One of the afterthoughts in the MLM and Party Plan order entry critical path, daily settlement systems done well make headaches go away.  Activities in the daily settlement process presuppose the following conditions exist in your company daily operations:

• Reps are being entered into the system (by employees and/or online by distributors)
• Inventory is established and kept up-to-date
• Orders are being placed and payments are processed and collected
• Ship verification is consistently updated

Daily transactions are like soupy concrete with all of its ingredients, blended throughout the day in a mixer.  Ingredients include distributor accounts, orders, payments, pick & pack, shipping, and all real-time elements throughout the day.  The blend sets up like concrete once it goes through the end-of-day settlement processes.  The settlement processes make the transactions permanent.

This daily settlement processes focus on the following essential tasks:

• Pre-settlement processes
• Running settlement
• Post-settlement processes

Settlement primarily consists of depositing cash receipts, updating organizational volume, and posting transactions to the account credits and accounts receivable ledgers.  These steps are automatic when running settlement.  The pre-settlement and post-settlement processes require close attention to ensure accurate results.

Before proceeding, the following staff functions must be trained and closely involved with the processes:

• System Administrator (Process Manager & Computer System Administrator)*
• Order Entry Manager
• Distributor Service Manager
• Warehouse / Shipping Manager

We also recognize the reality of one person wearing multiple hats, and we encourage not only a good night’s sleep, indefatigable sense of humor, and a good support network, but also a commitment to creating and documenting processes so that someone can easily pick up any of the routine tasks once they become unwieldy for the operations superstar.

*System Administrator – This term can have various meanings, but in the context of this business process guide it has a specific meaning.  It refers to an individual responsible for detecting problems that may hold up online processing (such as unposted orders or shipments that have not been verified) and overseeing the flow of the daily critical path for orders and transactions.  This person acts as manager of process flows within the company.  They are accountable to and/or part of the key management circle.

This quick introduction to the daily settlement process is what we use as MLM consultants, intended to frame a context and set expectations for proper implementation.

In MLM and Party Plan companies, picking and packing orders is the vital link between order entry and processing on the front-end of the critical path, and the arrival of the package at the doorstep.

Accurately picking and verifying orders and shipments is the essence of successful order fulfillment in direct selling companies.

Knowing about the process of shipping rests on accurate account setup, accurate inventory setup and management, and accurate entry and processing of orders.  The result is well worth the effort: happy employees and happy reps.

More and more, I see claims from emerging authors and MLM consultants that they “wrote the book” on Direct Selling.  Makes me scratch my head.

There are some good writings on aspects of MLM and Home Party Plan business.  In the aggregate, however, they still are only fragments of a great body of work that has yet to be created.  The Book on MLM is being researched by a few thousand companies who are actually doing it, learning what works and what doesn’t work.  MLM and Home Party Plan comprise “direct selling” (in our way of referring to it), and they are largely social experiments that are working!

All good things have an evil twin.  If you’ve heard the negative about illegal pyramids and MLM scams, the pull the string and you’ll find on the other end of the spectrum are glorious, vibrant companies doing good.  Products that have a story to tell can make their way instantly into the marketplace if someone will tell that story.  That’ the essence of direct selling – paying people to sell your products by telling the story.  And the growing collection of those stories is truly the “book of direct selling,” or the definitive works comprising the Book of MLM and the Book of Home Party Plan.