Order Taking App for Sales Reps & Wholesale Distributors
Two ways to take an order, one system underneath. Reps capture orders on a mobile app in the field — even offline — while customers can place their own orders online. Every order lands in the same queue, priced and stocked correctly.
14-day free trial, no credit card required.
The Order Taking App Built for Wholesale, Not Restaurants
Search “app for taking orders from customers” and the results are almost entirely restaurant point-of-sale and food delivery tools. None of them cover how a distributor or wholesaler actually takes orders — from a field rep on a route, and from a trade customer buying in bulk. SalesRep Software is built for both.
In most wholesale and distribution businesses, orders arrive through more than one channel at the same time. A rep visiting a store takes the order in person. A larger account emails or calls the office directly. A regular customer sends a WhatsApp message with a photo of what they need. Each of those is really the same event — a customer wanting to buy something — but handled by a different person, in a different format, with no shared record.
An order taking app fixes this by giving every channel the same destination: reps capture orders on a mobile app that works offline, customers capture their own orders through a self-service portal, and both write to one order queue, against one stock position and one price list per customer. Nobody has to reconcile three different sources at the end of the day to know what actually needs to be delivered.
Your reps take orders on their route, on their van, or standing in a customer’s store — with or without signal. The mobile app captures the order, the customer’s price, and the stock check, then syncs the moment it’s online again.
Customers who would rather order themselves get their own login to browse the catalog and place orders without waiting for a rep or calling the office. Read the full breakdown on the customer ordering app page.
One Product Catalog, One Order Queue
Whichever channel an order comes through, it hits the same catalog, the same stock levels, and the same customer price list. Your dispatch team works from a single queue instead of reconciling a rep’s notebook against a customer’s WhatsApp message.
Reps Take Orders on the Road, Offline If Needed
Load shedding and patchy signal are part of daily field sales in South Africa. The rep mobile app is built offline-first: reps keep capturing orders, checking van stock, and closing visits with no connection at all. Every order queues on the device and syncs automatically the moment it reconnects.
- Full order capture with no signal — nothing is lost while offline
- Customer’s price and stock loaded onto the device in advance
- Automatic sync to the office and dispatch queue when back online
- Built into the same platform as route planning and van stock, covered on our van sales software and field sales software pages
Built for Distributors, Not Diners
Almost every order taking app on the market is a restaurant point-of-sale or food delivery tool. If your business sells cases, pallets or bulk quantities to trade customers rather than single meals to consumers, none of them fit — this one does.
Reps take route orders from spaza shops and retailers while larger accounts order themselves between visits.
Reps capture orders during pharmacy and clinic visits, with stock and pricing controls that reflect regulated product lines.
Van sales reps invoice on delivery while head office accounts reorder online against the same stock and pricing.
Contract cleaning companies reorder consumables weekly; reps handle new accounts and larger tenders in person.
Some Customers Would Rather Order Themselves
Not every customer wants to wait for a rep visit or pick up the phone. Your higher-frequency accounts — the ones reordering the same lines every week — often prefer to log in, check what they normally buy, and submit the order in a couple of minutes. Giving them that option does not remove your reps from the relationship; it frees reps to spend visit time on new business, problem accounts and upselling instead of re-keying a routine order.
The customer-facing side of this platform is covered in full on the customer ordering app page — including how per-customer pricing, live stock and progressive web app installation work from the customer’s side.
Businesses that roll out self-service tend to do it account by account rather than all at once — starting with the customers who order most often, since that’s where the admin savings show up first. Reps typically keep ownership of the relationship even after a customer starts self-ordering: they still visit, still handle queries, and still get visibility of every order that customer places, whichever channel it came through.
- Reps still visit — just with less time spent on order-taking admin
- A customer can order between visits without waiting for the next route day
- You choose which customers get self-service access and which stay rep-managed
A Typical Split
Orders, Payments and Inventory in One Place
Taking the order is only half the job. Every order — rep-captured or customer-placed — checks stock and applies the right payment rule automatically.
Most order taking apps stop at capturing the order and leave payments and stock to a separate system, which is exactly where things fall out of sync — an order is confirmed against stock that was actually sold an hour earlier through a different channel, or a customer over their credit limit gets shipped anyway because nobody checked. Handling orders, payments and inventory in the same place closes that gap: the check happens at the moment the order is placed, not after the fact.
- • Order on credit account with agreed terms
- • Collect payment at point of order where required
- • Credit limit checks before an order is confirmed
- • ZAR invoicing with correct VAT calculation
- • Live stock deduction on every order
- • Van stock and warehouse stock tracked separately
- • Out-of-stock items flagged before checkout
- • One stock position for reps, customers and dispatch
- • Every order lands in a single queue, whoever captured it
- • Pick, pack and invoice from one screen
- • Proof of delivery captured on the same app
- • Full history if a delivery is ever disputed
What It Costs
Rep order entry and the customer self-service portal are both included in SalesRep Software plans — there is no separate app to buy for each channel. See full plan details on our pricing page, or try both sides of the platform free for 14 days.
Why One Shared Order System Wins
Splitting order-taking across a rep’s notebook and a customer’s WhatsApp thread feels flexible, but it quietly costs accuracy. Bringing both channels into one system is where the real gains show up.
- Rep orders on paper, customer orders on WhatsApp — two systems to reconcile
- Different price shown depending on who took the order
- Double stock deductions or none at all when both channels are used
- Every order, from any channel, in one dispatch queue
- The same per-customer price whether a rep or the customer places it
- One stock position, always accurate, no matter who is ordering
Restaurant Order Apps vs. an Order Taking App for Distributors
Nearly every result for “order taking app” is built for a restaurant counter. Here is the difference for a business that sells wholesale.
| Capability | Restaurant order app | SalesRep Software |
|---|---|---|
| Who takes the order | Customer only, at the till or online | Field rep or customer — same system either way |
| Connectivity | Requires internet at checkout | Rep app works fully offline, syncs later |
| Pricing | One menu, one price | Price list per customer account |
| Stock | Menu items, rarely tracked as inventory | Live warehouse and van stock deduction |
| Route & territory | Not applicable | Built-in route planning for rep visits |
None of this is a criticism of restaurant ordering tools — they solve a real problem for a different kind of business. The mismatch only shows up when a wholesaler or distributor tries to force a consumer checkout flow onto trade customers who need account pricing, credit terms and a rep relationship that a takeout app was never built to handle.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about apps for taking orders from customers
Yes. SalesRep Software is an order taking app with two sides: a mobile app your reps use to capture orders in the field, including fully offline, and a self-service portal where your customers can place their own orders. Both feed into the same order queue, so nothing gets duplicated or missed.
Yes. Orders can be taken against a customer’s credit account with agreed terms, or configured to collect payment at the point of order. Reps and customers both see the correct payment rule for that account automatically — there is no separate payment app to reconcile against.
Yes. Every order — whether captured by a rep or placed by a customer — deducts from live stock in real time. Reps and customers see accurate availability before they order, and dispatch works from a single, always up-to-date stock position instead of reconciling separate spreadsheets.
Yes. The rep mobile app is built offline-first for South African field conditions and load shedding. Reps keep capturing orders with no signal, and everything syncs automatically the moment the device reconnects — nothing is lost in the meantime. Start your free trial to try it on your own route.
Yes, for the order itself. Most distributors keep WhatsApp and phone calls open for relationship management and support, but move the actual order into the app so it is priced correctly, checked against stock, and recorded properly. Customers who prefer to text a rep can still do so — the rep simply captures that order in the app rather than acting on the message directly.
Simple, Transparent Pricing
No hidden fees. No setup costs. All prices in ZAR + 15% VAT. Cancel anytime.
Perfect for small sales teams getting started
+ R349/user/month
For growing teams that need more power
+ R499/user/month
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