How to Automate CP Tech DistributionPlus

DistributionPlus is the one screen a plumbing wholesaler lives in

A plumbing supply house sells the same fitting eleven different ways. Over the counter to a service van at seven. Off a contract to a mechanical contractor mid-job. Through the showroom, where a homeowner has chosen a finish and wants a date. On a submittal package for a project that has not broken ground. The price, the lead time and the paperwork are different every time.

DistributionPlus holds all of that in one place. CP Tech, a software company in Savage, Minnesota, writes and sells it themselves rather than reselling somebody else's, and aims it at small and medium wholesale distributors: PHC, PVF and HVAC, plus fasteners, auto parts, hose and fluid power and a dozen other trades.

For the branch that means one screen. Inventory, purchasing, sales and quoting, warehouse management, lot and serial traceability, EDI and financials sit in the same system, with a Sales Portal for reps and a Customer Portal where contractors order for themselves.

The price file, the warranty and the RGA all live somewhere else

What DistributionPlus cannot tell you is what the manufacturer decided this week.

The price file is the standing example. A vendor publishes a new one on their distributor site, and until somebody downloads it, maps the columns and imports it, the branch quotes off last quarter's cost. Warranty registration is the same problem with a clock on it: a water heater goes out the door and the registration has to be entered on the manufacturer's own site inside a window nobody at the counter is watching.

Then the rest. An RGA number chased from a vendor before a return can even be shipped. A rebate program enrollment that renews each year on a portal only the branch manager has a login for. A submittal package sitting on a general contractor's project site waiting for an approval stamp. A showroom customer wanting a date for the tub, which means the vendor's order status page.

All of it is somebody's morning, and none of it is in the ERP.

CP Tech DistributionPlus

Warranty registrations inside the window The serial number already on the invoice line carried onto the manufacturer's registration form, filled and waiting for a person to submit.

Vendor price files compared, not just downloaded Each supplier's new sheet set against current cost so only the changed lines reach the person who sets the sell price.

Return authorizations chased for you The RGA number a credit is waiting on, followed on the vendor's own returns site until it exists and can be shipped against.

Intelligent Purchasing decides what to buy, not where to look

DistributionPlus handles more of this on its own than a small distributor usually expects.

Purchasing runs off min/max levels and historical usage, factors seasonal stock items, recognizes normal and abnormal usage patterns, and can create the purchase order or the purchasing report automatically, with the option to override it. Purchase orders link to the sales orders that caused them, goods in transit are tracked, and landed costing lands on the item rather than in a spreadsheet. Kitting with bills of materials handles the assemblies, and lot and serial traceability follows a batch down through smaller units, so a recall has a list. The Customer Portal lets contractors check order status, review history and reorder at their own contract pricing, and a pick ticket is generated in the warehouse the moment they submit one.

So the portal a distributor gives its own customers is thorough. The portals its suppliers give it are another matter. Those belong to other companies, and DistributionPlus has no login to a single one of them.

Registrations, returns and reorders keep moving on their own

The list of what needs chasing already exists inside DistributionPlus. What is missing is a way to go and act on it.

Warranty registrations are the cleanest case. The serial number is already on the invoice line, so the form on the manufacturer's site can be filled from it and left for someone to submit, inside the window rather than a month after. Returns run the other way. The credit waits on an RGA number, and the vendor's returns portal is the only place it appears.

The rest is repetition. New price files pulled from each supplier's site and set against current cost, with only the changed lines shown. Open quotes matched against what the contractor actually ordered, so follow-up calls go to the ones still live. Rebate enrollments checked for renewal dates before they lapse. Seasonal reorder quantities checked against what the vendor actually has now, not what it had last spring. A showroom order tracked on the vendor's status page, so the homeowner gets a date instead of a shrug.

Gathering and comparing can run unattended overnight. Submitting a registration, filing a return or promising a date stays with the person who has to stand behind it.

Somebody else can hold the supplier logins open

None of that needs a change to DistributionPlus, and CP Tech has nothing at their end to build either. The job is opening another company's website and reading it.

WebRun is an AI agent that drives a real Chrome browser, signed in the way your buyer or counter manager signs in. It opens the manufacturer portal, the returns site or the project page, reads the screen your staff would read, and brings the answer back beside the order it belongs to.

It runs on a schedule in your own private environment, restricted to the domains you allow, and you can watch a run and stop it. Anything submitted to a vendor or sent to a customer is drafted for approval first. Each workflow below names the sites it opens.