Invoicing is an essential part of running a successful butchery business. However, when you supply wholesale and catering customers, it can quickly become a time-consuming task.
Orders need to be recorded, products weighed and labelled, customer prices checked and invoices prepared. If these processes happen across separate systems, the same information may need entering more than once.
For busy butchers and food wholesalers, this creates extra administration and more opportunities for mistakes.
Food business software such as Dimension Pro can help bring order processing, customer pricing and invoicing together, making it easier to manage the process from preparation through to payment.
Many food businesses manage a mixture of retail sales and trade accounts. Wholesale customers may have individual price lists, regular delivery arrangements and agreed payment terms.
This means invoicing is not always as simple as producing a receipt.
Common challenges include:
When these tasks are handled separately, administration can take staff away from other important jobs.
Connecting the systems involved can help reduce duplicated work and create a more consistent process.
For butchers selling products by weight, weighing and labelling are already part of the daily routine.
However, the invoicing process can become more complicated when transactions need to be transferred manually into another system.
Dimension Pro connects with supported Avery Berkel scales, including the XM, XT, XTi and XTs ranges. It can help businesses bring product information, scale transactions and customer invoicing together.
For example, a butcher supplying a restaurant can weigh and label products as usual, then associate the transaction with the customer’s account. Dimension Pro can use the relevant customer pricing to produce an invoice.
This can reduce reliance on handwritten invoice books and repeated data entry.
The exact workflow depends on the equipment and configuration used by your business.
Wholesale customers do not always pay the same price.
A restaurant might have agreed prices for regular orders, while a catering company may have a different arrangement. Keeping these prices accurate is important for both customer relationships and profitability.
Dimension Pro supports customer-specific price lists, discounts and standard pricing.
By storing this information within the customer account, businesses can make it easier to apply the appropriate prices during order processing and invoicing.
It also helps keep pricing connected to the wider product management process, rather than relying on separate spreadsheets or staff remembering individual agreements.
Find out more about Dimension Pro’s customer and invoicing features.
Wholesale orders often involve several products, quantities and delivery requirements.
If orders arrive by telephone, email or website, staff may need to transfer the details into the system before preparing the order.
Dimension Pro supports order management and preparation reporting to help organise this process.
Its applications can also support different ways of receiving orders. OrderIQ allows business customers to place orders through their mobile devices, while ToGo supports taking customer orders and scheduling future orders.
Orders can then feed into Dimension Pro for processing.
Once the order has been prepared, businesses can use the available invoicing functions to complete the next stage of the workflow.
Explore the Dimension Pro applications to see how these tools can fit into your business.
Producing an invoice is only one part of the process. The information also needs to reach the system used to manage your accounts.
Manually entering invoices into a separate accounting package can add another layer of administration.
Dimension Pro supports invoice exports to compatible accounting platforms, including:
This allows businesses to transfer invoice information into their accounting workflow without having to recreate each invoice from scratch.
The food business-focused invoice can remain within Dimension Pro, while the supported export helps connect the process to the accounting package.
The precise export options depend on the software setup, so it is worth confirming your requirements before implementation.
When you supply customers on account, keeping track of outstanding balances is important.
Without an organised process, staff may need to check multiple invoices or manually update account records to understand what a customer owes.
Dimension Pro can update a customer’s account balance when invoices are committed to their account. Its customer management tools also support payment terms and credit limits.
This can give staff a clearer view of customer account information when reviewing orders and managing credit.
It is still important to maintain appropriate credit control procedures, check overdue accounts and follow up on unpaid invoices.
Customers may occasionally query an invoice, ask for a copy or need clarification about a previous transaction.
Finding the right information can be difficult if records are spread across paper documents and separate systems.
Dimension Pro includes a Transaction Viewer that allows supported scale transactions to be reviewed through a web browser. Transactions can be tracked, and receipts can be reprinted or sent as PDFs where needed.
This can help staff investigate discrepancies and respond to customer questions with relevant transaction information.
Keeping useful records also supports a more organised approach to customer service.
Invoicing information can also help you understand how your business is performing.
Regularly reviewing sales and financial reports can help you identify buying patterns, understand which customers purchase most frequently and monitor performance over time.
Dimension Pro includes reporting tools covering areas such as sales, inventory and financial data.
These reports can support decisions about purchasing, customer relationships and business planning.
For example, a butcher may review sales from catering accounts alongside retail performance to understand how different parts of the business contribute to overall turnover.
The most useful reports will depend on your business model and the information you need to review regularly.
Veyseys Butchers in Cullompton, Devon, operates both a retail shop and a catering business.
Before implementing Dimension Pro, its invoicing and scale setup was fragmented. Only one of its six scales was linked to its existing invoicing software, while other systems were managed separately.
Dimension Pro was introduced to connect product management, scales, website orders and catering invoicing. Customer price lists were also set up to manage bespoke catering prices, and the business was shown how to export invoices to QuickBooks.
The result was a more connected process, reducing duplicated administration across the business.
Read the full Veyseys Butchers case study to learn more.
If you regularly invoice wholesale or catering customers, it is worth reviewing how much time your current process takes.
Consider whether staff are entering the same information more than once, checking prices manually or moving between separate systems to complete an order.
A connected system may help simplify these tasks and give your team a clearer process to follow.
The right solution depends on your existing scales, accounting software, customer requirements and order volumes.
Invoicing does not need to mean hours spent checking paperwork and transferring information between systems.
Dimension Pro helps food businesses connect customer management, product information, order processing and invoicing. With supported Avery Berkel scales and accounting exports, it can create a more joined-up workflow for retail, wholesale and catering operations.
Visit the Dimension Pro website to explore the software, or contact the team to discuss your setup and arrange a demonstration.