Run your whole channel in one business

Pick your shape

Most factories grow through these three shapes in order. You can move up a shape at any time, and your data comes with you.

Who signs in, and where

Everyone gets their own login; never share one. What decides the app, and what each person sees:

A team inside every stock point

A distributor is a business of its own. The owner runs it, somebody bills, somebody keeps the godown, somebody chases the money. Each of them gets their own login in that distributor's book, with only the work they do. The same applies to a stockist and a super stockist.

Each login starts from these defaults. Whoever creates it can switch any permission on or off before saving, as long as they hold that permission themselves.

Who may add whom

The principal can also add the desks directly. Nobody can add a login at their own level or above.

What each one can do

● by default◐ partly: a salesman books orders, a manager adds only desks, a principal reads the books below when your office switches it on— not by default

Give a stock point its logins (your office)

1. Add the party: in Channel > Stock Points tap New, or use its list in the Directory. Every super stockist, stockist and distributor is a stock point, so its godown is created when you save. Nothing to switch on.
2. Open its logins: tap the logins chip on its Stock Points row, open the party and pick the Logins tab, or choose User Login on its row menu. The list shows everyone who already signs in to that book. Edit or remove a login from there.
3. Add the Principal: tap Add Login, choose Principal under Does, and enter their email. On a cloud business, if that email has no SKS Market account yet, saving offers to register one. The person then signs in with the password set there.
4. Check the switches and save. Leave Manage The Team on if they should add their own staff. For a super stockist or stockist, switch on Read The Books Below if it should follow its downline (see Following the tiers below).
5. Add more logins the same way, or let the principal do it.

Add your own staff (principal or manager)

1. Open My Team: in SKS Market it is under Setup (on a phone, in the side menu).
2. Add Login: pick what the person does. You are only offered the jobs below your own.
3. Enter the email, check the switches, save. The new login is locked to your book. It cannot be moved to another party's.

Following the tiers below

A super stockist often wants to see how its stockists and distributors are doing. Read The Books Below on its login gives it exactly that, and nothing more.

Channel settings

Your office decides what every stock point's logins may do, in Settings › Field Sales › Channel. Only the owner or an administrator sees this card. A switch turned off takes the job away from every stock-point login straight away, even ones made earlier, and greys it out on the login form with Turned off in Channel settings.

The field team, beside the channel

Your own reps and managers walk a territory, not a book. They book orders at shops, and each order is billed through the stock point directly above the shop. The distributor who delivers the goods is the one who bills them.

• Ranks: Sales Representative, then Area, Regional, Zonal and National Sales Managers. Each manager sees everything inside their territory. Full detail is on Field Sales.
• Where they work: SKS Field Sales on the phone (cloud businesses only). Managers also use SKS Market in the office.
• Field team or a distributor's salesman? A rep on your payroll goes on the field team. A salesman on the distributor's payroll goes in the distributor's own team as a Salesman.

Retailers who order for themselves

With the Enterprise plan, a shop gets a login to the buyer app, not to SKS Market. It sees your catalogue at its own prices and places orders. Each order goes to the stock point that supplies that shop.

1. File the shop as a Retailer in the Directory, with its route.
2. Choose Buyer Login on its row, and enter the shop's name, email and a password.
3. Read the password out to the shop. If the email already has an account, it is linked instead, and the shop keeps its own password.

A day in the channel

flowchart LR
    F[Factory dispatch] -->|sale in your book, purchase in theirs| D[(Distributor's book)]
    R[Field rep order] --> D
    B[Retailer, buyer app] --> D
    D -->|Billing desk| S[Shop invoices]
    S -->|Salesman / Accounts| C[Collections]
    D -. Principal reads .-> P[Their reports]
    D & S & C -. You read .-> M[Primary vs secondary · stock ageing · collection efficiency]

Setting it all up, in order

1. Your own office

   Day 1 · owner
   • Switch on Channel Stock Points (and Field Sales if you run a team) under Settings > Field Sales
   • Add items, godowns and opening stock
   • Add office logins under Settings > Users

2. The channel

   Week 1 · owner or admin
   • Add super stockists, stockists and distributors in the Directory, each under its tier
   • Make each one a stock point, and set Channel Rates if each tier buys at its own rate
   • Give each one its Principal login

3. Their teams

   Week 1–2 · each principal
   • Each principal adds their billing, store, accounts and salesman logins from My Team
   • Each enters its opening stock

4. The field team

   Week 2 · owner, then managers
   • File the territory, add each rep with rank and ground, and set targets and beats

5. Retailers

   When you are ready · Enterprise
   • Give Buyer Login to the shops that will order for themselves

What keeps each book private

• One book per login. A stock point's login sees that party's stock, vouchers and money, and nobody else's. Its user list shows only its own team.
• Never an admin. No stock point login can be an admin, because an admin has no limits at all.
• Only below, only what you hold. A principal or manager can only add logins below their own level, only in their own book, and only with permissions they hold themselves.
• Enforced by the server. These rules are checked on the server, so they hold even if someone bypasses the app.

Questions customers ask

When saving a login is refused

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