Setting Up Distributors
The "Ordering" and "Ordering and delivery" settings described below may not be available for all stores yet.
How Distributors Work
Access requirements. You'll need the "Distributors" permission — view access lets you see the list; edit access is needed to add or change one.
A distributor record covers identity, address, and invoice reading. Beyond name and address, a distributor has an account number and a "Scotch distributor link" that helps Back Office correctly read invoices from that specific distributor once you upload one — it's not what decides which distributor an invoice belongs to (you choose the distributor when you create the purchase order, before any invoice is involved).
Contacts are the sales reps you'll pick from later. Adding a contact to a distributor is what makes them selectable as the "Sales rep" when you create a purchase order with that distributor.
Divisions exist for larger accounts. You can organize a distributor's contacts and products into named divisions — most distributors won't need it, and you can ignore divisions entirely if yours don't.
Retiring a distributor means deactivating it, not deleting it. There's no delete option anywhere in Back Office — Activate/Deactivate is the only supported way to retire one.
Where to Access Each Feature
To… | Go to |
See all distributors | Stock management → Distributors |
Add a new distributor | Stock management → Distributors → Add distributor |
Add a sales rep contact | Open the distributor → Contacts → Add |
Change ordering and delivery settings | Open the distributor → Edit details |
Adding a Distributor
Step 1
Click on "Stock management" in the left-menu bar, then click on "Distributors."
Step 2
Click "Add distributor."
Step 3
Enter the "Name," and optionally a "Division descriptor" and "Account number."
Step 4
Under "Address," fill in the street address, city, state, and ZIP.
Step 5
Set how you order from this distributor. Every field here is optional:
Under "Ordering" — "Lead time override (days)."
Under "Ordering and delivery" — "Ordering days," "Truck arrival days," "Order-to-delivery lead time (days)," and "Days of safety stock" (the extra buffer days of stock you want built into order timing). If you have more than one store, each store gets its own set of these four fields.
If you do fill in a lead time, it has to be more than zero and no more than 90 days. "Lead time override (days)" takes a whole number from 1 to 90. "Order-to-delivery lead time (days)" takes anything from half a day to 90 days, in half-day steps. Save a number outside that range and Back Office won't accept it.
Anything you leave blank falls back to what Back Office works out from your past purchase orders, and the "Order-to-delivery lead time (days)" field shows that measured figure underneath it once there's enough order history to measure one. What you fill in afterwards appears on the distributor's page in an "Ordering and delivery" block, which lists only the stores you actually set something for.
Step 6
Under "Invoice sync," optionally fill in "Invoice source" (a label for your own reference) and "Fintech division ID," and set a "Scotch distributor link" if this distributor matches one in Scotch's own list — this helps Back Office read invoices from them accurately once you're receiving against a purchase order, by recognizing their layout and product codes.
Step 7
Click "Save."
Adding a Sales Rep Contact
Step 8
On the distributor's page, find the "Contacts" panel and click "Add."
Step 9
Enter the contact's "Name" and "Email" (both required), and optionally a "Phone" number. You can also pick a "Division" for the contact — leave it on "All divisions" if this distributor doesn't use divisions, or if the rep covers all of them.
Step 10
Save the contact. It now shows up as a selectable "Sales rep" whenever someone creates a purchase order with this distributor. If you picked a division, it's listed on the contact's card in the "Contacts" panel.
Other Things You Can Do
Export product list — opens an "Export product list" window where you choose what to include, then click "Export" to open a PDF of this distributor's products in a new tab. If you have more than one store, pick one from the "Store" dropdown. Under "Only," the "Active," "Orderable," and "Sellable" boxes all start ticked — each ticked box narrows the list to products marked that way at the store you picked ("Orderable" means the product is marked for reordering at that store, "Sellable" means it's available for sale there), so untick one to include more. You can also export just one division's products the same way.
Activate / Deactivate — from the "⋮" menu on the distributor's page, or in bulk from the list. An inactive distributor is hidden from places like the purchase order distributor picker.
Divisions — a "Divisions" panel lets you organize this distributor's contacts and products into named groups. You can add a new division from scratch, or convert an existing separate distributor into a division under this one, if you set them up separately and later realized they should be one distributor with sub-groups. Converting brings that distributor's purchase orders, contacts, and products across to this one and files them under the new division — you keep your past orders and the invoices received against them. Afterward, the distributor you converted no longer appears in the list on its own.
Troubleshooting
A sales rep isn't showing up when creating a purchase order: they need to be added as a Contact on that distributor first — the purchase order's "Sales rep" list only pulls from contacts you've already added.
You need to get rid of a distributor entirely: there's no delete option. Deactivate it instead — that's the supported way to retire one.
A distributor isn't showing up where you expect it: check whether it's been deactivated. Inactive distributors drop out of places like the purchase order picker.
Line items from an uploaded invoice aren't matching to the right products: check that the distributor has a "Scotch distributor link" set — that's what helps Back Office correctly read that distributor's invoice layout and product codes. It won't help with picking the distributor itself, though — that's set on the purchase order before the invoice ever comes into it, not derived from the invoice. "Invoice source" is just a label for your own reference and doesn't affect matching at all.