Ask the Ledger ERP Walkthrough

Chapters

• 0:00 — Intro: on-premise ERP for wholesale distributors
• 0:15 — Customer master file
• 0:36 — Inventory, lot tracking, and manufacturing data
• 0:55 — Invoice entry
• 1:08 — Recurring billing templates
• 1:31 — Route invoice generation
• 1:50 — BOM and production planning
• 2:16 — Lot traceability and recall
• 2:34 — Standard reports and AI report builder
• 2:58 — Close

Full transcript

This is Ask the Ledger, an on-premise ERP built for wholesale distributors. Everything runs on your own Windows server with direct keyboard navigation across every module.

The system starts with customers, a full master file with contact, shipping, financial terms, and complete order history all on one screen. Sales history, last payment, credit limits, and delivery holds are always one tab away. Nothing hidden in a separate system.

Inventory works the same way. Every item has its suppliers, pricing tiers, lot tracking, and manufacturing data attached. For bakeries and food distributors, that means ingredients, finished goods, and recipes all connect, so you know exactly what's available and what you can produce.

Invoice entry is fast and keyboard driven. Find a customer, add lines, calculate tax and freight, and print or email in seconds.

Recurring billing handles standing orders. Templates define the customer, the schedule, and the items, then generate invoices automatically on daily, weekly, or monthly cycles. You can see every active template at a glance with its frequency, route, next bill date, and line count.

Route invoice generation takes that further. Pick a route and a date, and the system previews every eligible customer, generates their invoices, and produces pick lists, packing slips, and a route manifest all in one pass.

For manufacturers, the BOM module manages recipes. Each finished good explodes into its ingredients with quantities, yields, scrap percentages, and production notes. Production planning aggregates demand from open sales orders and recurring templates, then tells you exactly what to produce, what ingredients you need, and where you have shortages — before you start mixing.

Lot traceability runs forward and backward. Pick any lot and you can trace every manufacturing order that consumed it and every customer who received the finished product. A full recall trail in seconds.

For reporting, Ask the Ledger includes standard operational reports — AR aging, daily sales, inventory valuation, and more. And for anything the standard reports don't cover, the AI report builder lets you describe what you want in plain English. It generates the SQL, runs the query, and exports to Excel.

That's Ask the Ledger: on-premise control, distributor-specific workflows, and AI reporting in one connected system.

What you just saw

The walkthrough covers nine modules of Ask the Ledger, all running on one PostgreSQL database with no sync layer between them:

• Customer master — contact, shipping, terms, credit limits, delivery holds, and full order history on one screen.
• Inventory — suppliers, 5-tier pricing, lot tracking, and manufacturing data attached to each item; recipes connect ingredients to finished goods.
• Invoice entry — keyboard-driven order-to-invoice workflow with automatic tax and freight.
• Recurring billing — templates auto-generate invoices on daily, weekly, or monthly cycles.
• Route invoice generation — one pass produces invoices, pick lists, packing slips, and a route manifest for every customer on a route.
• BOM and production planning — ingredients, yields, scrap, and a demand aggregator that flags ingredient shortages before production starts.
• Lot traceability — forward and backward tracing for recalls: from a lot to every customer who received product made from it, in seconds.
• Standard reports — AR aging, daily sales, inventory valuation, and the usual operational set.
• AI report builder — describe a question in plain English, the system writes SQL, runs it, and exports to Excel.

Related

• Schedule a live demo — 20-minute walkthrough with your real workflow and data model
• Full feature list — every module in detail
• On-Premise ERP — why the system runs on your server, not someone else's cloud
• How AI plain-English reporting works — the mechanics behind the AI report builder
• EDI integration demo — 90-second walkthrough of the EDI engine and AI field mapping