Send the right document with every order.
A customer’s purchase team asks for the certificate of analysis for last month’s batch and the current safety data sheet. Sales finds two versions of the SDS in a shared folder and can’t tell which one went out last time. Chemical businesses run on documents as much as on product, and the software should keep them attached to the transaction.
Where documents go astray.
Versions multiply
Specifications and safety data sheets get revised. The copies saved on laptops and in email threads don’t, so the old one keeps getting sent.
Batch papers live apart from orders
The COA comes from the lab and the invoice from accounts. Matching the two for one dispatch is often a manual hunt through folders.
Approvals happen in conversation
Credit extensions, special pricing and clearance to ship a restricted product get agreed on calls. The decision exists, but no record of it does.
Distributors hold old material
A distributor passes a product sheet to their own customer. If you can’t see which version they hold, you can’t correct it.
We approach chemicals software from the order outward. Each order line points to a product and grade, each dispatch to a batch, and each of those carries the documents approved for it at that moment. When a document is revised, new orders pick up the new version while older orders keep the one they actually shipped with. That history is what lets you answer a customer or an auditor months later.
Some of these records carry safety, transport or regulatory requirements that differ by product and by country. Your technical and compliance people define which are in scope and how they must be handled; we build to that definition and make it difficult to bypass. Hazard classification and label content stay with your specialists.
Three views of one order.
What did we send?
Order status, documents shared and approvals pending in one place, so a customer query is answered without ringing the lab.
Which version is live?
Control over document versions and who may approve them, with a history of each revision and the reason for it.
What may we use?
Their own orders and invoices and the current approved documents for the products they sell, through a restricted portal.
Common questions from plant and sales heads.
Can access to a document depend on the customer?
Yes. Visibility can follow role, organisation or the order itself, so a distributor sees only what applies to their products. Our roles and permissions page explains the approach.
Our ERP already holds products and batches. Do we enter them twice?
Ideally not. We’d read product and batch data from the ERP where it allows, and keep documents and approvals in the new tool. The integration options decide how much can live in one place.
Can the lab upload a COA straight against a batch?
Yes. The lab attaches the certificate when the batch is released, and every dispatch from that batch picks it up without anyone searching for it.
Related reading.
Tell us which document gets asked for most.
We’ll start with that request and design the order record around it.