Short answer. Reference data for packaging: types, deposit per type, owner, quantity and age thresholds per customer, engraved numbers for drums and gas cylinders. Movements: every delivery and every take-back at every stop is a movement counted, timestamped, geolocated, photographed and signed by the customer on the balance, not only on the delivery; a customer's balance is the sum of those movements, it is never typed. A deposit computed on the balance, invoiced above a threshold or at delivery, refunded on return, by the rule the manager writes. Reminders at the quantity or age threshold, by WhatsApp, with a visit planned into the round and the deposit invoiced. A count that adds up the fleet, depot plus trucks plus customers, counts, and writes off the gap with a reason; and measurement, return rate per customer, rotation, write-offs, new crate orders.
This guide is for the beverage distributor and the bottler, the water-cooler distributor, the gas-cylinder distributor, the dairy and the bakery delivering in crates, any business lending pallets, drums or bins, and the founder based in France who wants to know how many crates are with customers and since when. It does not repeat how a round is ordered and rescheduled, described in the delivery rounds guide, nor how customer credit is matched and chased, described in the customer credit guide; here it is about packaging, assets that leave and must come back. In the common description, reusable packaging is designed for reuse without impairment of its protective function, in return, cleaning and refill cycles, and it often carries a barcode or a chip to be identified; this guide builds the application that tracks those cycles customer by customer. The accounting and tax treatment of deposits is for the accountant; the application computes, invoices and exports by the rule they write with the manager.
One delivery stop: delivered, returned, signed balance, deposit
The figure is a stop seen from the driver's application: three packaging types, the balance before, delivered, returned, the balance after, and the deposit held.
The count: at every stop, the driver counts what he delivers and what he takes back, per type; for drums and gas cylinders, he scans the engraved number, and the unit is tracked one by one as in the serial numbers guide; for crates, he counts, and the photo of the returned stack, timestamped and geolocated as in the trustworthy photos guide, stands as evidence. The signature: the customer signs the balance after, forty-four crates, two pallets, two drums, not only the day's delivery; that is what changes everything: they cannot say next week that they returned everything, and they see the same balance on their portal as in the ordering portal guide and on the WhatsApp receipt they get at once. The balance: thirty-six plus forty minus thirty-two make forty-four; it is not typed, it is computed, and it is computed offline as in the offline guide, because the round goes where the network does not.
The deposit: two hundred and fifty dinars per crate, three thousand per pallet, fifteen hundred per drum, written in the reference data; twenty thousand dinars held for this customer after the stop, computed, not copied. The written rule says whether the deposit is invoiced at delivery, or only above a quantity or age threshold, and how it is refunded on return; here it is invoiced beyond forty crates. The alert: forty-four crates above the threshold of forty for twenty-three days; the WhatsApp reminder is scheduled as in the notifications guide, and the driver had nothing to negotiate. The depot: the stop's count arrives without retyping, and the truck balances on arrival, loaded minus delivered plus returned equals unloaded, or else a gap attributed to the driver. Quantities, deposits and names are a constructed example.
«A customer's balance is never typed: it is the sum of movements signed at every stop, delivered minus returned, with the photo and the time.»
Where the 12,400 crates are: depot, trucks, customers by age, written off
The figure is the manager's count: the whole fleet on one bar, each crate in a segment, and the five balances that need an action.
The sum: the fleet is twelve thousand four hundred crates; three thousand one hundred and eighty are at the depot, counted this morning; one thousand two hundred and forty in six trucks on rounds, loaded minus delivered plus returned; five thousand one hundred with customers for less than thirty days, the normal rotation of a beverage; one thousand six hundred and twenty between thirty-one and sixty days, reminded at threshold; eight hundred and forty for more than sixty days, deposit invoiced, visit or pickup planned; four hundred and twenty written off this year, with a reason and a manager's decision as in the roles guide. The sum is the fleet, and a crate in no segment does not exist.
The five balances: customers exceeding a threshold, in quantity or age, with what was done, reminder, visit planned into Thursday's round, deposit invoiced with its invoice number, customer's reply; the manager reads who must act, not a list of names. The comparison: four hundred and twenty written off this year against one thousand nine hundred last year without the application; that figure, computed by a background job as in the background jobs guide and shown in the dashboard with its definition, is the one that justifies the application. New orders: they follow write-offs and rotation, not the feeling that the depot is empty. Figures and names are a constructed example.
«Every crate is somewhere: at the depot, in a truck, with a customer with a date, or written off with a reason; the sum is the fleet.»
Six real situations, and what the application does
Each row is a sentence heard at a distributor delivering in crates, and the answer is a signed balance, not a more honest driver.
We lost 400 crates: each customer's balance is the sum of their signed movements, the fleet is the sum of the segments, and the count gap is written off with a reason, not discovered in shock; one knows where, and since when. The customer says they returned everything: they signed the balance at every stop, the photo is timestamped, and they see the same balance on their portal; the conversation has a basis. The driver swapped crates for cash: the truck is counted at departure and return, the gap is attributed to him, and a take-back against cash is either forbidden or traced as a packaging sale with its till movement as in the cash sessions guide.
The deposit is never invoiced: it is computed on the balance, invoiced by the written rule, at threshold or at delivery, refunded on return, and exported to accounting as in the integration guide; the accountant decides its treatment, the application gives them the figures. Nobody knows how many new crates to order: write-offs are counted, the available fleet is projected on rotation, and the order leaves at the written threshold. The supplier's pallets mix with ours: every packaging has an owner, and the balance with a supplier is kept like the balance with a customer, in reverse; we return theirs, we keep ours.
A packaging round, in six beats
The take-back at every stop is the accented beat: counted, photographed, and signed by the customer on the balance.
Load: at departure, the driver counts the packaging loaded per type, and signs; that is the base of the truck's balance. Deliver and take back: at every stop, count, photograph, have the balance signed; movements go to the depot as soon as there is network; the round itself is that of the rounds guide, or the pre-sale of the pre-sale guide if the salesperson passes before the truck. Balance: the customer's balance recomputes at every movement; the deposit is invoiced or refunded by the written rule, and the invoice or credit note leaves with the goods invoice.
Unload: on return, count; loaded minus delivered plus returned must equal unloaded; otherwise the gap is attributed to the driver and the round, and the manager sees it the same evening. Remind: quantity and age thresholds trigger a WhatsApp reminder, a visit planned into the next round, or an invoiced deposit; the rule speaks, the driver does not negotiate. Count: the depot is counted, trucks are balanced, customers have their signed balances; the sum is compared with the fleet, and the gap is written off with a reason, breakage, loss, theft, by someone with the right.
Returnable packaging, in five layers
Movements are the accented layer: every delivery and every take-back is signed, and the balance is their sum, never an entry.
Reference data. Packaging types, crate, water bottle, gas cylinder, drum, pallet, bin, with the deposit per type, the owner, the company, a supplier, a customer; quantity and age thresholds per customer, or per customer category; engraved numbers for packaging tracked by unit. Packaging is an asset, not a consumable, and it does not enter the goods stock of the stock guide: it has its own ledger. Movements. Every delivery or take-back, at every stop, is a movement per type, timestamped, geolocated, photographed, signed by the customer on the balance; a customer's balance is the sum of their movements; a truck's balance is loaded minus delivered plus returned; no balance is typed, and a corrected balance is an adjustment movement with reason and signature. Deposit. Computed on the balance and the deposit per type; invoiced at delivery, or above a quantity or age threshold, refunded on return, by the written rule; exported to accounting; the accounting and tax treatment is for the accountant.
Reminders. Thresholds trigger, per customer, a WhatsApp reminder with the balance and the last stop's photo, a visit planned into the next round, or an invoiced deposit; after a written number of reminders, escalation to the manager; the customer sees their balance and reminders on their portal. Count and measurement. The fleet is the sum of the counted depot, the balanced trucks and the customer balances; the gap is written off with a reason by someone with the right; measures are return rate per customer, rotation per type, write-offs by reason, balances by age, and projected new orders. The founder in France sees the fleet and the five balances needing an action in their dashboard.
Putting packaging under balances in 2027, in weeks
Seven weeks, the first without code, and two for movements and balances, because deposit, reminders and count are only readings of signed movements.
- What the manager sees: every evening, balanced trucks and gaps; every morning, balances exceeding a threshold and what was done; every month, the fleet, write-offs and new orders.
- What the driver no longer does: write in a notebook, negotiate a balance at the counter, take crates back against cash, explain to the depot what is missing.
- What is measured: return rate per customer, rotation per type, balances by age, deposit held, write-offs by reason, truck gaps per driver, time between reminder and take-back.
Week 1, rules: packaging types and their deposits, owners, quantity and age thresholds per customer category, invoicing and refund rule, who writes off and with which reasons; with the manager and the accountant, without code. Weeks 2 and 3, movements and balances: count at loading, delivered and taken back at every stop offline, photo, customer signature on the balance, balance per customer and per truck computed, customer portal. Week 4, deposit: computed on the balance, invoiced at threshold or delivery, refunded on return, accounting export.
Week 5, reminders: thresholds, WhatsApp with balance and photo, visit planned into the round, deposit invoiced, escalation to the manager. Week 6, take-over and count: opening balances counted at every customer with their signature, as in the data take-over guide, depot counted, opening fleet written, first gap written off with reason. Week 7, measurement: return rate, rotation, balances by age, write-offs, new orders, Monday review.
- Why have the balance signed and not only the delivery?
- Because a signature on the delivery says what came in, not what is still with the customer; a signature on the balance says both, and it closes next week's conversation. The customer sees the same balance on their portal and on their WhatsApp receipt, with the last stop's photo.
- How is the deposit computed and invoiced?
- On the balance per type, with the deposit written in the reference data; the manager's rule says whether it is invoiced at delivery, or only above a quantity or age threshold, and how it is refunded on return; the invoice or credit note leaves with the goods invoice and goes to accounting. The accounting and tax treatment of deposits is for the accountant; this guide does not describe it.
- What happens when the truck comes back with a gap?
- Loaded minus delivered plus returned must equal unloaded; the gap is attributed to the driver and the round, the manager sees it the same evening, and it is settled by an adjustment movement with reason and signature, or by a deduction per the company's rule. A gap that repeats for the same driver shows in the monthly view.
- And the supplier's packaging, pallets, empty bottles?
- Every packaging has an owner; the balance with a supplier is kept like the balance with a customer, in reverse: what they delivered to us minus what we returned. We return theirs, we keep ours, and the claim has a figure.
- Is a barcode needed on every crate?
- No for crates and bins, counted per type; yes for drums and gas cylinders, which carry an engraved number and are tracked by unit, with warranty and inspection. A barcode or a chip on reusable packaging serves to identify and route it, in the common description; the application accepts both, count per type and scan per unit.
- How are existing balances, which nobody knows, taken over?
- By counting them once at every customer, with their signature, during a dedicated round; the depot is counted, the opening fleet is written, and the first gap is written off with reason. From then on, every balance is the sum of signed movements; customers who refuse to sign an opening balance are listed, and the manager decides.
- How long to set this up?
- Seven weeks in the typical calendar, the first without code and two for movements and balances. A distributor that already has the rounds of the rounds guide takes less; a business with several depots, unit-tracked packaging and suppliers delivering on returnable pallets takes more, the time to write the rules of each flow.