Chemicals: samples, price offers and reorders

The Chemicals app is for companies that make, distribute or trade chemicals. It keeps your catalogue with grades, CAS numbers and documents, the samples customers test, price offers that need a manager’s approval below a product’s minimum margin, and orders through dispatch and delivery. From each customer’s buying pattern, CRMSix works out when they’ll order again and reminds the team.

Turn on Chemicals

Chemicals is an add-on feature. If you don’t see Chemicals in the app switcher, ask CRMSix support to turn it on for your organization. You can raise a ticket from Help in the app.

Once it’s on, everyone in the organization can open the Chemicals app from the app switcher. Its tabs are Price offers, Samples, Orders, Reorders, Products, Leads, Accounts, Contacts, Tasks and Reports.

• Manage chemicals.People with this permission set up products, prices, costs and documents, see costs and margins, approve price offers below a product’s minimum margin, and cancel orders. Admins have it, and so does the standard Manager profile.
• Everyone else.Anyone who works records can request and track samples, make and send price offers, take orders, and dispatch and deliver them. They see list prices, not costs or margins.

How a sale moves

1. Lead or account. Record the customer’s profile: their type (manufacturer, formulator, distributor, trader…), industry, applications, monthly consumption and current supplier.
2. Sample. Send a sample of the right product and grade, and record the customer’s test result.
3. Price offer. Offer the approved product with quantity, packing, price, freight and terms. Below the minimum margin, a manager approves it first.
4. Order. When the customer sends a purchase order, mark the offer accepted. CRMSix creates the order.
5. Dispatch and delivery. Record batch numbers, the transporter and the LR number, then the delivery.
6. Reorder. CRMSix works out when the customer will need more and reminds the owner a week before.

Not every sale needs a sample: an existing customer reordering an approved product goes straight to a price offer, or a repeat order.

Set up your products

1. Go to Products and choose New product.
2. Enter the commercial name and grade (for example Ethyl Acetate, Technical). Each grade is its own product, so it can have its own price and documents. Add the code, chemical name, CAS number, purity and physical form where they apply.
3. List the packing it comes in, separated by commas: 25 kg bag, 200 L drum, 1000 L IBC, bulk tanker.
4. Choose the unit you sell in (kg, MT, L, KL…), the list price per unit, the minimum order quantity, the tax rate and the HSN code.
5. Enter the cost per unit and the minimum margin. A price offer below that margin needs approval (see Margin approval).
6. For hazardous goods, tick Hazardous and add the UN number and hazard class.

CRMSix checks the CAS number’s check digit, so a mistyped number is caught. A product with samples, offers or orders can’t be deleted; untick Active instead. To load a catalogue, use Settings → Data Import → Chemical Products.

TDS, SDS and other documents

Open a product and upload its TDS (technical data sheet), SDS (safety data sheet), a COA, specifications or other files, up to 4 MB each, with a revision such as Rev 3. Everyone can download them to send to customers; people with Manage chemicals add and delete them. The product list shows which documents each product has, so missing SDSs are easy to spot.

The customer’s profile

On a lead or an account, the Chemicals card shows the customer’s profile, the products they’ve approved (a sample that passed, or anything they’ve ordered), their next expected orders, open offers, samples and orders. Choose Add profile to record their customer type, industry, applications, monthly consumption and unit, current supplier, target price, payment terms, credit limit and the products they’re interested in. A new price offer from the card starts with those products.

Samples

1. From the card, or Samples → Request a sample: choose the customer, product, quantity and the application they’ll test it for.
2. When it ships, choose Dispatch and add the courier, tracking number and batch. Set when to follow up (10 days unless you change it): CRMSix adds a task for the sample’s owner on that date to ask for the result.
3. Choose Customer is testing when it arrives, if you want to track that.
4. Choose Record the result: approved or rejected, with the customer’s feedback.
5. For an approved sample, choose Make a price offer: the offer starts with that product.

The Samples tab lists open samples, with overdue results in red. The home page shows how many decided samples became orders in the last 12 months.

Price offers

Choose New price offer and add the products: for each, the packing, quantity, unit, rate and tax. The rate starts at the list price; change it to the agreed price. Then set the terms:

• Delivery terms: an Incoterm (EXW, FOB, CIF, DAP, DDP…) or FOR destination, and the place.
• Freight: included in the price, charged extra (with the amount), or to pay by the buyer.
• Payment and delivery, and how long the offer is valid (15 days unless you change it).
• Notes printed on the offer, and internal notes that aren’t.

Submit the offer, then choose PDF to send it. The PDF shows each product with its grade, CAS number, purity and UN number, the totals and terms. It never shows costs or margins. Choose Mark sent once it’s with the customer.

Margin approval

When an offer is submitted, CRMSix compares each line’s price with the product’s cost. If the margin is below the product’s minimum margin, the offer waits for approval. Someone with Manage chemicals opens it from Price offers (or the home page) and chooses Approve, or Send back with a reason. The offer’s owner gets a task either way.

Changing the products, prices or freight of an offer that was submitted takes it back to Draft, so a changed price is always checked again. When someone with Manage chemicals submits an offer below the margin, it’s approved in their name.

Orders

1. On the offer, choose Customer accepted and enter their PO number and date, and when you expect to dispatch. The customer must be an account: convert a lead first.
2. The order opens with the offer’s products, prices and terms. Until it’s dispatched, quantities and packing can still change; prices change only by someone with Manage chemicals.
3. Choose Dispatch and enter the batch or lot number for each product, the transporter, vehicle number and LR (or bill of lading or AWB) number.
4. Choose Mark delivered when it arrives.

Someone with Manage chemicals can cancel an order before it’s dispatched; its offer goes back to Sent.

Reorders

For each account and product with a dispatched order, CRMSix works out when the next order is likely:

• with two or more orders, from the usual gap between them (the average of the last six gaps);
• with one order, from the account’s monthly consumption in its profile, when the units convert (kg and MT, L and KL).

The Reorders tab lists what’s due in the next 7 to 90 days, with overdue ones in red. A week before each date, the account’s owner gets a task to call the customer, unless an order or offer for that product is already open. Choose New price offer on a row to offer the same quantity at the last price.

Repeat orders

On a dispatched or delivered order, choose Repeat order. CRMSix creates a draft price offer for the same account with the same products, packing, quantities, prices and terms. Change what you need, submit it and send it. It’s checked against the minimum margin like any offer.

The home page and reports

The Chemicals home page shows open samples and how many became orders, open offers and the win rate, this month’s orders with their margin (for people with Manage chemicals), orders to dispatch and reorders due. It lists offers to follow up, samples awaiting results, reorders coming up, and the top products and customers this year. For your own reports, the Chemicals objects are in the Query Console and Settings → Data Model.

Converting a lead

When a lead is converted, its samples and price offers move to the new account (and contact), and its profile becomes the account’s, unless the account already has one.

Sandboxes

Products, documents, samples, offers and orders aren’t copied into sandboxes. Real customers’ prices and orders stay in production.