Articles

Finance

How to Navigate Your Supply Chain During Market Swings
| | | |

How to Navigate Your Supply Chain During Market Swings

Market conditions play a crucial role in shaping challenges professionals face when managing their organization’s supply chains. While bear markets are known for their economic uncertainty and declining stock prices, bull markets are characterized by investor optimism and rising asset values. Both markets present unique hurdles that supply chain professionals must adeptly navigate.

Read More
Proforma Invoice: Format, Benefits, and Drawbacks
|

Proforma Invoice: Format, Benefits, and Drawbacks

Navigating the world of invoicing can be daunting as it is full of terminology and practices. The proforma invoice is an essential document every business needs to understand.  This informational guide outlines a proforma invoice format, its benefits, and potential drawbacks. Whether you’re a business owner, a committed buyer, or someone curious about invoicing, we’ve […]

Read More
Proforma vs. Commercial Invoice: Definitions, Examples, and Differences
|

Proforma vs. Commercial Invoice: Definitions, Examples, and Differences

There are significant differences between a proforma and a commercial invoice. Both documents look alike, so it is important to know how to differentiate one from the other. What Is a Proforma Invoice? A proforma invoice may answer a letter of inquiry from a potential buyer or provide the terms of a final invoice, so […]

Read More
Maureen Sullivan
| | | | |

Managing Working Capital Amid Product Shortages

Distributors can’t seem to catch a break. First they faced a liquidity squeeze when COVID-19 raged onto the scene, triggering a dislocation in the supply and demand for products. Now, as they enter the third year of the pandemic, distributors are grappling with wide-ranging shortages of goods and commodities across the supply chain that show no sign of abating.

Read More
Paul A. Myerson
| | |

S&OP: Bringing the Outside In

Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) is an integrated business management process through which the leadership team continually achieves focus, alignment and synchronization among all functions. This ensures that supply meets demand while the organization meets general business objectives, including profitability, productivity, competitive customer lead times, and others.

Read More
Marty Wadle
| | |

Choose a 3PL with a Culture and Vision that Match Your Own

Transportation has often been considered a commodity. Equipment, fuel, software, and wages are all very similar from a cost perspective. A 3PL’s culture can be a competitive advantage. Q: Why does culture matter? A: Today, cost is just one of many factors to consider when selecting a 3PL. A low-cost provider may produce short-term savings […]

Read More
Nick Fisher
| | |

Reducing Inbound Freight Costs and Improving Accounting

Q: How can our company account for inbound freight costs on our month-end accrual reports? We prefer to route our own freight and use our own third-party carriers for these collect orders. A: Unfortunately, you are experiencing an industry-wide issue. Pre-rating based on purchase order information can pose a real risk. Your purchase order may […]

Read More
Rob Harvey
| |

Supply Chain 4.0 Needs Order-to-Cash 4.0

Industry 4.0 has been given a renewed sense of urgency following the pandemic. Industry 4.0 refers to the massive changes we see across every industry as a result of new technologies, such as smart sensors, predictive analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI). By extension, we see a technological shake-up with supply chain 4.0 and cash management 4.0.

Read More
Maureen Sullivan
| |

Solving Distributor Liquidity Shortages

The pandemic is inflicting financial hardship on the supply chain—from manufacturers down to the end consumer—with particular pain for distributors, who are the critical intermediary agents responsible for delivering goods from producers to retailers and other businesses that sell to consumers.

Read More