Sales Order Processing
Food distributors handle high order volumes from multiple sources—EDI, email, portals, and even faxed or phoned‑in orders. Our automation captures and classifies every order, no matter the format, and transforms it into ERP‑ready transactions. Cognitive capture maps customer‑specific item codes to your internal SKUs, checks availability, flags backorders, and applies pricing/tolerance rules instantly. The result? Orders are fulfilled faster, with fewer errors, ensuring on‑time, in‑full delivery.
Key Features:
- Omnichannel order capture (EDI, email PDF, portal, phone entry)
- Automatic customer/item recognition and mapping
- Real‑time price/availability checks
- Backorder/substitution flagging
- Exception handling with guided workflows
KPIs: Order entry time, accuracy, perfect order rate, credits/returns, OTIF.
Robotic Process Automation
Fueling Efficiency and Accuracy in Food Distribution with Intelligent Automation
In the highly competitive world of food distribution, speed, accuracy, and compliance are non-negotiable. Distributors who want to stay ahead are moving away from slow, manual processes and embracing digitization and automation to streamline operations from dock to doorstep.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is transforming the way food distributors handle repetitive, time-consuming tasks such as entering order details, updating inventory across multiple systems, managing supplier portals, and reconciling shipping documentation. By automating these processes, distributors free employees to focus on higher-value activities like optimizing routes, negotiating vendor contracts, and improving customer satisfaction.
The benefits go far beyond efficiency. Intelligent automation helps minimize costly errors, improves compliance with food safety regulations, and ensures real-time visibility into supply chain data—critical for meeting tight delivery windows and maintaining product quality.
In food distribution, where every minute and every order counts, these technologies give you the power to deliver fresher products, faster service, and a stronger competitive edge.
Accounts Receivable
Accelerate Cash Flow in Food Distribution
In food distribution, tight margins and fast-moving inventory demand complete visibility into your cash flow. Automating your accounts receivable process replaces slow, paper-based workflows with streamlined digital processes—reducing delays, eliminating errors, and cutting unnecessary costs.
With automation, you gain real-time insight into customer payments, improve collections, and free up working capital to keep your supply chain moving.
Collections Automation
Keep Cash Flow Moving in Food Distribution
In food distribution, delayed payments can disrupt more than your balance sheet—they can stall your entire supply chain. A modern collections automation platform replaces outdated spreadsheets, manual calls, and slow paper processes with streamlined workflows that help you get paid faster while maintaining strong customer relationships.
With All Star’s Collections Automation Solution, you can:
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Fast-track collection activity to reduce overdue debts and lower DSO
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Automate workflows to eliminate low-value, time-consuming tasks
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Gain real-time visibility into payment status with dashboards and KPIs
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Track and store all collector activity for compliance and auditing
The result? Faster payments, healthier cash flow, and more time for your team to focus on keeping products moving and customers happy.
Accounts Payable
Food distributors process a large volume of invoices from growers, manufacturers, and logistics providers—many with complex pricing structures, catch weights, seasonal adjustments, and freight charges. Our AP Automation solutions eliminate manual keying, streamline approvals, and ensure accurate, on-time payments without overburdening finance teams.
Key Features:
- Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) + Agentic AI to capture and extract header and line-item data from any invoice format, including handwritten and scanned documents.
- Catch weight & unit-of-measure conversion to ensure accurate pricing and quantity calculations.
- 2- & 3-way matching against purchase orders, goods receipts, and contracts with tolerance rules for vendor-specific or seasonal pricing.
- Straight-through processing (STP) for clean invoices; guided exception workflows for discrepancies.
- Vendor portals & eInvoicing to reduce email volume and late payments.
- Automated GL coding and direct ERP integration to eliminate rekeying.
KPIs: First-pass yield, average cycle time, early payment discount capture, exception rate, touch time per invoice, late payment rate.
Benefits for Food Distribution:
- Reduce AP cycle times by 50–70%
- Minimize costly pricing errors and disputes
- Improve vendor relationships with on-time payments
- Gain real-time visibility into AP liabilities and cash flow
- Ensure compliance with financial and industry regulations
Contract Management
Contracts are at the core of food distribution—covering supplier agreements, customer contracts, rebate programs, and logistics terms. Manual management can lead to missed obligations, expired agreements, and compliance gaps. Our CLM solutions centralize, automate, and track every stage of the contract lifecycle.
Key Features:
- Centralized contract repository for supplier, customer, and logistics agreements.
- Automated alerts for key dates—renewals, expirations, rate changes, and compliance deadlines.
- Template & clause libraries to standardize terms and reduce legal risk.
- eSignature integration for fast, secure execution.
- Workflow automation for contract review, approval, and amendment processes.
- Linkage to ERP and procurement systems for seamless execution and compliance tracking.
KPIs: Contract cycle time, renewal completion rate, compliance adherence, dispute rate.
Benefits for Food Distribution:
- Eliminate missed renewals and costly lapses
- Improve negotiation leverage with centralized visibility
- Ensure contract compliance across suppliers and customers
- Reduce legal and operational risks
Vendor Management
Tracking vendor relationships is critical for food distributors where quality, compliance, and performance directly impact product integrity and customer satisfaction. When vendor data is scattered across spreadsheets, emails, and siloed systems, managing risk and performance becomes difficult. Our Vendor Management solutions bring everything together in one central, actionable hub.
Key Features:
- Centralized vendor record with contact info, contracts, ratings, performance data, and incident history.
- Integrated document storage for certifications, COIs, compliance records, and audit history.
- Task and workflow automation for vendor reviews, requalification, and corrective actions.
- Incident and issue tracking with resolution workflows.
- Performance dashboards for scorecards, trend analysis, and compliance monitoring.
- Automated alerts for expiring documents, certifications, and contracts.
Benefits for Food Distribution:
- Standardize sourcing and vendor qualification processes.
- Ensure vendor compliance with FSMA, HACCP, GFSI, and other regulations.
- Quickly identify and resolve performance issues.
- Improve supply chain resilience and reduce risk.
Human Resources
According to research from Topia, employees waste 40 million hours each month on completing HR-related tasks—about $8.15 billion in lost productivity. In food distribution, where workforce efficiency and compliance are critical, excessive HR paperwork for onboarding, reviews, incident reporting, and pay adjustments can slow operations and negatively impact employee satisfaction.
Our HR Automation solutions replace manual, paper-heavy processes with digital workflows that streamline and standardize the employee experience from hire to retire.
Key Features:
- Digital onboarding/offboarding with smart eForms and automated task routing.
- Centralized employee document storage for contracts, certifications, and performance records.
- Automated review and evaluation workflows with reminders and escalation paths.
- Incident management with secure reporting, documentation, and resolution tracking.
- Role-based access to protect sensitive employee information.
- Integration with payroll, ERP, and compliance systems for seamless data sharing.
Benefits for Food Distribution:
- Reduce HR process cycle times and administrative workload.
- Improve compliance with labor regulations and safety certifications.
- Enhance employee satisfaction with faster, smoother HR interactions.
- Gain visibility into workforce readiness and compliance status.