Example project · The small tool between the spreadsheets - One backorder board instead of three spreadsheets
Backorders are tracked in spreadsheets owned by sales, purchasing, and the warehouse, and none of them agree. We build a single board fed nightly from the ERP where every open line has an owner and a next action.
Illustrative project plan. Company details describe the scenario; this page does not claim a completed customer engagement or measured results.
Pioneer Mill Supply. $22M revenue, mill and maintenance supplies, sales and purchasing in one office.
The situation
A customer calls about a late order. Sales checks their sheet, purchasing checks theirs, and the answer depends on who picked up.
Supplier promise dates change by email and rarely make it back into the ERP.
What we would build
- A nightly export of open order lines, supplier PO status, and promised dates from the ERP into the board’s own database.
- A web app showing each backordered line with customer commitment, supplier promise, days late, owner, next action, and notes. Filters by customer, supplier, and owner.
- A place to record what changed and when, so the history survives staff changes.
The workflow in action
What it brings together
Open order and item records Supplier confirmations and changes Customer commitments The assigned owner and next action Source links and data freshness
What the team can do
- Filter exceptions by owner or branch.
- Investigate the source record.
- Record the next action.
- Prepare an approved follow-up.
- Escalate unresolved work.
One example exception
- Example exception
- Order SO-4012 has a supplier date later than the current customer commitment.
- Suggested next action
- Verify both dates, contact the responsible buyer, and prepare the customer follow-up for review.
- Not assumed
- No automatic substitute recommendation, customer promise, or update to the ERP.
What you would see - Week by week, what lands on your desk.
Week 1
A mapping of the three spreadsheets to one set of fields, agreed with sales, purchasing, and the warehouse.
Weeks 2 to 3
The first version of the board with live data, used alongside the spreadsheets for comparison.
Week 4
The team working from the board only, with a daily standup around it, and the spreadsheets retired.
Week 5
Adjustments from two weeks of use, a short guide, and handover to a named owner.
What you would have at the end
- The board, hosted and documented, with the nightly sync and a failure alert.
- An export so the data is never trapped in the tool.
- A one-page guide for new staff.
What it would not do
- Writing back to the ERP. Promise-date changes are recorded on the board and updated in the ERP by the person responsible.
- Replacing the ERP’s order screens.
- Automatic customer notifications. Those can be scoped later if the team wants them.
How we would measure it
- Time to answer a customer’s backorder question.
- Backorder lines with no owner or no next action.
- Lines late against the customer commitment, per week.
Let’s start with one thing.
What would better performance look like?
Bring a result you want to improve, a symptom, or a workflow you already understand. You do not need to know the bottleneck yet. We’ll help choose what to investigate first.
No transaction files needed for the first conversation.