A self-service portal for trade customers
A login area where trade customers place orders, track them and download their own invoices and statements.
- Type
- Portals & Applications
- Industry
- Trading & Distribution
- First phase
- 3 to 5 weeks
The situation
A fictional building materials distributor supplies around 300 trade customers across a state. Orders come by phone and WhatsApp, an internal team enters them, and the same team fields a continuous stream of calls asking about order status, invoice copies and outstanding balances.
The sales team's day is dominated by administration. Every order requires a phone conversation, and every phone conversation about status is time not spent on selling. Meanwhile customers cannot get information outside working hours.
Fictional scenario, synthetic data. The company does not exist and no figures here describe a real deployment. The approach and features are real; the interfaces are illustrations.
Why this is difficult
- Every order requires a phone call, which limits how many accounts each person can handle
- Status queries interrupt the same team throughout the day
- Invoice copies are re-sent by email several times a week
- Customers have no way to check their own outstanding balance
- Negotiated rates per customer are held in a spreadsheet and applied manually
- Orders placed after hours wait until the next working day
- There is no reliable record of what was quoted or promised on a call
How we would build it
The portal is built around what customers phone about most, in order of frequency. Order status would come first, because it is typically the largest single source of calls, followed by invoices and then self-service ordering.
- 01
Customer accounts with multiple users
One account per business with several logins, so a purchase manager sees orders while an accounts person sees invoices and statements.
- 02
Live order status
Every order with its current stage, expected dispatch date and a timeline of what has happened, drawn directly from the internal system.
- 03
Self-service ordering with customer pricing
Customers browse a catalogue showing their own negotiated rates, place orders directly and see stock availability before committing.
- 04
Credit position visibility
Outstanding balance, ageing and credit limit shown clearly, with orders that would exceed the limit routed for approval rather than blocked outright.
- 05
Invoices and statements
Downloadable invoices, delivery notes and account statements for any period, which removes a recurring administrative task.
- 06
Notifications
WhatsApp and email updates on confirmation, dispatch and delivery, so customers stop needing to check.
- 07
Internal admin console
The team's view: incoming orders, approval queue, customer management and an audit trail of every action.
Recognise this problem?
Tell us how it works in your business. You get a written plan and a fixed price for the first phase.
What it looks like
Drawn rather than screenshotted, so nothing here can be mistaken for a real client system. Every figure on the screen is sample data, not a result.
What it would be built with
The final choice depends on what the business already runs.
- Application
- Next.jsReactTypeScriptTailwind CSSServer actions
- Data
- PostgreSQLPrismaERP synchronisationScheduled jobs
- Authentication
- Phone OTPRole-based access controlSession managementAudit logging
- Integration
- ERP APIWhatsApp Business APITransactional emailDocument storage
How a single item moves through the system
- 1
Customer signs in
Phone OTP or email login, with the account showing only that customer's records.
- 2
Places an order
Browses the catalogue at their own rates, checks availability and submits, or reorders from history in one action.
- 3
System validates
Credit limit, stock availability and minimum order quantities are checked automatically.
- 4
Internal confirmation
The order appears in the internal queue. Standard orders are confirmed directly; exceptions route for approval.
- 5
Fulfilment and updates
As the order moves through dispatch, status updates appear in the portal and notifications go out automatically.
- 6
Documents available
Invoice and delivery note appear against the order for download, with the account statement updated.
What this kind of system tends to change
Described qualitatively and deliberately so. We have not deployed this scenario, so quoting a percentage improvement would be inventing evidence.
- 1
Sales time returned to selling
When routine orders and status queries move to self-service, the same team can service considerably more accounts.
- 2
Ordering outside working hours
Customers place orders when it suits them, including evenings and holidays, which can increase order frequency.
- 3
Fewer disputes
A written record of what was ordered, at what price, on what date removes the most common source of disagreement.
- 4
Better credit discipline
Showing customers their own outstanding position at the point of ordering can improve collection without any additional chasing.
- 5
A more professional impression
Offering trade customers a proper portal is a visible differentiator when competing for larger accounts.
Services and solutions behind this
Business Portal Development
Secure login areas where customers, vendors or staff handle their own requests, orders and documents.
API & System Integrations
Connecting the systems you already run so data moves between them without a person in the middle.
Customer Portal
A login area where customers check their own orders, invoices, documents and requests.
Order Management System
One system tracking every order from enquiry to delivery, whichever channel it arrived through.
Is this close to your situation?
If this scenario resembles what happens in your business, we can have a much more specific conversation. Tell us how it works today and we will tell you what we would change first.
The first conversation is free, with no obligation.