How to set up standing orders for a customer with many sites

A hotel group or a chain of clinics signs one contract, yet deliveries go to a dozen addresses with different receiving hours. Do not create twelve customers. Create one account for the contract, then add a site record beneath it for every delivery point, each with its own address, receiving hours and signature rules.

The account carries what is shared, which means the legal name, billing address, payment terms, purchase order rules and the rate list. Each site carries what is local, such as the person who signs for goods, the cost centre that pays and the bay where cartons are left.

Keep the site record honest. A clinic that closes on Fridays should never be scheduled for a Friday drop, and a loading dock closed after noon should never get an afternoon van.

Hold the rates in one place, linked to the account, so when the contract is renewed one update reaches every site and every repeat order that follows. Rates copied onto each site drift apart.

Include only items the contract covers, and flag any mop head, bin liner size or soap cartridge missing from the list as off contract. Quiet list price charging causes disputes. Ask for approval first.

Record the effective date on each rate, because disputes often turn on which price applied to which delivery and a rate list without dates cannot settle the argument.

Each site needs its own list of items and quantities, because a restaurant kitchen goes through far more degreaser and oven cleaner than an office does. Use the last three deliveries. The contract’s estimate is usually wrong, and real usage wins every time because it reflects what each site’s cleaners actually pour, wipe and throw away.

Set the cycle by site, weekly, fortnightly or monthly, with a fixed day, and have the system draft each order three days before delivery. The site manager can then adjust quantities from a phone or a desk without calling anyone, and silence means the draft goes ahead as written. The driver sees the final list.

Cap how far a draft can drift. If a quantity jumps well beyond the previous three orders, hold it for review, because a stray zero turns twelve bottles into a hundred and twenty.

The contract may price a five litre can while the depot ships a two hundred litre drum and decants it into cans on the dock. Invoices and pick lists then drift apart.

Store the conversion on the item, covering how many cans make a case, how many litres fill a drum and how many sachets sit in a bag. The repeat order then accepts the contract unit, the picking list shows the shelf unit, and the invoice shows whichever unit the customer’s accounts team expects to see.

Test the arithmetic with a real site by ordering one drum’s worth in cans, then check that the invoice, pick slip and delivery note agree on the count.

A repeat order is only useful if people trust it, so decide who may change quantities, who may add a new item and who may alter rates. Usually the site manager adjusts quantities, the account manager adds items, and a named person on your side signs off rates in writing.

Agree a cut-off time. A change made before the cut-off applies to the next delivery, while one made after it waits for the delivery after that one. Print the rule on every draft order, so the driver never has to referee an argument about quantities on the loading dock.

Pilot one site for a full cycle. Then roll out to the rest, starting with the contract with the most sites and noting oddities such as split deliveries or weekend-only drops.