Plumbing supply businesses deal with high transaction volumes, complex pricing, multiple suppliers, and customers who expect fast service at the counter or trade desk. At the same time, finance teams need timely posting, accurate stock valuation, and reporting that reflects what’s happening across branches. A cloud-based ERP that connects sales, purchasing, inventory, and finance reduces double handling and makes day-to-day processing easier to manage.
Frameworks was designed for the plumbing industry and brings invoicing, accounting, and inventory into one cloud-based system. Instead of running separate tools for point of sale, purchasing, and financials, Frameworks keeps the ledger updated as transactions happen.
Fully Integrated Financials That Stay In Step With Operations
Frameworks includes fully integrated financials, so you don’t need a separate accounting package to manage core functions. As sales and purchasing transactions are processed, they flow through to Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Banking, Bank Reconciliations, Tax Reporting, and Financial Reports.
From the General Ledger dashboard, users can drill through to the source transaction for auditing. This supports everyday checks as well as month-end reviews, because finance teams can trace how a balance was created without leaving the system.
Key inclusions cover:
- General ledger and balance sheet processing
- Accounts payable and accounts receivable
- Banking and bank reconciliations
- Full tax processing for Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji
- Support for multi-site, multi-branch, and multi-company structures
Invoicing That Matches How Plumbing Supplies Businesses Sell
Plumbing suppliers often serve a mix of retail customers, contractors, and account customers with agreed pricing rules. Frameworks’ plumbing supply software supports everything from a simple retail transaction to a complex trade desk sale.
Because point of sale is fully integrated across the platform, sales and inventory updates happen in real time. Financial postings can be viewed as soon as the transaction is completed, which helps keep invoicing and reporting aligned with what’s actually been sold.
Trade desk processes include pick, pack, and release workflows, and transactions can be managed alongside purchasing so orders are tracked through to delivery. For businesses that run large, ongoing customer jobs, Frameworks can link transactions to projects, with visibility of quotes, orders, and invoices from one location.
Accounting That Doesn’t Sit Apart From Stock And Sales
Plumbing businesses often struggle when inventory, purchasing, and accounting live in separate systems. Differences in timing and data entry can create reconciliation work, especially when supplier invoices, freight, and rebates are involved.
Frameworks keeps accounting connected to operational processing. The system supports flexible costing methodologies, including valuing products at average cost and/or standard or replacement cost. Sell prices can be managed by retaining a margin on replacement cost, while sales can be costed at average costing.
Financial reporting can be produced by company, division, branch, and cost centre. An open interface allows exporting details for management in Excel or other third-party financial reporting tools.
Inventory Management Built For Plumbing Supplies
Frameworks’ data structuring supports large product ranges and the practical requirements of supply businesses. It can handle hundreds of thousands of product lines across one or many branches. Products can be ranged per branch, so each location can work with its relevant subset while still being able to access additional products when needed.
Multi-branch stock control allows different outlets to operate on more than one cost system, while still maintaining one SKU. The system also supports multiple units of measure (UOMs), which is useful for plumbing products that may be sold by length, pack size, or unit.
For businesses that manage kit products, tally products, and varied units, this inventory structure helps keep stock control consistent across locations.
Supplier And Buying Group Support That Reduces Manual Work
Plumbing suppliers rarely work with one source of supply. Frameworks allows each product to have one or multiple suppliers recorded against it, each with their own product identifiers and cost, freight, and rebate structures. Purchase orders identify the relevant pricing and identifiers based on the product and supplier combination.
Buying group and supplier catalogues can be incorporated through the Electronic Product Catalogue system, which imports and retains supplier pricing files separately from the ranged product set. This supports periodic updates and special item creation without requiring manual re-entry of supplier files.
Frameworks also supports controlling the visibility of rebates to sales staff, allowing costs to be shown as non-rebated, partially rebated, fully rebated, or hidden entirely, depending on permissions.
Multi-Branch Processing Without Overnight Waiting
For multi-branch plumbing supply businesses, real-time synchronisation matters. Frameworks supports direct sales-to-inventory data synchronisation without an overnight wait. Branch transfer flexibility helps optimise stock holdings and reduce the risk of one site carrying excess stock while another runs short.
Single-branch businesses can also benefit from the same platform, using simpler transaction management while keeping the option to expand into multi-site operations later.
Integration And Workflow For Connected Systems
Frameworks is cloud-based and uses an open API architecture. Data can flow between suppliers, buying groups, customers, and third-party systems such as CRM platforms, shopping carts, and manufacturing software.
Frameworks also includes automated notifications that can be configured at the transaction level. Events in day-to-day operations can trigger internal or external communications, task creation, or integrations to keep systems in sync.
Practical Reasons Plumbing Businesses Choose An ERP For Financials
When invoicing and accounting are part of the same platform as purchasing and inventory, plumbing suppliers can reduce common sources of friction, such as:
- Reconciliation gaps between sales systems and accounting records
- Delays in recognising financial postings after high-volume trade desk activity
- Inconsistent cost and margin reporting when multiple supplier costs apply
- Manual tracking of rebates, freight, and pricing rules
- Limited visibility when operating across multiple branches or entities
Frameworks was built for the needs of plumbing supplies businesses, with integrated financials, inventory, POS, and supplier management designed to work together.
If you’d like to see how Frameworks handles invoicing, stock, and financial reporting in one place, you can request a demo with the team.