This guide explains how to run wholesale in CSAware: approve buyers, manage availability, review purchase orders, issue invoices and statements, and collect payment.
1. Turn On Wholesale
Wholesale must be enabled for your store before buyers can apply or shop the wholesale catalog. Once it is enabled, the dashboard shows wholesale tools in the top header.
To manage the program, use the top header and click Wholesale / Buyers, Orders, Wholesale Billing, Wholesale / Invoices,Wholesale / Statements, or Wholesale / Cash Accounts.
Buyer-facing wholesale pages are hidden from shoppers unless wholesale is enabled. Approved buyers and admins can enter the catalog. Other visitors are sent to the wholesale landing or application flow.
2. Approve and Manage Buyers
Applications
When a customer applies for wholesale access, CSAware creates a pending buyer record, links that customer's login to the buyer, makes that login the buyer owner, and adds a dashboard alert for your staff.
To review applications, click Wholesale / Buyers in the top header. If there are pending applications, the buyer list opens on the pending view. You can also use the left-side Wholesale menu to switch between Pending, Approved, Rejected, and All.
Open a buyer row to review the business information, set terms, approve or reject the application, manage bank information, manage linked users, and open that buyer's orders, invoices, statements, or cash ledger.
Buyer Status
| Status | Meaning | What the buyer can do |
|---|---|---|
| Pending | The application has not been reviewed yet. | The buyer can see account status but cannot place wholesale POs. |
| Approved | The buyer is active. | The buyer can shop and place POs once a bank profile is on file. |
| Suspended | You temporarily disabled the account. | The buyer keeps their data but cannot place POs. |
| Rejected | You declined the application. | The buyer can reapply later. |
Every buyer status change is saved to the buyer history. Approving a buyer also refreshes the buyer's active sessions, so most buyers do not need to log out and back in.
Linked Users
Each wholesale buyer has one owner. The owner always has bill-pay access and cannot be removed from the buyer. From the buyer's Users tab, you can link existing logins, create a new login, remove non-owner access, transfer ownership, and decide which linked users may pay bills.
A linked user without Pay bills can place wholesale orders, but cannot see invoices, statements, the cash account, or bank settings.
3. Set Buyer Terms
Open Wholesale / Buyers, then click the buyer. The buyer detail page lets you set the terms that control wholesale pricing and checkout.
| Field | How to use it |
|---|---|
| Discount % | Applies a buyer-specific discount to wholesale catalog prices. |
| Minimum Order $ | Sets the order floor this buyer must meet before checkout. |
| Payment Terms | Sets how many net days the buyer has before invoices are due. |
| Billing | Choose per-PO billing, or monthly cycle billing with a statement day. |
| Credit Limit | Caps open exposure from unpaid invoices plus open POs. Zero means no limit. |
| Note | Stores an internal note for staff. Buyers do not see it. |
The buyer page shows current outstanding exposure and, when a credit limit is set, how much of that limit is already used.
The Bank tab lets you add, replace, or delete the buyer's ACH bank profile and billing address. Buyers with bill-pay access can also maintain this from their wholesale account.
4. Build the Wholesale Catalog
Before buyers can shop, you need products in the wholesale catalog. There are two common ways to build it: mark regular store products as wholesale, or turn CSA Items into wholesale products.
Regular Store Products
Use this path for products that already live in the regular store catalog: cases of jam, flats of seedlings, bulk meat cuts, add-on products, or any other item managed as a store product with SKUs.
- Open the product from the vendor product list.
- Check Wholesale in the product settings.
- Make sure the product has active SKUs with the right wholesale-facing price and stock.
- Assign the product to the departments/categories where wholesale buyers should find it.
Regular wholesale products use the product and SKU setup you already know: name, description, images, SKU options, SKU price, and SKU stock. If a SKU is out of stock, buyers cannot add it.
CSA Items Sold Wholesale
Use this path when a harvested CSA item should also be sold wholesale: bunches, cases, flats, pounds, or other pack sizes based on your CSA item.
- Open the CSA Item.
- In the Wholesale panel, turn the wholesale status on.
- Choose the wholesale unit and how many CSA units make one wholesale unit.
- Set the wholesale discount from the CSA item's normal unit price.
- Review the calculated wholesale price and tax setting.
- Save the CSA Item.
CSAware creates and maintains a matching wholesale product for that CSA Item. Edit the CSA Item when you need to change its name, description, image, wholesale pack size, discount, tax setting, or wholesale status. The matching product and SKU are mainly there so the item can appear in the wholesale catalog and cart.
Departments and Empty Catalogs
The wholesale catalog shows products that are available for wholesale and belong to an active wholesale department/category. If buyers see The wholesale catalog isn't ready yet, check that at least one product or CSA Item is marked wholesale, active, in stock or uncapped, and assigned to a wholesale-visible category.
Admins can preview wholesale catalog pages. Buyers still need approval and a valid account before they can add products and place purchase orders.
5. Manage Weekly Availability
Wholesale availability is tied into the harvest workflow. To set weekly wholesale stock, open Wholesale Availability from the harvest tools.
The Wholesale Availability page shows wholesale-flagged items for the selected week. Use it to set the wholesale stock cap, review CSA allocation, review wholesale reserved quantities, and spot oversold rows.
Blank stock means the item is uncapped for that week. You can copy explicit caps from the prior week, and past weeks become read-only after the week's last delivery.
Non-CSA-mirrored wholesale SKUs appear in a separate read-only section when they have demand that week. Edit those stock counters from the product or SKU page.
6. Confirm Purchase Orders
Buyer-submitted wholesale carts become purchase orders. To review them, open the normal Orders page and use the wholesale order filters.
| Queue | Meaning | Your usual action |
|---|---|---|
| Awaiting confirm | Buyer submitted the PO and is waiting for you. | Open the order, check availability and credit exposure, then confirm or cancel. |
| Awaiting shipping | You confirmed the PO and it is ready to pick and pack. | Pick, pack, adjust counts if needed, then mark the order shipped. |
| Awaiting invoicing | The PO has been shipped and is ready to bill. | Invoice it from Wholesale Billing. |
For packing, use Wholesale PO Requirements. It shows what is needed for a delivery date by item, buyer, or location.
7. Adjust Fulfilled Counts
Before invoicing, open the PO and edit line counts to match actual fulfillment. This is useful when you harvest short, pack extra, or cancel a line by setting its count to zero.
Count edits update order totals and leave an adjustment trail. Once a PO is invoiced, counts are locked.
8. Issue Invoices
Use Wholesale Billing for day-to-day invoicing after POs have been marked shipped. You can invoice a single shipped PO or merge multiple shipped POs for the same buyer into one invoice.
Issuing an invoice does all of the following:
- Creates the invoice and links the source PO or POs.
- Totals the fulfilled order lines.
- Applies the buyer's payment terms to calculate the due date for per-PO buyers.
- Leaves the due date open for cycle buyers until the monthly statement is issued.
- Adds the invoice debit to the buyer cash ledger.
- Applies any existing buyer credit automatically.
- Emails the buyer that the PO has been invoiced.
To review all invoices, click Wholesale / Invoices. From there you can filter, review outstanding amounts, record payment, or void an unpaid invoice.
9. Monthly Statements
Some buyers are set to monthly cycle billing. Their shipped POs still become invoices, but those invoices wait for the buyer's monthly statement before they are due.
On the buyer's statement day, CSAware gathers open cycle invoices, issues a statement, emails the buyer, and sets the invoice due dates from the statement. Use Wholesale / Statements to review statements, download PDFs, and track which statements are still open.
10. Record Payments and Credits
Wholesale accounting flows through each buyer's cash account. Invoices add debits. Payments and credits add credits.
To see all buyers, click Wholesale / Cash Accounts. To work on one buyer, open that buyer and click the Cash Account tab.
| Entry type | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Check | Check, wire, cash, or another external payment. |
| Adjustment | Accounting write-off or write-on. |
| Credit memo | Vendor-issued credit, often for a product or quality issue. |
Credits apply to open invoices oldest first. If you choose to email a receipt, the buyer receives a payment receipt message. If the invoices are on a statement, the statement is marked paid once all of its invoices are paid.
11. Auto-Billing
When invoices become due, CSAware attempts to charge the buyer's active bank profile. Before charging, it applies any existing cash credit. Cycle invoices are not charged until their statement has been issued and due dates have been assigned.
| Result | What happens |
|---|---|
| Payment succeeds | The credit is posted, the invoice is settled, retry state is cleared, and the buyer receives a receipt. |
| Payment fails | The invoice records the failure and the buyer is emailed. |
| No active bank | No charge is attempted, but the buyer is emailed and the invoice counts as a retry. |
After three consecutive failures on the same invoice, auto-billing pauses for that invoice. Fix the bank issue, collect payment another way, or clear the block before expecting another retry.
12. Daily Workflow
- Open Wholesale / Buyers and review pending applications.
- Review wholesale products and CSA Items so the buyer catalog is current.
- Open Wholesale Availability to review weekly stock caps and demand.
- Open Orders and confirm new wholesale POs.
- Use Wholesale PO Requirements to pick and pack by delivery date.
- Mark shipped POs shipped, then invoice them from Wholesale Billing.
- Review Wholesale / Invoices, Wholesale / Statements, and Wholesale / Cash Accounts for payment exceptions.
13. Troubleshooting
The wholesale catalog is empty
Check that wholesale is enabled, at least one product or CSA Item is marked for wholesale, the product is active, its SKU or weekly cap allows sales, and it is assigned to a category visible in wholesale.
Buyer cannot place a PO
Confirm the buyer is approved, has an active bank profile, and has chosen a wholesale delivery location and date before adding items to the cart.
Buyer says they are approved, but still cannot see wholesale tools
Approval refreshes active sessions. If their browser is still stale, ask them to log out and back in.
Buyer is over credit limit
Open Wholesale / Buyers, choose the buyer, and review their outstanding balance and credit limit. You can raise the limit, collect payment, or decline to confirm additional POs.
Auto-billing stopped retrying an invoice
The invoice reached the retry limit. Fix the bank/profile issue or record another payment, then clear the block if you want auto-billing to try again.
A cycle invoice has no due date
That is normal until the buyer's monthly statement is issued. The statement sets the due date and makes the invoice eligible for auto-billing.