A fax machine here, a few spreadsheets there, a heap of paper orders in that corner. It’s the story of nearly every building supplier on the planet scrambling to make do with manual order processing.
It’s a system that feels familiar. Even “safe.” But here’s the thing: It’s also fraught with friction. The worst part? The costs that manual workflows create tend to stay hidden. Then, slowly, they stack up and start costing you the business you’ve worked so hard to build.
The Hidden Costs of Manual Order Processing
We’ve been around long enough to have interacted with tons of prospective building supply software clients. In that time span, we’ve established a common, undeniable truth: Manual workflows don’t break spectacularly. Far from it, they bleed you slowly. That’s arguably more dangerous.
Here’s how:
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Delayed shipments and missed service-level agreements (SLAs): It’s impossible to maintain a fast turnaround time when every order has to be retyped into your enterprise resource planning (ERP) or inventory system. When customers don’t get what they ordered, when and how they ordered it, they look elsewhere.
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Order entry errors and back orders: A single typo or a misread fax can’t cause much damage, right? Wrong. All it takes to commission the wrong product or wrong quantity is one human error. Just one.
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Slower invoice processing and late payments: When your data is stuck in someone else’s inbox or buried in clunky paperwork, invoices take forever to dispatch. That’s bad news for your billing cycle.
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Frustrated customers and lost business: Few industries are built on trust and timing quite like construction product distribution. In such a delicate, high-stakes environment, one unpleasant experience can be the difference between a loyal client and a lost one.
To put it simply, manual processes make your operations slower, heavier, and more error-prone.
Automation as a Competitive Advantage
For the longest time, automation has been framed — even marketed — as a way to eliminate humans from the equation. However, true, progressive automation is about removing human bottlenecks. The repetitive, error-prone tasks that slow teams down.
With tools like AP/AR automation for distributors, you get human-friendly automation that delivers beyond expectations:
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Real-time syncing of orders, invoices, and acknowledgements: No more dayslong delays between departments and platforms. Your sales, accounting, and warehouse teams finally align — reading the same data at the same time.
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Integration with ERP systems and DMSi: It’s time to ditch workflows that rely on redundant data entry, risky copying and pasting, or disconnected documents.
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Reduced labor hours and faster throughput: How does one person doing the work of five sound? Instead of manually processing orders, the other four can now focus on what truly matters: your bottom line.
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Immediate access to documents for ops and accounting: Inside a modern building supply solution resides a tool that’s often talked about yet greatly underused: an ERP document workflow. Gone are the days when a customer calling about a delayed delivery or a disputed line item sent your team scrambling and sweating. Now you can click, check, and respond with confidence — in minutes, not hours.
How WorldView Helps Building Supply Companies
At WorldView, we’ve built systems that connect directly to your existing workflows.
Our promise? To deliver automation that works with your ERP, not around it. For the modern building supply company, here’s how that looks like in practice:
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AP order acknowledgment automation: We capture acknowledgments automatically and route them to the right people and systems, at the right time.
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RMA workflows that speed up returns: The reason you’re constantly dealing with slow returns and revenue leakage is because your approvals, tracking, and resolutions are still manual. Let’s fix that.
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Centralized invoice automation and document matching: Automatically match invoices to orders and receipts, flag exceptions, and accelerate approvals without ever leaving your dashboard.
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Integration without replacing your systems: Our platforms aren’t meant to replace your existing workflows or tools. They’ll complement them instead, to a tee.
Real-World Outcomes
The partnerships we’ve forged over the years have yielded not just superior systems, but superior results as well:
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Faster quote-to-cash cycle: With fewer manual touchpoints, orders move from quote to fulfillment to invoice in record time.
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Happier customers due to accurate, fast orders: Consistency and speed drive repeat business and loyalty, something spreadsheets can’t deliver.
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Reduced errors and operational costs: Rework and error corrections can be huge headaches. Not on our watch. For our clients, focusing on high-value tasks has never been easier.
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Fewer billing issues and faster month-end closes: Finance teams get what they need, when they need it, without chasing down paper trails. Now that’s real power.
Stop Letting Manual Workflows Hold You Back
In today’s topsy-turvy, fast-moving construction supply industry, growth doesn’t mean more paperwork or bigger teams. Rather, it means processing orders faster, cutting down on overhead, and supercharging efficiency across the board. That’s what automation does best. With it in your corner, your company can finally focus on what it does best: consistently delighting its clients and delivering high-quality materials.
Ready to embrace order fulfillment automation? Explore how WorldView can help your team eliminate order processing headaches — without replacing your ERP.
