Buyer's checklist
Software for wine distributors: what to look for before you buy.
1. Audits built around the wine list
A generic retail audit asks about shelf facings. A wine distributor also needs to know whether a wine made the list, whether it is poured by the glass and what sits next to it. Ask whether you can write your own sectioned audit forms, attach photos to the visit, and carry last visit's answers forward so reps confirm changes rather than retype the whole list.
2. A record for every sample bottle
Samples and tasting stock are a real cost in wine, and they are easy to lose track of. Ask how free stock is requested, who approves it, and whether it is tied to the account and the visit so you can see what was poured and where.
3. Pricing the rep cannot change
Wine pricing carries account specific deals and case breaks, and unit values are high, so a wrong total costs real money. The safer design is that the rep chooses wines and quantities and the server recomputes the total from the current price book on submit. Ask where the price is calculated when the rep presses send.
4. Visits that are verified, not reported
Wine reps often manage their own diaries, which is exactly why a manager needs evidence. Look for a geofence around the account, a minimum time on site, detection of mock location apps and a review queue where flagged visits wait with the reason attached.
5. Honest scope
A field app is not your stock system, your compliance system or your accounts package. Ask each vendor directly what it does not do and how orders get from the app into the system that invoices them.
