Blog

Answering Your Questions About DEAR Systems

Answering Your Questions About DEAR Systems

Answering Your Questions About DEAR Systems

We work with a number of accountants who work with their own clients to provide suggestions on the best software and add-ons to improve their business operations. One of the systems we work with the most is DEAR systems, which is versatile enough to be used for a wide number of sectors and integrates with several online selling systems.

Below we answer some of the typical questions we get asked by our clients about some of the features of DEAR systems:

Does DEAR integrate with Amazon and keep control of the mess their system makes?

DEAR inventory software integrates with both Amazon and Fulfilled by Amazon, and helps businesses manage complex bulk orders. The accounting side can also be managed directly from Amazon to a Xero inventory app via A2X, which helps to manage the account mapping and split revenue between periods.

Does DEAR create sales invoices?

Yes – DEAR is a full order processing system, taking your sales from quote-to-invoice and purchases from order-to-invoice. This includes the creation of credit notes, delivery notes and all stages of fulfilment and dispatch.

Are there authorisation procedures in DEAR?

There is an authorisation step to each part of the sales and purchase order processing, user permissions can be set-up to allow only certain users to authorise. However, there is not the ability to have a specific user be notified when an order needs to be approved.

We have a client who sells fruit & veg to hotel/restaurant businesses. These are often sold by weight rather than quantity – are there any integrated scales or like manage quantities in weight?

There are no off-the-shelf integrations with scales, but a system integration solution could potentially be developed via the DEAR API – this would be dependent on the scales software. Within the DEAR system, you can measure the quantity of an item in weight.

Can you buy and sell in different quantities, e.g., buy a case of 100, sell individually?

Yes, and we love this feature. By using the additional units of measure function in DEAR, your stock is kept up to date whether you sell in singles, packs, pallets or containers.

Does the DEAR inventory system support stock ageing? How easy is it to translate this into discounted sales on products that aren’t selling?

There are stock ageing reports on the dashboard. In this dashboard, you can view ‘Top Selling’ and ‘Worst Selling’ products and search your system to see who buys these items. Discounts and new price tiers can be added to products to incentivise sales and manage bespoke pricing.

Your re-order point management – is this static or can it be customised to be seasonal and dynamic?

This is static per warehouse. Warehouses can have independent minimum/maximum stock levels. DEAR is also going to be releasing the forecasting module soon which may link to this in the future.

Do the monies received match automatically? I have a client who uses inventory software which doesn’t match monetary values well and it’s difficult for me to match it up especially when it’s from Shopify due to Shopify fees.

If the order was generated and paid for on an ecommerce website, the payment details will pull through to the DEAR system. However, the transaction and fees will still need to be reconciled in the accounting system separately.

Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable are manageable in DEAR – would this mean you can also apply payments?

You can apply payments in DEAR; however, this will not reconcile the transaction in the accounting system.

Is there a way of uploading documents (PDF, JPG of tax invoices) into DEAR?

Yes, documents can be attached to transactions and products in the DEAR inventory system. These are upload manually into the system, drag-and-drop.

How does DEAR compare with other inventory add-ons such as Unleashed?

This is a big question – the two systems are similar in many ways; both are aimed at small and medium business playing in wholesale, eCommerce and manufacturing. It’s the nuanced difference between the two systems and their workflows/features which make them suitable for certain clients. At BlueHub we specialise in software consultancy for small and medium business in the same sectors and to work with many businesses we use DEAR/Unleashed/Cin7/TradeGecko and a few other systems to ensure the best fit for the client.

This is not trivial, but essential – unlike accounting apps (Xero and QBO), inventory apps are not a one size fits all (or one size fits most). Therefore, we take every enquiry through an initial discovery session before determining which product would be most suitable.

If you have a client who would benefit from one of these free sessions, schedule a call with the team today.

Can inventory movement be sent to different inventory accounts in Xero: So product1 and product2 in separate inventory accounts in Xero?

Yes. Products can be mapped to unique inventory, sales, and COGS accounts.

Does Dear link to Receipt bank?

Not currently – but this could be a future feature!

To learn more about how DEAR works, and how we can support you and your clients, take a look at our portfolio of handy videos on our YouTube channel. Or, if you’re ready take the next step, get in touch to arrange a Discovery Call.