Sales order management system (OMS)

An order management system (OMS) is a software application that manages the lifecycle of an order from order placement to delivery. It enables your business to track and automate sales, facilitate order entry and fulfilment and manage inventory.

An order management system (OMS) will centralise and automate the processes involved in managing your orders, improving efficiency, reducing errors and improving customer satisfaction.

An OMS will enable your business to scale and grow without the need to hire additional staff members to handle increased order volumes.

A centralised order management system updates stock levels in real-time across all your sales channels simultaneously. When a product sells on your website, the system instantly reduces available stock on Amazon,eBay, your trade counter and anywhere else that product is listed. It prevents the risk of multiple channels selling the same last item.

Yes. A modern order management system consolidates orders from Shopify, eBay, Amazon and other sales channels into a single dashboard. From there, you can process all orders regardless of where your customers bought them. Multi-channel order management also allows you to:

• View all orders in one place
• Process orders simultaniously
• Update tracking automatically
• Manage inventory centrally
• Provide Unified Customer service
• Consolidate reporting
• Process bulk orders
• Automate order routing
• Standardise returns process

Syncing online and offline sales through an OMS gives your business a single, accurate view of every order, regardless of how or where it was placed. This eliminates data silos, reduces errors and helps to keep your fulfilment running smoothly. Some of the key benefits of syncing online and offline sales include:

• Real-time stock accuracy – stock levels update instantly across all channels, meaning your customer is always seeing accurate stock availability no matter where they’re ordering from.
• No manual data entry – orders placed online feed directly into your OMS, removing the need for staff to transfer data between systems and cutting the risk of human error.
• Complete order history – every order, from every channel, is located in one place, meaning your team can access a complete view and provide better informed customer service.
• Faster fulfilment – with all orders flowing into a single system automatically, picking, packing and dispatch is completed faster and with fewer delays.
• Consistent customer experience –whether a customer shops online or offline, they receive the same level of service, with accurate pricing, availability and order tracking throughout.

Yes, your order statuses will automatically update to:

• Awaiting allocation
• Assigned
• Allocated
• Dispatched
• Invoiced

Time savings from automated order processing vary depending on your business’s current setup and the size of your product catalogue. However, for most wholesalers and distributors, the impact is significant and can reduce manual admin tasks by hours each day. Tasks that an OMS typically help businesses save time on include:

• Order entry
• Invoicing
• Stock allocation
• Customer notifications
• Picking and dispatch
• Backorder management

You can see real life case studies about how Profit4's OMS has saved time, such as TBS Oxford who say ""I was doing things three or four times in QuickBooks, but now I can quote, convert to order and make a PO in half a dozen clicks; that would have taken me hours before." Business OwnerTBS Oxford

Read the case study here: TBS Oxford ERP Case Study | OGL Software

From wrong quantities to miskeyed addresses and stock discrepancies, it’s easy for human error to creep into order fulfilment. However, an OMS can be a game-changer for preventing damage to your margins and customer relationships. It automates and validates key processes at every stage of the order journey. An OMS helps reduce errors in fulfilment by:

• Automating order capture – orders flow directly into the system from all channels without manual data entry, removing one of the most common sources of input error.
• Providing real-time stockvisibility – staff can see accurate stock levels at the point of order, preventing items from being promised to customers when they aren’t available.
• Generating pick lists – rather than relying on handwritten or manually compiled lists, warehouse staff work from accurate, system-generated picking instructions tied directly to each order.
• Validating customer and delivery data – when combined with a CRM, customer addresses, pricing and account terms are pulled automatically, reducing the chance of orders being sent to the wrong place or invoiced incorrectly.
• Automatic backorder flagging –rather than slipping through the cracks, shortfalls are flagged immediately and managed systematically, keeping customers informed on every step of their journey.

The most effective ways to reduce order-to-dispatch times through an OMS include:

• Automating order capture – eliminating manual data entry means orders are in the system and ready to process instantly,regardless of the channel they came through.
• System-generating pick lists –warehouse staff receive accurate picking instructions automatically, reducing time spent interpreting paperwork or waiting for instructions.
• Enabling real-time stock allocation – stock is reserved against an order straight away upon confirmation, preventing the risk of an item having already been sold or allocated elsewhere.
• Integrating courier booking –connecting your OMS with your carrier systems means dispatch labels and booking confirmations can be generated automatically and reduce manual admin tasks.
• Streamlining backorder management– rather than letting incomplete orders delay fulfilment, OMS can automatically split orders, dispatch available items immediately and manage outstanding lines separately.
• Integrating warehouse management tools – A WMS can work alongside an OMS to optimise picking routes and warehouse workflows, reducing the time it takes to pick and pack each order.

Yes. Managing returns and exchanges is one of the more administratively demanding aspects of running a wholesale or distribution business, but an OMS can handle that complexity with ease. It reduces the burden on your team and minimises the impact on your customers. An OMS streamlines returns and exchanges through:

• Centralised returns processing –all returns requests are logged and managed within the same system as the original order, meaning your team has the full picture and a clear audit trail.
• System-generating pick lists –warehouse staff receive accurate picking instructions automatically, reducing time spent interpreting paperwork or waiting for instructions.
• Automated credit notes – once areturn is authorised and processed, credit notes can be generatedautomatically, removing a time-consuming task from your finance team’sworkload.
• Stock integration – returned items can be flagged, inspected and reintegrated into available stock or quarantined for further assessment, keeping your stock records accurate.
• Customer account updates –returns, credits and exchanges are automatically reflected in the customer’s account history, giving your sales and customer service teams clear and accurate information at a click.  
• Reason code tracking – logging the reason for each return allows managers to identify patterns over time and take corrective action.

There are several ways in which order management analytics support demand forecasting in Profit4, including:

• Historical order data – Profit4 captures a detailed record of every order placed across all channels, giving you a reliable, granular dataset to identify purchasing patterns and seasonal trends over time.
• Product-level demand insight –analytics can be broken down by individual SKU, product category or supplier, allowing you to forecast demand at a level of detail that makes stock planning genuinely actionable.
• Customer purchasing patterns –understanding how frequently individual customers or customer groups reorder, and in what quantities, allows your team to anticipate demand and prepare stock accordingly.
• Channel performance analysis – by comparing order volumes across online, trade counter and direct sales channels, managers can identify where demand is growing and allocate stock and resource appropriately.
• Slow and fast moveridentification – Profit4’s reporting highlights which products are turning over quickly and which are sitting idle, meaning you can make smarter purchasing decisions that reduce the risk of over stocking or stockouts.
• Integration with stock control –order analytics work alongside Profit4’s stock control module to align forecasting with current stock levels, supplier lead times and reorder points,creating more effective inventory planning.

OGL’s order management software is a scalable system. This ensures it’s an affordable option for small businesses but can also scale with you, as your business grows.

With technical innovations such as its true Cloud browser interface, OGL’s order management software is more accessible, quicker to learn, easier to adapt to and cheaper to install.

Profit4 increases efficiency and allows your business to grow, without the need for hiring additional staff.

Profit4 is designed to support wholesale and distribution businesses at every stage of growth. There are several ways that Profit4 scales alongside your business:

• No manual process bottlenecks –because core workflows such as order capture, stock allocation, invoicing and dispatch are automated, increased order volumes don’t result in increased admin burden.
• Multi-warehouse support – as your business grows across multiple locations, Profit4’s WMS and OMS work together to manage stock and orders from a single system.
• Multi-channel order management –whether you add a new eCommerce platform, expand into new marketplaces or grow your trade counter, Profit4 consolidates all orders in one place without additional complexity.
• Flexible user access – additional users can be added as your team grows, with role-based access controls meaning staff only see and interact with information relevant to their role.
• Expanding integrations – Profit4 connects with a wide range of third-party platforms, giving you the flexibility to add new tools as your business requires them.
• Cloud-based infrastructure –Profit4 is available via the cloud, meaning system performance scales with your needs without requiring significant investment in on-site hardware or IT infrastructure.

A cloud-based order management system is a software solution that manages orders, order entry, fulfilment and delivery through hosted remote servers and is accessed via an internet browser (such as Chrome, Edge or Safari).