How Alaska Seafood ERP Software Can Help You Purchase from Fishermen & More!
So, you purchase and process fish from Alaska fishermen. Whether that means you’re part of a smaller mom-and-pop type operation producing high-quality specialty products for niche markets or a large, multi-million-dollar operation with state-of-the-art filleting and freezing equipment, you’re part of the Alaska seafood industry. That means you play a part in the 5 billion pounds of fish and shellfish that get processed annually in Alaska, making up over 55% of the total US catch. Therefore, regardless of your size, you’re facing the challenges of competing in a rapidly changing global food industry, which means you should be spending your time focusing on the things that will help you succeed, and not on juggling multiple systems to manage your complex, vertically integrated Alaska Seafood Processing business. In order to avoid wasting time on juggling multiple systems, you should invest in software that was built for your industry, that understands your needs and can serve as a “one-stop-shop” for your business processes. With a solution specific to Alaska Seafood Processing, like NorthScope, you can get all the below in a single, integrated system.
Purchasing Fish from Fishermen
First and foremost, you need a system that handles Fish Tickets – duh. But, we both know it’s not that simple. You don’t just need a Fish Ticket system; you need a Fish Ticket system that’s integrated with eLandings and pre-loaded with ADF&G data. Bonus points if that system allows you to setup your taxes and premiums and then auto-applies and calculates the applicable taxes and premiums for you (NorthScope does all this *cough cough*). But then, what about once you’re ready to pay out your fishermen based on all the Fish Tickets from the season? You don’t just need to pay your fishermen; you need to be able to split payments to cover crew wages and you need the option to pay via check or ACH. Oh yeah, NorthScope does that too.
NorthScope understands you and your Alaska Seafood Processing business and is here to solve your problems by offering a system that prevents duplicate data entry of Fish Tickets, is pre-loaded with ADF&G setup codes, allows you to download, store and edit eLandings Tickets, provides real-time fisherman balances that allow you to quickly respond to questions from fishermen, offers split checks to cover crew wages and payment via checks or ACH direct deposit, has functionality to apply Chum/Red split percentages to Fish Tickets once your numbers are finalized, maintains Fish Ticket price lists, and more!
Seafood Accounting
In addition to the standard accounting needs you have, such as journal entries, month and year end close, bank reconciliations and transactions, etc., you also have some nuanced accounting needs that are specific to your industry and your practice of buying fish from fishermen. Because, if you buy fish from fishermen, you need eLandings (that’s a given) BUT you probably also need to be able to offer these same fishermen that you buy from loans, bait sales, etc. But, you don’t just need to manage bait sales to fishermen; you need to manage charging them for things you purchase on their behalf and transfers between fishermen. You could probably also benefit from a system that allows you to track individual loans to fishermen, charge interest on fisherman loans, print and distribute loan statements, apply payments to fisherman loans, apply Fish Ticket balances to fisherman loans, issue Purchase Orders to fishermen, charge fishermen directly for AP purchases, record transactions between tenders and fishermen, maintain Price Lists for selling to fishermen, configure and maintain sales tax rules for sales to fishermen, readily manage tender fuel purchases, and more. And guess what? NorthScope does all that 😁
Seafood Traceability & Inventory
You’ve purchased the fish, you’ve paid your fishermen and their crew, but now what do you do with the seafood you have on hand? Well, you get to processing, of course, but how do you keep track of it all? With a system that is meant for tracking seafood (AKA NorthScope). A system like this offers you robust inventory item setup and maintenance, the ability to track inventory product balances by site/warehouse, item and lot, current/perpetual and historical product balances, support for unlimited product sites/warehouses, support for third party warehouse lots, lot traceability and recall, separation of inventory by product owner, unique transactions for adjustments, production, receipts and transfers, cycle counts, hold codes, UOM conversions, catch weight/variable weight item management, lot certifications, bar code integration, costing, insured value price lists, inventory allocations to transactions, quality test result records, and more!
Selling Seafood
Tracking your seafood inventory is extremely important to make sure you’re selling high quality seafood and keeping your supply chain moving seamlessly. And while it’s necessary that your software help you track your inventory, we think it’s even better if it supports you selling it. Did we mention NorthScope is so supportive of this? Not only can you manage your customers, you can also get quick visibility of their balances, manage credit limits, record customer payments, track sales with sales orders and invoices as well as AR sales transactions, process returns and price adjustments as needed, manage delivered freight, track multiple shipments against a single order or multiple orders on a single shipment, and more.
Book a free NorthScope demo today to see how we can help you optimize your Alaska Seafood Processing business with ERP software built for your industry!