How GereedschapPro handles four times as much work without extra staff, with iWeb

GereedschapPro is no ordinary tool shop. The company deliberately focuses on the top segment: high-end and unique tools you won't find at a hardware store. And that's exactly the point. With a small but agile team, GereedschapPro proves you can go a long way with the right processes and smart automation.

Ewoud Koster is jointly responsible for marketing and purchasing, but, as is typical in a small team, he's also involved in all software choices and processes. That's precisely why he was the one who initiated the search for a better way of working.

The challenge: seven systems, zero connections

GereedschapPro originally worked with an all-in-one system. Handy on paper, but in practice they kept running into its limitations. The switch to a 'best of breed' approach – where you choose the best solution for each function – was quickly made. But that choice brought a new challenge: how do you get all those separate systems to work together smoothly?

The software landscape they put together is no small feat: Shopware for the online store, Exact Online for accounting, Monta WMS for warehouse processes, Optiply for procurement, Channable for integration with Bol.com and Amazon, Count-IT for the point-of-sale system, and Priceshape for price optimization. Seven systems that need to communicate with each other, without requiring any manual intervention.

With a limited number of employees, there's simply no capacity to manually process hundreds of orders. Every hour spent on administration comes at the expense of marketing, purchasing, and customer relationships. And GereedschapPro deliberately invoices upon delivery, not upon order. A way of working that standard solutions don't support.

The solution: custom integrations that fit the process

Through their account manager at Exact Online, GereedschapPro was referred to iWebDevelopment. The integration was built from the ground up—not based on a standard solution, but fully tailored to their way of working.

The daily processes that the integration now handles fully automatically:

• Retrieving and creating customers: New customers are automatically created in Exact Online from the online store and marketplaces.
• Processing orders: Orders from Shopware, Bol.com, and Amazon are automatically transferred to the accounting system.
• Invoicing upon delivery: The invoice is created only when an order is actually delivered. This saves a tremendous amount of manual credit work.
• Reconciling payments: Incoming payments are automatically integrated to the correct invoices.
• Sending invoices back to Shopware: Customers can download their invoices directly from their online store account.

The impact: four FTEs worth of manual work saved

For GereedschapPro, the difference is easy to sum up: without the integration, four additional full-time employees would be needed. With a smaller team, that’s not an option.

"If we had to create and invoice those orders by hand, I think we’d need four full-time employees. That’s crazy for a company our size."

— Ewoud Koster, Marketing & Purchasing @ GereedschapPro

The peace of mind that automation brings is just as tangible as the time savings. By Monday morning, all the weekend’s orders are already ready: uploaded, created, and processed—without anyone having to lift a finger. In addition, the integration with Priceshape provides valuable data for price optimization. Based on those analyses, GereedschapPro adjusts its sales prices weekly.

A Partnership That Has Proven Itself

The integration has been up and running for nearly four years now. Contact has become less frequent—not because the relationship has cooled off, but because everything simply works. What stands out to Ewoud is that iWebDevelopment’s expertise with Exact Online has made a difference more than once. Improvements to the API are addressed proactively, and features that didn’t exist before are automatically leveraged as soon as they become available.

“I find Exact’s depth of knowledge incredibly valuable. I also often notice that things are improved later on because you stay up to date on the latest developments.”

— Ewoud Koster, Marketing & Purchasing @ GereedschapPro

Who is iWebDevelopment best suited for?

When asked who he would recommend iWebDevelopment to, Ewoud is straightforward. He has already referred iWebDevelopment to colleagues several times, and if he were to choose a new platform in the future, iWeb would be his first stop.

"You almost never get by with just one package. You have to integrate things. If companies are using the same packages that need to work well together, I’d say right away: go talk to iWeb."

— Ewoud Koster, Marketing & Purchasing @ GereedschapPro

Do you also want to reduce manual work and streamline your processes?

At iWebDevelopment, we help companies like GereedschapPro intelligently integrate their software landscape. Whether you work with Shopware, Exact Online, a WMS, or multiple marketplaces, we ensure that data ends up in the right place without you having to constantly monitor it.

Curious about what we can do for your processes? Contact us for a no-obligation consultation. We’d love to brainstorm with you.