← All case studies

Software for beverage distributors: Vinesco’s whole system, end to end

Vinesco, a beverage distributor in Rosario: from WhatsApp to the dashboard in one system. An order is entered in 20 s and invoiced in 7 minutes, not 3 hours.

Year2026
IndustryWholesale beverage distributor · Full operations system
DurationSince November 2025 · automatic entry in production since August 2026 · management platform in testing with administration since October
What we did
  • Automatic entry of what arrives over WhatsApp
  • Orders, payments, transfers and supplier invoices
  • Finance, salespeople and real-time metrics
  • Supplier agreements and credit notes
From salesperson to the system
  1. Payment from Almacén Sur
  2. Photo: bank transfer
  3. $182,400
  4. Ref. 00451873 · 10/27
10:41
Payment · to confirm
Customer
Almacén Sur
Method
Bank transfer
Amount
$182,400read from the photo
Reference
Ref. 00451873not entered before
Confirm payment Reconciled on account
  1. 01 / 04The salesperson forwards the photo of the transfer, as always.
  2. 02 / 04The system reads the amount, date and reference from the photo.
  3. 03 / 04It checks the receipt isn’t already entered: nothing goes in twice.
  4. 04 / 04Administration confirms it and it’s reconciled on the customer’s account.
20 s · per payment; before, 7 to 8 minutes

The case on video, explained.

Go to the questions ↓

A distributor’s whole system, from what comes in over WhatsApp to the dashboard

Software for a beverage distributor doesn’t end at the order. Vinesco is a wholesaler of wines, spirits, aperitifs, soft drinks and beers in Rosario, Argentina: it sells to bars, restaurants and stores, runs its own wine shop and three warehouses. Orders, photos of bank transfers, PDFs with e-checks, supplier invoices and warehouse transfers all came in over WhatsApp, to the same group. Administration retyped it, reconciled once a week, and what was happening in the business was known at month’s end, from spreadsheets. Today daily operations are entered automatically and everything is visible in real time. An order is entered in 20 seconds and invoiced in 7 minutes, when it used to take 1 to 3 hours. This case walks through the system module by module, role by role, against a distributor that still works the old way.

A bank statement and a transfer receipt on a desk, crossed by a line comparing them Generated image
Fig. 01 — Without the system
Before A distributor with the chat and the spreadsheet
Beverage warehouse with pallets of bottles and the system’s dashboard projected in the back Generated image
Fig. 02 — With the system
Now Vinesco · Rosario
Salespeople
Forward the message to the group
The same: they forward it to a bot
Entering an order
About 5 minutes
About 20 seconds
From order to invoice
1 to 3 hours
7 minutes
A payment
7–8 min; reconciled weekly
20 s, reconciled on its own
Supplier agreements
By eye; the credit note, if it comes
Checked and claimed for you
A supplier invoice
25 min, and costs by hand
A photo, and it enters itself
A report
2 days
Instantly, on the dashboard

Administration retyped what had already arrived in writing

Salespeople forwarded everything to the same WhatsApp group, where the day was organized and messages got crossed: orders with “cj”, “pk” and “pl” for cases, packs and trays, deals like “5 cj + 1 cj”, photos of transfers, PDFs with checks. Someone in administration read each one and typed it in: about 5 minutes per order, and 1 to 3 hours went by between arriving and being invoiced. Payments were worse. Every transfer went into a spreadsheet so it wouldn’t be entered twice, then onto the customer’s account, and reconciliation happened once a week: data got lost along the way. Transfers were sent all together, and every supplier invoice meant 25 minutes of typing, plus four hours a week updating costs. Knowing how the business was doing meant waiting two days for a report.

The distributor’s WhatsApp group
  1. Bar La Esquina
    Saturday
    6 fernet 750
    3 pk cola 1500
    1 cj malbec
  2. Photo · Receipt
  3. PDFE-checksseveral checks in one PDF
  4. Photo · A supplier invoice
  5. TRANSFER
    north warehouse → central
    8 cases
  6. Photo · Receipt
To enter by hand6
  1. 8:12 · Text Type the order and convert packs into units
  2. 8:40 · Receipt Write it in the spreadsheet, then on the account
  3. 9:15 · PDF Enter each check with its bank and date
  4. 9:50 · Photo Type in the invoice and update costs
  5. 10:18 · Text Note the transfer and send it with the rest
  6. 10:55 · Receipt Enter the payment and the withholding

All to the same group, crossed, and in the same hands.

Any given Monday · example

Salespeople work the same way: the system does the rest

Salespeople do nothing new: they keep forwarding their customers’ messages, but to a bot instead of the group. The system works out whether it’s an order, a payment, a transfer or a supplier invoice; it reads it, converts packs into units with the size on file and builds the document. A receipt already entered doesn’t go in again, and nothing goes out on its own: administration confirms it and only then is it recorded. Everything lands in the same database, and from there management sees finance, salespeople and stock in real time, and the reports that used to take two days are instant.

20 s · per order or payment; before, 5 to 8 min
  1. Receives The forwarded message: text, photo or PDF.
  2. Sorts Order, payment, transfer or invoice, by its shape.
  3. Reads and builds Packs into units; amount, date and reference from the photo.
  4. A person confirms Administration, in a single inbox.
  5. Records and shows Once, and on the dashboard right away.

The main modules: how long each thing took and how long it takes now

Orders, payments, supplier invoices and agreements are administration’s day to day. Each module takes something that used to be done by hand, leaves it built for a person to confirm and records it once. On the right, the work hours saved each month in each one.

Module Before Now Saved a month
OrdersOrder to invoice: 1 to 3 hours, now 7 minutes Before5 minutes of typing per order Now20 seconds, a person confirms Saved a month55 h
PaymentsReconciliation used to be weekly, and data got lost Before7 to 8 minutes per transfer Now20 seconds, reconciled on its own Saved a month65 h
Supplier invoicesThe 25 minutes included updating costs, which now live inside the system Before25 minutes per invoice, with costs NowA photo, and it enters itself Saved a month47 h
Agreements and creditThe credit notes suppliers grant BeforeSpreadsheet and manual claims NowApplied and claimed for you Saved a month60 h
a month, in these four modules alone: more than one full-time store employee. With the rest of the system, about 370. ≈ 227 h

Supplier agreements and credit: where the money is made

At a beverage distributor, a good part of the margin isn’t in the price: it’s in the supplier agreements. Bonuses, discounts and monthly promotions the supplier grants afterwards, with credit notes, and always with limits per customer, per channel and per month. If nobody controls them, you sell past the limit, the credit note never comes or comes short, and you don’t know where you’re actually making money. Today each agreement is entered once. On invoicing, it applies itself and checks the limit; going over stops the order until someone approves it. At month’s end, the system builds what to claim from each supplier and matches it against the credit note that arrives. That shows the real margin of each product, agreements included.

Without control
Distributor Sells without checking the limit The credit note never comes Supplier
With the system
Distributor Every sale, against its agreement The expected note, claimed and matched System SupplierReal margin per product

What else the system does, and what it saves

On top of what gets entered, the platform builds what used to be month-end spreadsheets, up to date and for each role. Hours are the ones saved each month. Role-based agents (purchasing, finance, sales and agreements) also run on the same database; they have their own case study.

  • 39 h
    PurchasingThe suggested order for each supplier, with the last purchase price and the current agreement. It used to be worked out in a spreadsheet.
  • 42 h
    Checks and financeThe check and e-check calendar, the day-by-day cash projection, the month-by-month VAT position and the withholding files for the tax agency.
  • 32 h
    Management reportsWhat used to be a two-day report is now instant on the dashboard.
  • 16 h
    SalespeopleEach customer’s commission with late fees, and each salesperson’s account. An estimated 10% fewer losses from selling to overdue customers, and collection speeds up by 30%.
  • 13 h
    Warehouse transfersBefore, about 4 minutes each and all sent together. Now they happen on their own, in about 5 seconds, and enter the system as soon as they’re made.

What changed in administration

Administration stopped typing and started confirming; management decides with the day’s numbers. The math adds up the hours saved in each module, before versus now.

≈ 370 hof work saved a month: more than two full-time store employees

Orders 55 h, payments 65, agreements 60, supplier invoices 47, finance 42, purchasing 39, reports 32, salespeople 16 and transfers 13.

7 minfrom order to invoice

Before, 1 to 3 hours: the order waited in the group until someone typed it in.

20 sto enter an order or a payment

Before, about 5 minutes an order and 7 or 8 a payment, which was also reconciled weekly.

30%faster collection of customer accounts

With commission tied to each customer’s late payments and a monthly statistic estimated to save 10% in losses from selling to overdue customers.

How the business was surveyed and each feature shipped

There was no requirements document at the start: the business was surveyed along the way, sitting with the people who run it. In October 2025, at the distributor, we started with what was typed in the most: payment receipts and orders. In February 2026 salespeople started sending test orders and we pinned down how they write (“cj”, “pk”, “5 + 1” deals). In May the owners decided to go for a system of their own, and each area recorded voice notes on how it works: purchasing, sales and treasury. With that we built a mock-up and went over it for three hours in June: roles, each customer’s salesperson and supplier agreements. From then on, each feature shipped once it had real data behind it: commission per customer in August, the VAT position and withholding files in early October, and then the cash projection and each salesperson’s account. Since October, a weekly session walks through the system module by module with administration and the owners.

What we surveyedWhat shipped
  1. 17 oct 2025 At the distributor: receipts, reconciliation and orders
  2. 5 nov 2025 Receipts and orders over WhatsApp
  3. 11 feb 2026 How salespeople write: “cj”, “pk”, “5 + 1”
  4. 22 may 2026 A system of its own; each area records how it works
  5. 4 jun 2026 Three hours on the mock-up: roles, salespeople, agreements
  6. 2 jul 2026 At the warehouse: supplier agreements and real margin
  7. 27 jul 2026 Dashboard with real data every 5 minutes
  8. aug 2026 Automatic entry: a person confirms every document
  9. 26 aug 2026 Commission per customer, not per salesperson
  10. 1 oct 2026 VAT position and withholding files
  11. 6 oct 2026 Dashboard with up-to-date metrics
  12. 7 oct 2026 Weekly sessions, module by module
One database · Entry and management, together
  1. oct 2026 From order to invoice in 7 minutes
  2. Next Moving to its own system in three stages, with a way back until the last one

What using it made us change

The system was fine-tuned in operation, with administration and the salespeople. Every change is dated, with what happened and what we did. The rule never changed: the system proposes and a person confirms.

  1. Rev. 01 · 27 apr 2026 An order of water packs went in with half the units. The next day, every case, pack or tray reads its units from the system.
  2. Rev. 02 · 5 may 2026 Salespeople wrote “fernet” without the size. Administration set the rule, no size means one liter, and the system applies it on its own.
  3. Rev. 03 · 12 aug 2026 An error one morning was only found out at noon. Every 15 minutes, the system gathers what failed and alerts in a single message.
  4. Rev. 04 · 29 sep 2026 A PDF with several e-checks couldn’t be entered. Fixed that day: one payment per check, by number, amount and tax ID, and duplicates are discarded.
  5. Rev. 05 · 30 sep 2026 Withholdings were still entered by hand. Payments with withholdings are entered automatically too.
  6. Rev. 06 · 12 oct 2026 A supplier approved a discount with case limits per customer, starting on Monday. It was set up that night: the system enforces the limits from the first order.

Under the hood: a WhatsApp, a platform and a database

A WhatsApp, a platform and a database, built for its own operation. What used to be a chat, a spreadsheet and someone copying is now a row: every document with its status, who confirmed it and its history.

What it was
  1. A chat photo of a transfer
  2. A spreadsheet
  3. Someone copying Payment $182,400
Becomes a row · example
Payment · Almacén Sur
Status
Reconciled
Confirmed by
Administration
Took
20 seconds
History
  1. 10:41 photo arrived
  2. 10:41 read, no duplicate
  3. 10:42 confirmed
Generated image

Answer and we’ll tell you if this works for your company.

We review it quickly. If it’s a fit, we set up a meeting.

Assessment

Five questions to see whether your distribution company has the same problem. It takes under a minute.

What does your company do?
How many salespeople take orders?
How do orders reach you today?

Pick all that apply.

Pick up to 4.

Which management system do you use?
When would you like to solve it?
Last step: who should we write to?

We only use it to reply about this assessment.

Other systems in production