The Doudlah Farms B2B wholesale ordering site is in active development and approaching launch. The primary goals are to reduce manual order entry burden on Lucy Doudlah, automate invoice tracking, and provide wholesale clients with a self-service ordering experience. A full team walkthrough is scheduled for the following Friday (approx. 2026-01-30).
See also: [1] | [2]
Decision: Implement the $100/year QuickBooks plugin rather than a $300 flat-fee custom build.
Rationale: Speed to launch. Neither the client nor the Asymmetric team has bandwidth for a custom build right now. The plugin covers the core need — automated invoice tracking and payment reminder capability — with acceptable limitations. The custom build remains an option if requirements outgrow the plugin later.
"Let's just do that, and later we decide. Maybe when the dust settles a little bit here, we can shift." — Mark Hope
Owner: Karly Oykhman — install plugin before the Friday walkthrough.
Several checkout improvements were implemented following early B2B user feedback (from Vitruvian and Outpost):
The most significant open challenge is supporting clients with non-standard accounting structures. Epic is the primary example:
DF26001-F, DF26001-J, DF26001-VH)Currently, Lucy manually deconstructs these orders and generates the appropriate invoice numbers. This is a significant time cost.
Options discussed:
| Option | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Status quo | Lucy continues manual order entry and invoice splitting | Fallback only |
| Admin-assisted entry | Hired administrator creates orders in B2B site on behalf of clients who won't self-serve | Under consideration |
| Custom program | Write logic to handle multi-kitchen order splitting and PO generation | Deferred — would be additional cost |
The administrator hire was flagged as the most practical near-term solution — someone who could handle order entry, inventory management, and shipping coordination across both B2B and Amazon operations. See [3].
Willie Street Co-op was also noted as a client with a similar multi-PO structure (transaction number + PO number per store location).
"Send it out so we can play with it before then so we come into your meeting ready to go." — Mark Doudlah