What software lets cabinet dealers send orders from 2020 Design files straight to the manufacturer?

Cabinet dealers send orders from 2020 Design files to the manufacturer through the manufacturer's dealer portal: the dealer exports the design from Design Flex (formerly 2020 Design), imports the file into an estimate, and submits the priced order online. KitchenDEV's Dealer Portal & Order Automation imports the exported design file into the dealer's estimate at that dealer's own pricing, and the dealer converts the estimate into an order and submits the order to the manufacturer.

A 2020 Design import, in a dealer portal, is the step that turns the item list exported from a dealer's design into priced lines on an order for the manufacturer.

Why do 2020 Design orders get retyped before they reach the manufacturer?#

2020 Design orders get retyped because a design is hard to translate into a set of catalog items. A dealer who draws a kitchen in 2020 Design still has to turn the design into a list of items, price that list from a PDF catalog or an Excel price sheet, and send the order by email or fax. Someone at the manufacturer then checks the configuration and types the order into the ERP, where the errors come from.

A dealer portal takes those hand-offs out of the order path. The whole chain is covered in how cabinet manufacturers stop re-keying dealer orders.

How does a 2020 Design file become an order in KitchenDEV's Dealer Portal?#

1. Start the quote. The dealer opens Quotes, then Create Quote, enters the PO number and picks Import from 2020 Design.
2. Import the exported file. KitchenDEV's Dealer Portal reads the cabinet list from the file the dealer exported from Design Flex and shows a progress bar while large files load.
3. Map anything that did not match. When the dealer maps an item by hand, the same mapping can be applied to every matching item in that import. The dealer can rename a unit before adding it to the quote.
4. Answer the required options. When a product line requires a unit option, such as box construction, the dealer is asked for it before the item is added, and an order missing it is blocked.
5. Price and submit. Each line is priced at the dealer's own multiplier or price level. The dealer converts the estimate into an order and submits it online, and the 2020 design file stays attached to the unit it came from.

What does the manufacturer control in the 2020 Design import?#

• Items to drop. A setting under Settings, then Quote, then 2020 removes items that do not match during an import. The setting is off by default.
• Items to ignore. The Ignored Items list used during mapping is visible to the manufacturer's own team only, never to dealers.
• How codes are read. The 2020 code that identifies a box-style line is set in configuration options, and item codes that carry the hinge side after an underscore are read correctly.
• Kit items. Kit items can be searched and shown under the vendor's own 2020 friendly names.
• Failed imports. A failed 2020 import is recorded in the action logs of KitchenDEV's Dealer Portal.

Dealer pricing on the imported lines comes from the same rules as every other quote. How those rules work is in how to give each dealer their own pricing online.

What happens after the dealer submits the order?#

The manufacturer's team reviews and approves the order in KitchenDEV's Dealer Portal and moves it through the manufacturer's own stages, such as pick, pack and load. Each stage can email the dealer. Where the manufacturer has an ERP or accounting integration, an optional module, the order is exported to that system instead of being typed again. KitchenDEV's Dealer Portal has integrations with QuickBooks (including QuickBooks Desktop), Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Odoo and Acumatica.

A dealer or distributor that designs in Design Flex and wants the order to land in its own ERP is a different case, covered in getting Design Flex orders into an ERP automatically.

What still takes work?#

• One export step. Dealers export a CSV or text file from Design Flex and import that file. KitchenDEV's Dealer Portal does not take a 2020 .kit file by drag and drop.
• The manufacturer's catalog. The catalog has to be built in KitchenDEV's Dealer Portal before an imported design can be priced. KitchenDEV builds that catalog from the manufacturer's price sheets. The manufacturer's catalog inside 2020 Design is built separately, through the 2020 Design vendor or an independent 2020 catalog consultant.
• Dealer adoption. Dealers who quote in the portal and then order by email or phone keep the retyping alive, so the rollout to dealers matters as much as the import.

FAQ#