Ruby notes
Short pieces on how beverage alcohol and THC suppliers, importers, distributors, and brokers actually work, and what we have learned building software for them.
Distributors & Importers · September 2026
The tax line on every invoice needed a second look before it went out the door. Here's what changed when order, inventory, and tax moved into one connected system.
Read it →Distributors & Importers · September 2026
Different commission rates for different reps on different products, all held together by memory. Here's what changed when the account itself started carrying the rules.
Read it →Distributors & Importers · September 2026
Indiana taxes it on the way out. Kentucky taxes it on the way in. Here's what changed when reconciliation and multi-state tax both moved into one system.
Read it →Distributors & Importers · September 2026
Run the numbers outside your accounting system and the deal looks fine. Run them inside, and it doesn't. That gap isn't a mistake. It's the freight invoice that hasn't landed yet.
Read it →Distributors & Importers · September 2026
It's not a once-a-quarter problem. At most distributors it's a weekly one. Why that's a receiving problem before it's anyone else's, and why the fix starts with one system instead of three.
Read it →Brokers · September 2026
Distributor sales forces are 15 to 20 percent smaller than they were five years ago. Suppliers hire broker groups to fill the gap, and what they want from them every week is proof the market is being worked. Most groups produce that proof by hand.
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