One commerce model
One commerce model for everything you sell.
A pallet of shelving, an install day, a monthly service plan and fifty seats are all products in Apex. They share one catalog, one set of price lists and one way of reaching an invoice, so a business that sells all four does not run four systems.
- Family
- Carts › Stainless
- Units
- Each · case of 6 · pallet of 52
- Cycle time
- 3 days
- Builds from stock
- 14
Where a sale starts
Four ways in, one record out.
However a sale begins, it becomes the same lines on the same records, priced the same way.
- A quote
- A rep builds it from the catalog and the customer's price list. Signed, it becomes a sales order.
- An RFQ
- The buyer's line list is matched to your own items and priced with margin in view. Won, it becomes a quote.
- A customer PO
- Read into a sales order in the customer's own units, priced from their list.
- A billing schedule
- A contract's phases and lines bill on their dates, from the same products and prices.
What an item carries
Supply, units and families, set once.
Bought or Made
Bought items have a lead time, measured from receipts. Made items have a cycle time, and are made to stock or made to order.
Units with conversions
Each, a case of 6, a pallet of 52. Quantities convert to the base unit, and a unit can carry its own price.
Families
One level by default, with a second level only for companies that need it. Families come from the ERP.
Bills of materials
Only on Made items, with how many builds the stock on hand supports.
Configurable items
Option groups and rules written as sentences, shown only on items marked configurable.
Drop-ship on the order
Not a supply mode: an order attribute, so the PO goes to the customer and stock is untouched.
How the model is built
Painted from your ERP, not built per business.
| Built per business | Apex's one model | |
|---|---|---|
| Catalog | A custom schema for each company's products | One product model, read from the ERP's items |
| Pricing | Rules coded per deal type | Price lists, customer lists, ZIP prices and rebates in one order of precedence |
| Services and plans | A separate billing system | Products on the same lines as the goods |
| Change | A project every time the business adds a line | A new product or unit on the same records |
| A second product | A second integration | The same foundation, already there |
FAQ
One commerce model, run end to end.
How does Apex hold goods, services and subscriptions together?
As products in one catalog. A product can be a stocked good, a service billed once or by the hour, a subscription billed by period, or seats. Each carries its units and prices, and each can sit on the same quote, order and invoice as the others.
How does a sale that starts from a customer PO reach an invoice?
The PO becomes a sales order in the customer's own units, priced from their list and allocated against stock on confirmation. The shipped or invoiced lines become the A/R invoice, written to the ERP first. Every step reads the same item and price records a quote would.
How do Bought and Made items differ in Apex?
A Bought item is purchased, so it has a lead time measured from receipts. A Made item is produced from a bill of materials, so it has a cycle time for the production run and is made to stock or made to order. Drop-ship is not a supply mode: it is set on the order.
Do we have to restructure our catalog?
No. Items, units and families come from your ERP as they are. Apex adds what the ERP does not hold well, such as option rules, customer lists based on a shared list, or a unit with its own price, on top of those records.
Can families have subfamilies?
Yes, for companies that need them. Families have one level by default and an optional second level. With one level, the screens show one level only.
Related in Apex
- PlatformYour ERP's customers, items, prices and stock in one foundation, with quote to cash on top.View
- CPQConfigure, price and quote from the items and price lists already in your ERP.View
- Sales ordersCustomer POs to sales orders, in the customer's own units, drop-ship included.View
- Subscription billingPhases, amendments, proration and co-terming.View
- Product configuratorOption groups and plain-sentence rules, with defaults on the quote.View
See Apex work on your own quote to cash.
Thirty minutes on one workflow, with your own quotes, orders or invoices. You leave with a view of where Apex fits, and an honest answer if the sequencing is wrong and you should fix something else first.
Your pricing, approval and billing rules are your advantage, and they stay yours. Apex is configured to the way you sell, make and bill. You are not handing over a playbook or fitting into a template.