A yard full of pallets and a ledger full of queries
Blocks, bricks and bagged goods go out on returnable pallets, and your invoices carry a pallet charge. Customers bring some back, drivers pick some up from site, and some are simply burned or taken by another trade. The customer's accounts department queries a statement full of pallet charges and says they returned half of them. The counter has no record. The driver remembers collecting some from that site but not how many.
Meanwhile the yard has a stack of pallets from several manufacturers, and nobody has sent them back to claim the supplier credit.
Where the pallet trail breaks
Each pallet movement is small, so nobody treats it as a transaction worth recording carefully. Added up, they are a real sum, and they touch customers, drivers, the yard and suppliers.
- Charges are added to invoices, but the returns are credited by hand at the counter, if at all.
- Driver collections from site are noted on the back of a ticket.
- There is no balance per customer showing pallets out and pallets back.
- Returned pallets are not sorted by manufacturer, so supplier returns lag.
- Different branches treat pallet charges differently.
What it costs
Customers dispute statements and hold payments. Credits are given generously to settle arguments. Supplier credits for returned pallets are missed because nobody counted them out of the yard. And the yard fills with pallets that are money sitting on the ground.
There is a staff cost too. A credit controller who spends an afternoon reconciling a contractor's pallet charges against a list the customer has kept on their side is not chasing the overdue invoices that matter. And because the rules differ by branch, the same customer can be charged and credited differently depending on where they shop, which is hard to defend when they notice.
Pallet tracking tied to the paperwork
- Pallet charges on invoices are read from your merchant system, building a running balance per customer and per site.
- Drivers record pallet collections on their phone at the drop, by type and quantity, with a photo. Counter returns are recorded on a simple screen at the till.
- Credits are raised in your merchant system against the right charge, under the rules you set for condition and type.
- Customers can see their pallet balance on their statement or a portal link, which settles most queries before they start.
- The yard records returned pallets by manufacturer, and when a supplier return is due, the system prepares the paperwork and tracks the supplier credit.
- A monthly report shows pallets out, pallets back and supplier credits outstanding, by branch.
| Movement | Recorded by | What it updates |
|---|---|---|
| Charged on invoice | Merchant system | Customer balance |
| Collected from site | Driver app | Customer balance and credit |
| Returned at counter | Counter screen | Customer balance and credit |
| Sent back to supplier | Yard | Supplier credit due |
| Supplier credit received | Accounts | Claim closed |
The statement queries dry up
When a customer's accounts team asks about pallets, the answer is a balance with dates, not an argument. Drivers' collections are credited without paperwork chasing. The yard knows which pallets to return to which supplier, and finance can see the credits due.
Branch managers also get a clearer picture of who holds what. A contractor with a large balance of pallets out on a finished site can be asked about them while the site is still accessible, rather than months later when they have gone. And because every branch applies the same rules through the same screens, a customer who uses several of your branches sees one consistent balance.
Signs your pallets are leaking money
- Pallet charges are a regular source of statement disputes.
- Credits for returns are raised by hand and inconsistently.
- Nobody knows how many pallets each customer holds.
- Stacks of pallets sit in the yard waiting to go back to suppliers.
- Branches follow different pallet rules.