Frozen Foods Distributor

The Challenge

Sales reps were promising delivery terms and discounts on the road without any visibility into a customer's outstanding balance or credit limit, so finance kept discovering over-extended accounts only after goods had already shipped and were perishable. Orders taken in the field were re-keyed into accounting by hand, causing mismatches between what was quoted, what was invoiced, and what was actually delivered — and short shelf-life stock meant every day a mismatch went unresolved was inventory quietly expiring in the warehouse.

Zoho Products Used

The Solution

Connected Zoho CRM and Zoho Books so every customer's live credit limit, outstanding balance, and payment history is visible on the deal record before a rep quotes a price. Built custom functions that block or flag orders exceeding a customer's approved credit limit at the point of sale, and automated the flow from accepted CRM quote to Zoho Books invoice so nothing needs re-entry. Added route-based delivery scheduling tied to order status, so warehouse and dispatch see confirmed orders the moment credit clears, cutting the gap between a sale and a shipment for stock with a short shelf life.

Business Results

• Credit-limit breaches caught before dispatch instead of after delivery
• Order-to-invoice re-keying eliminated between CRM and Books
• Faster order-to-dispatch cycle, reducing spoilage risk on short shelf-life stock
• Finance and sales working from the same live balance and credit picture