Case study — DAS Handel · dashandel.com
Run your trade the way DAS Handel does
How a Serbian acacia-wood exporter got a custom ERP that fits like a glove — built around their process, shipped live piece by piece, and owned outright.
A purchasing manager opens dashandel.com, switches to German, and configures exactly what he needs: acacia posts, 8–10 cm, 200 cm, debarked, sanded, FSC-certified. He requests a quote and goes to bed.
Nothing was lost overnight and nobody typed anything twice. The request is waiting in the back office as a structured set of lines — each with its own article code, ready to be priced.
This is a small business in Serbia. This is their software.
The problem we lived
Before the system, there was the Tuesday
If you run a make-to-order trade, you already know this Tuesday:
- Quotes lived in email threads and spreadsheets — versioned by memory and files named final_v3.xlsx.
- Prices were set by gut feel, because the true cost of one planed, certified post was unknowable at the moment of quoting.
- Production notes were retyped by hand from the sales thread — and sometimes the workshop built what was typed, not what was sold.
- "Where is my order?" was answered by phone, from memory, in whatever language the caller happened to speak.
- Documents were scattered — invoices in one folder, customs declarations in another, the packing spec in someone's inbox.
The obvious answer was an off-the-shelf ERP. Every demo ended the same way: too big, too rigid, priced per seat — and always the same closing line: "your process will need to fit the software."
We decided to build the software around the process instead.
What we built
The guided tour — in the order it shipped
Every chapter below is live at DAS Handel today. This is the order the system grew in: revenue side first, back office module by module.
A storefront that sells while you sleep
A trilingual (EN/DE/SR) brochure site puts the catalog in front of European B2B buyers, with SEO and answer-engine optimization done properly from day one — so the company is found and cited by both search engines and AI assistants. Buyers configure products and request quotes directly from the page.
Customers who serve themselves
Buyers get portal accounts with a welcome tour. They accept quotes online, follow every order through one durable tracking link, download their documents, and see an audit trail — all in their own language. "Where is my order?" stops being a phone call.
One order journey everyone agrees on
Six stages, from quote request to dispatch. The stage is derived from facts — a work order exists, an invoice was issued — not from someone remembering to update a status field. Nobody "forgets to move the card", because there is no card to move.
Quotes with a memory
Drafts you can polish before sending. Every edit snapshotted, so the full history of an offer is always there. Expired offers archive themselves. And before anything reaches the buyer, a review-before-send email preview shows exactly what they'll see.
From quote to factory floor without retyping
An accepted quote becomes a work order in one step. Production sees Serbian processing notes generated from the product spec itself — so the paper in the workshop can never disagree with what was sold. The article code carries the full recipe: type, dimensions, processing, certification.
Paperwork that writes itself
Invoices, proformas with full contract-value settlement — advance percentage, previous payments, remaining balance — origin and CITES declarations, packing specifications. All generated from the same data the quote was built on, all print-ready. Nothing is typed twice; nothing can disagree.
Prices with a floor under them
Rate cards for raw wood, operations, and certification feed a cost calculator inside the quote editor. Every line shows its real cost per piece and per m³. Type a markup, get a suggested price — and see the actual margin on the price you finally set. Gut feel becomes a choice, not a necessity.
Stock you can trust
Every movement is a ledger entry; balances are always derived, never stored — so the number on screen is always the sum of what actually happened. Mistakes are voided with a reason, not silently edited. Low-stock flags catch shortages early, and "turn this stock into an offer" is one click.
| Entry | Qty | Balance |
|---|---|---|
| Production intake | +400 | 400 |
| Dispatch #2026-017 | −250 | 150 |
| Manual adjustment | −20 | voided: count error |
| Dispatch #2026-019 | −100 | 50 ⚑ low |
What changed
The same Tuesday, one year later
Before
- A quote assembled from an email thread and a spreadsheet
- Order status answered by phone, from memory
- Prices set by feel, cost discovered later — if ever
- Production paper retyped by hand from the sales thread
- Documents scattered across folders and inboxes
After
- A quote drafted, costed, and sent from one screen
- Order status answered by a link, in the buyer's language
- Every price set next to its real cost and margin
- Workshop notes generated from the sold spec itself
- Every document generated from the same data, print-ready
We're measuring the hard numbers — time-to-quote, orders tracked without a phone call — as the system beds in. We'd rather show you measured results than invented ones; they'll appear here when they're real.
Why custom won
Cut to measure beats off the rack
It fits like a glove
Because it was cut to measure. The six-stage journey, the article codes, the Serbian workshop notes — these are DAS Handel's process, encoded, not a template their process was flattened into.
It costs a fraction to run
Static pages and one database. No license seats, no server farm, no per-user pricing that punishes you for hiring. The monthly bill is closer to a phone plan than an enterprise contract.
It changes at the speed of the business
A new document type ships in days, not through a consulting engagement. When the process evolves, the software follows — because it was built to.
The data is yours, forever
Everything lives in an open database you own. No export fees, no vendor lock-in, no asking permission to look at your own numbers.
Is this for you?
An honest fit check
This fits if
- ✓You make to order or configure to order — wood, building materials, any B2B trade where every line is a spec
- ✓Export paperwork is part of your week — proformas, origin declarations, customs documents
- ✓You work in more than one language
- ✓You're a small or mid-size business — too small for SAP, too specific for off-the-shelf
- ✓Your process is your competitive edge, and flattening it into a template would cost you exactly that edge
And honestly, if
- —A spreadsheet still works — keep the spreadsheet
- —Your process matches a standard tool — buy the standard tool
- —We'll tell you which one you are in the first conversation
How an engagement works
Shipped live, piece by piece
The DAS Handel system was never down for a rebuild. Every increment went live small, earned its keep, and paid for the next one.
Not the org chart — the actual Tuesday. We map how a quote really happens, where paper gets retyped, and where money leaks.
The revenue side ships before anything else: get found, get quote requests, let customers serve themselves.
Quotes, work orders, documents, costing, stock — each module goes live on its own, in the order your business needs it.
Your code, your database, your data. We stay as long as we're useful, not because you're locked in.
Bring us your messiest Tuesday
Tell us how a quote actually happens in your business today. We'll tell you what a system cut to your measure would look like — and whether you need one at all.