workflows that do not exist in the standard version there is a custom-built option.
How implementation runs
Configuration starts from your product catalogue, your existing price lists and your structure of agents and routes, not from a template. The customer base, items and balances are imported from Excel or from the application you used before. The stages are described on the page about system implementation.
The stores, couriers and services the CRM connects to
Orders come in from every channel into the same list, and shipping documents are generated without retyping addresses.
Orders from WooCommerce, Shopify, PrestaShop and Trendyol come in with products, quantities and delivery details, and stock goes back to the store after every dispatch. The shipping document is generated directly from the order with GLS or DPD, with the address and cash-on-delivery amount taken from the customer record, and the parcel status is updated until delivery. For prepaid deliveries, a Stripe or PayPal payment link is sent. The full list is on the connectors and API page.
Frequently asked questions
What is a CRM application for distribution?
It is an application that keeps track of B2B customers, price lists for each partner, orders taken by agents, stock, deliveries and unpaid balances. Unlike a classic sales CRM, it is built around goods and trade credit, not only the customer relationship.
Can it show different prices for each customer?
Yes. Price lists are defined per customer or per partner category, with volume discounts. The agent sees the price that applies to the customer in front of them, not the list price, and the quotation is generated with the right values.
Can agents take orders in the field?
Yes, from a browser, on a phone or tablet. The order goes straight into the system, and stock availability is checked at the moment of entry. So goods that have already gone to another customer are no longer promised.
Can delivery be blocked for a customer who has exceeded their credit limit?
The current balance and overdue invoices are visible at order time, and the system can warn when the customer goes over the set limit. The decision to deliver or not remains yours; what changes is that the information exists before delivery, not after.
Does it replace a warehouse management system?
No. It does not optimise shelf placement, does not run picking terminals and does not replace a WMS in a large, automated warehouse. It tracks quantities and movements, not the warehouse layout.
How many agents can use the application?
Unlimited. The licence is not calculated per user, so expanding the agent network does not change the cost of the software. Each agent can be limited, through role permissions, to their own portfolio.
Can I import my product catalogue and customer balances?
Yes. Items with codes, prices and price lists, customers with delivery points and existing balances are imported from Excel or from the application you used before. The structure is mapped onto the system’s fields during configuration.
Related industries
The same platform, configured for other forms of trade:
- management software for retail
- the solution for wholesalers and warehouses
- the version for online stores
Your distribution, on your own server
We install Zarina CRM on your company’s hosting, configure it around your warehouse and sales workflow and train your team. From that moment on, the application is an asset of your company.