How To Import Orders from BrokerForce®

When you supply price list and catalog data to reps using BrokerForce®, their orders can be returned to you for direct import into your accounting and distribution system with your correct customer numbers. We'll help you set it up.

Formats available CSV, Tab delimited, Excel, EDI 850, QuickBooks, MAS 90, MAS 200, Microsoft Navision, NetSuite, MS Small Business Financials, Oak Street, Point Force, Sage ACCPAC, SAP, SMS, and many others are already supported. A quotation for a custom format is available upon request.

If you have QuickBooks, take a look at the Atandra Data Hub product and this How To screen shot or Syncware (software bridge, consulting service, monthly fee) or Bay State Consulting Import Wizard.

Why import orders electronically? Order processing costs are reduced by a minimum of $3-$6 per order, enabling faster, more accurate shipping. Efficient, reliable shipping translates into quicker turnover of products and faster payment. There are NO transaction fees with BrokerForce®. Faster, better, reliable!

Prevent expensive variances!

Before you receive orders electronically, consider sending your invoices in electronic data exchange format. Why?

When you return invoices electronically:

• Agencies must update their customer numbers and contact information with the information sent with invoices before they can import the invoices. All future orders for any invoiced customer will have your customer numbers on them.
• You save printing and mailing costs.
• Put accurate item sales information in the hands of the road reps for the best customer service and larger orders.
• Sending invoices electronically reduces your costs of importing orders because BrokerForce® validates on the rep side.
• Reduced service desk costs, one more added benefit when reps have timely invoice information in the field.

How to get it done

Our experts at BrokerForce® will consult without charge, for vendors who have agencies and reps using BrokerForce®, regarding automation of importing and validating orders. Our team published data exchange formats before any other software company in any specialty industry.

BrokerForce® has several order export formats built in that can send orders to your company in any one of the common file formats. Fixed width (columnar) is the most commonly requested format and comma separated value (CSV) formats are also available with the header information included or excluded in the first row.

If you use a proprietary format for importing orders electronically, please send a sample with a list of fields, data types and lengths, and transport method, for example FTP or e-mail, to support@brokerforce.com with subject: "your company name" and subject Order Exchange. Almost all formats and parameters can be accommodated.

Many inventory distribution systems such as Microsoft Great Plains, MAS 90, Business Objects, and QuickBooks have integration tools for importing and exporting this order and invoice information. If you have any questions, contact us at support@brokerforce.com or info@brokerforce.com. Data exchange is our expertise.

How it is sent - The resulting file may be e-mailed, sent on disk, or made available for upload to your web site. If the file is sent directly from BrokerForce® via e-mail, the subject line will be "Orders" plus the date and time of the export, and the rep group's name. The body of the message will contain the name of the rep who exported the order along with any special instructions.

Your Specifications - Let us know if you want new customer orders included in the electronic batches or if those orders should come through another channel. Does your software have a restricted list of Terms, FOB, or Ship Via values? If so, please provide those lists so that we can assure that only those values are returned. If using an FTP site, provide a user name and login for FTP transfers.

If your software requires a format other than those currently provided, please provide us with the contact information for your solution provider including a list of your specifications, and notify your provider with our contact information. We will discuss a solution with them and provide a quotation.

Sample Orders Fixed Width Layout
The following table describes the columnar layout of an Orders.txt file that can be exported from BrokerForce®. This is a flat file, and all header information is repeated on every row. All details are grouped together by OrderID, the agency's unique order identifier. Other formats are available including order headers in one file and details in another.

If you would like to have Bill To information included, click here or use the layout below for orders without these fields.

Note: Your customer number (VendorCustNo) will be empty for a new customer.