A PVF distributor's ERP knows a lot. Every fitting, valve and water heater sold to every contractor, plant and property manager for years. The problem is getting a clear answer out of it. Which accounts are growing? Which are fading? What do our best customers buy somewhere else? Usually someone builds a spreadsheet to find out, and it's out of date by the time anyone reads it.
The app puts those answers on a screen for you, and gives your customers reports of their own.
The exec dashboard
The exec dashboard shows sales, margin, cash, receivables and pace on one screen, on your phone. The company goal shows the month, the year to date and where the year ends at this pace. Rep pace to goal shows each rep's month against their goal.
For the owner or GM, that's the morning check. Are we on pace? Are receivables creeping up? Did margin drop last week because of a big low-margin pipe order, or is something actually wrong? You know before the first meeting.
Top accounts up and down, and category gaps
Top accounts up and down shows the ten accounts buying more than last year and the ten buying less. In PVF, the list often explains itself. A mechanical contractor who landed a hospital job is up. A plumbing contractor whose builder slowed down is down. A plant that changed maintenance managers is down, and you may not have known.
Category gaps show what each customer buys from you and what they buy elsewhere. Typical PVF gaps:
- Plumbing contractors who buy pipe and fittings from you but water heaters from another house.
- Mechanical contractors who buy copper and valves from you but hangers and supports elsewhere.
- Plants that buy carbon steel fittings from you but gaskets and sealants from a catalog company.
- Property managers who buy repair parts from you but fixtures and faucets at a big-box store.
Each one is a growth plan for an account that already trusts you. Winning a new category from an existing customer is usually easier than winning a new customer, since they already know your branch, your drivers and your terms.
Reports your customers see
Customers get their own reports in the app: spend, usage and category. A plant's maintenance manager can see what was spent on valves this year. A property manager can see spend by category across buildings. Those are reports purchasing people usually have to build themselves. Giving them away makes their jobs easier and makes you harder to replace.
A better account review
Put the pieces together and a quarterly review is mostly prepared for you. Before the meeting, pull up the customer: what they buy, what's up and down, which categories are missing, open invoices and any open quality issues. In the meeting, show them their own usage report and talk about stockouts, items that could go on AutoPilot, and categories you could take off their plate.
That's a very different meeting from "how are we doing?" It shows you're paying attention, and it ends with a specific ask. Every Monday, each rep also gets a review email with their own accounts, and the GM desk gets everyone, so nobody has to remember to look. Over a year, those small weekly checks add up to accounts that grow instead of drifting.
Book a demo and see it with your branch counter and inside sales team.