Run a wholesale business with three branches and you quickly realise that the hardest thing is not selling — it is knowing what you actually have, where it is, who owes you money, and whether any of your customers are buying more than they should on credit.
Most wholesale businesses in Kenya manage this across multiple spreadsheets, phone calls between branch managers, and a manual credit ledger that is almost always behind. By the time you find out a customer is overexposed on credit, they have already taken another delivery.
Vendra puts everything in one place: stock per location, customer credit balances, purchase orders, supplier invoices, and billing — all updated in real time.
The main problems Vendra solves for wholesalers
Stock across multiple locations
Each branch or warehouse maintains its own stock record in Vendra. You can see the stock at each location individually or across all of them at once. When you need to move stock from one branch to another, you create a transfer in the system. The sending branch's stock drops immediately. The receiving branch confirms the delivery and their stock goes up. The transfer record shows everything — quantity sent, quantity received, date and who handled it.
If there is a shortfall between what was sent and what was received, that is visible and can be investigated. It does not disappear into a general stock variance at year-end.
Customer credit limits
You assign a credit limit to each wholesale customer — say, Ksh 150,000 for one customer and Ksh 400,000 for another. When a customer places an order that would take their outstanding balance over that limit, the system blocks or flags the sale. A manager can override the block if they choose, but it is a deliberate decision, not something that slips through unnoticed.
A distributor with 40 wholesale customers once had five of them go past Ksh 200,000 in unpaid invoices before anyone noticed. Credit limit controls in the system would have flagged each of those accounts long before they got to that point.
Bulk invoicing and sales orders
Wholesale invoicing works differently from retail. You often need to issue invoices for large orders, track partial deliveries, and follow up on payment against each invoice. Vendra handles:
- Sales orders that convert to delivery notes and then to invoices
- Partial deliveries where the invoice reflects what was actually delivered
- Payment tracking per invoice — so you know what has been paid and what is outstanding
- Automatic WhatsApp notifications to customers with their invoice details
- Aged debtors report — who owes what and for how long
Inter-branch transfers
Move stock between locations with a proper record — who sent it, when, how much arrived, and whether anything was short. No more phone calls trying to figure out where something went.
Credit limit enforcement
Set a credit limit per customer. If a new order would take them over it, the system blocks or flags the sale. Managers can override, but it's a deliberate choice — nothing slips through quietly.
Purchase management
Send purchase orders to suppliers and receive stock against them. If the supplier charges for 50 units but only 45 arrived, that shows up before you pay the bill.
Consolidated reporting
See revenue, stock levels and what customers owe across all branches in one report. You don't need to chase each branch manager for their numbers at month-end.
Purchase orders and supplier management
When you need to restock, you create a purchase order in Vendra and send it to the supplier. When the goods arrive, you receive them against that order — confirming what came in. The stock updates, the supplier invoice is matched against the purchase order, and any discrepancy is flagged before you pay.
You can track prices per supplier over time. If a supplier raises prices and you want to compare against a previous purchase order, the history is there.
Inter-company transfers for group businesses
If you run multiple companies — for example, a wholesale arm and a retail arm — and they buy from each other, Vendra handles the inter-company piece automatically. A sale from Company A to Company B creates both a sales invoice in Company A and a purchase order in Company B. You do not have to enter the same transaction in two systems manually.
What plan covers wholesale and distribution?
Single-depot wholesale businesses with inventory, purchase orders, delivery management and invoicing can start on Basic at $28/month. Most wholesale operations also need full accounting and payroll — those are in Pro at $59/month, which also covers a second warehouse. Businesses with multiple warehouses or distribution points need Pro Plus at $99/month for up to 5 outlets, multi-location stock management, inter-branch transfers and consolidated reporting.