B2B Ordering Portal with Quote Approvals

Project overview

We built a B2B ordering portal for a distributor selling industrial and maintenance supplies to trade accounts. Buyers log in to see catalogue prices agreed for their company, reorder from past purchases, upload bulk order lists, request quotes on large volumes and send orders through their own approval chain before they reach the distributor.

The engagement covered B2B process discovery, Magento configuration and custom modules in PHP, MySQL data design, integration with the distributor's ERP, and training for the internal sales team. It is part of our Magento development work for retail and eCommerce businesses.

The client and the challenge

Most orders arrived by email, phone and spreadsheet. Sales staff re-keyed them into the ERP, looked up each customer's price agreement by hand and chased buyers for purchase order numbers. Mistakes in pricing and quantities led to credit notes and disputes, and large customers complained that junior staff could place orders without sign-off.

The distributor wanted self-service ordering without losing the flexibility of negotiated pricing and quotes, and it needed the portal to respect each customer's internal controls while keeping the ERP as the system of record for stock, credit and invoicing. Search also had to cope with trade buyers who order by manufacturer part number or the distributor's own SKU rather than product names.

Solution architecture & delivery

Each trade customer is a company account with multiple users and roles: requisitioner, approver and administrator. Customer-specific price lists and tiered volume breaks are imported from the ERP and stored against the company account in MySQL, so every user sees the right net price, including contract items that are hidden from other customers. Catalogue permissions restrict product ranges per account.

Approval rules are defined by the buyer's own administrator: order value thresholds, restricted categories or specific cost centres can require one or more approvers. An order that trips a rule is held in a pending state, approvers are notified and can edit, approve or reject it, and only approved orders are released to the distributor. Every decision is recorded on the order history.

For volume or non-catalogue items, buyers create a quote request from the cart. A custom PHP module gives sales reps a negotiation thread where they adjust line prices, add lead times and set an expiry; the buyer can accept and convert the quote straight into an order at the agreed prices. Quick order by SKU, CSV upload and requisition lists speed up repeat purchasing.

Checkout supports purchase order numbers and on-account payment within credit limits pulled from the ERP, alongside card payment through a payment gateway for smaller accounts. Orders, customers and prices sync with the ERP through a queued integration that retries on failure, so a busy period never loses an order. We tuned caching and indexing using patterns from our high-traffic architecture guide.

Key features we built

• Company accounts with requisitioner, approver and admin roles
• Customer-specific price lists, tiered volume breaks and contract items
• Configurable buyer approval rules by value, category and cost centre
• Quote requests with sales-rep negotiation and one-click conversion to order
• Quick order by SKU or part number, CSV bulk upload and saved requisition lists
• Purchase order numbers and on-account payment within credit limits
• Queued ERP sync for orders, stock, prices and invoices
• Sales rep console to order on behalf of customers and manage quotes

How we delivered it

1. Discovery. We interviewed sales staff and several trade buyers, mapped the email-to-ERP ordering path and documented pricing rules, credit processes and approval needs.
2. UX and prototype. Prototypes of quick order, approvals and quote negotiation were tested with purchasing managers from pilot customer accounts.
3. Build. Two-week sprints delivered Magento configuration, custom PHP modules for approvals and quotes, and the ERP integration, with test data mirrored from real price agreements.
4. Pilot and roll-out. A small group of high-volume accounts ordered through the portal first, then remaining accounts were invited in batches with onboarding help from sales reps.
5. Support. Ongoing maintenance covers Magento updates, security patches and new pricing and approval rules as customer contracts change.

Technology choices

• Magento — a mature commerce platform with company accounts, shared catalogues and extensibility suited to complex B2B ordering.
• PHP — the native language for Magento modules, used for the approval engine, quote negotiation and ERP connectors.
• MySQL — the relational store behind Magento, holding account-level prices, quotes and approval history with strong consistency.

Outcomes

• Trade buyers place and track orders themselves instead of emailing spreadsheets
• Every user sees their company's negotiated prices without manual lookups by sales staff
• Customers' own approval rules are enforced before orders reach the distributor
• Quotes are negotiated and converted to orders in one place with a full history
• Sales reps spend their time on account growth rather than re-keying orders
• The ERP remains the single source of stock, credit and invoicing data

FAQ