Ordering Software for Food Distributors in Canada: What to Check

If you distribute food in Canada you already know the awkward bits: a restaurant in Ontario and one in British Columbia don’t pay the same tax on the same case of pop, and your buyers think in pounds while your scale prints metric. Software that gets those wrong costs you an evening of corrections every week. Here is what to check before you sign up for anything — including us.

Sales tax by the province an order goes to

Basic groceries are zero-rated for GST and HST, but plenty of what a distributor sells is not: soft drinks, candy, snacks, prepared food, paper goods. Then it depends on where the order is delivered: HST in Ontario and the Atlantic provinces; GST plus a provincial sales tax in British Columbia and Saskatchewan (PST) and Manitoba (RST); GST alone in Alberta and the territories.

Ask any vendor one question: is the tax worked out by where the order is delivered, or by where my business is? It should be the first. In Supligo you give each product its tax class once — Supligo suggests one, you decide — and each order is taxed for the province of the place it is delivered to. Your accountant should still look over your classes once; after that they hold on every order.

Kilograms and pounds

A lot of produce and meat here is bought in pounds and sold by the case, while the scale in your warehouse may weigh in metric. Make sure each product can be weighed in its own unit, and that a product sold by weight is billed on what was actually packed — not on the estimate from the order. Supligo does both: a salmon fillet ordered at about four and a half pounds is charged on what your packer actually weighed.

Prices in Canadian dollars

Your customers should see dollars and cents the way your own invoices show them, and you should pay for the software in Canadian dollars too, without a conversion fee on your card every month. Supligo’s plans for businesses in Canada are priced in CAD; you can see them on the pricing page.

English and French

If you sell in Québec, you need software your customers can use in French, and tax that includes QST. We will be straight with you: Supligo is in English today, and it is not yet available for businesses based in Quebec, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Everywhere else in Canada, it is ready.

A short checklist

• Tax worked out by the province each order is delivered to.
• Each product weighed in its own unit, billed on the packed weight.
• Prices — and the subscription — in Canadian dollars.
• Each customer’s own prices and delivery days, without a sales rep re-typing them.
• A trial long enough to run real orders through it. Ours is 30 days.

Our longer guide to choosing distribution software goes through the rest: what it should cost, and the red flags.