Frequently Asked Questions

Tribute, Inc. is a leading supplier of ERP software for distributors. Since 1983, we have provided integrated ERP software solutions that powers our customers past their competitors. Our origin was at an industrial distributorship, so we truly understand the unique needs of industrial manufacturers and design our software with input from our customer and vendor partners to address those ever-changing needs. We serve a variety of industries, including fluid power, fluid handling, industrial hose distributors, pump distributors, automation & robotics, engineering, and more.

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software is used to collect, store, manage, and communicate data across all functions of the enterprise to help manage a company’s day-to-day business activities, such as operations, supply chain, commerce, manufacturing, reporting, and more. The integration of information from all areas of an organization into an ERP system means data can be shared across departments in real-time for data integrity with a single source of truth in order to streamline processes and automate common tasks.

Utilizing ERP software for your distribution business can help increase your company’s efficiency, productivity, and profitability. A good ERP system has advanced capabilities that allow for real-time business activity tracking, enhancing the customer experience providing visibility to easily manage inventory, work orders, repairs, vendor performance, and more.

As an industrial distributor, there are a lot of things to consider and many questions to ask when buying ERP software for your business. Perhaps the biggest questions the management team should be asking are: “Is there a true need for change with our business system?” and “Will the new software we invest in be a clear upgrade over our current system?”

Investing in new ERP software isn’t an easy task and changing your system won’t happen overnight. However, upgrading from legacy software to a new ERP system has a lot of potential benefits for your business, such as:

• Enhanced ability to streamline your current operations and improve business processes.
• Strengthened access to better reporting capabilities and data analytics.
• Better management and tracking of system integrations, fabrication, and value-add services.
• Easier integration with today’s advanced applications and tools to stay ahead of the competition.
• Improved profit margins and lower costs.

TrulinX is Tribute’s ERP software solution. It is a proven business management platform tailored for industrial distributors that will streamline processes, cut costs, improve profit margins and most importantly, improve the ability to serve customers. With specialized niche features, supplier integrations, and expert insight, TrulinX is specifically designed for distributors that provide value-added and system integration services across a range of industries from fluid power and motion control to industrial hose and accessories to fluid handling and flow control, and more. TrulinX delivers cost savings across multiple areas, such as order entry, warehouse and assembly labor, scrap material costs, inventory management, manufacturer rebates, and more. TrulinX is available as both hosted and cloud-based ERP solutions.

To be successful, distributors need specific tools to effectively run their business. Having identified these tools, we built them into TrulinX. The features of TrulinX software include:

• Quoting, order entry, and purchase processing
• Counter sales
• Inventory management
• Bin management
• Warehouse management
• Barcoding
• Special Price Agreements (SPA)
• Lot control
• Bill of Materials (BOM)
• Work order management
• Service & repair management
• Full integration with UPS Worldship/FedEx
• Wireless Warehousing 
• Cloud-based sales tax management 
• WarehouseTWO Integration 
• DistraNet 
• Informa (document imaging)
• E-signature capturing
• Business Analytics (BI) 
• B2B, e-commerce and Customer Portal 
• Datto – Business Continuity
• Vendor/Supplier Integration

Tribute provides personalized on-site software implementation and training. We provide our customers with a highly structured and focused implementation strategy. From start to finish, our experts are with you at every step to get you set up and trained so that you can hit the ground running. Once implemented and trained, we provide real-time support, which means that when you call or email, we answer.

Tribute, Inc. uses a highly structured and focused implementation strategy to ensure our customers are setting up their new system to work successfully for their business. Our implementation process consists of 6 main steps:

• Step 1: Analysis of Business Requirements - during the sales process, our sales consultant will conduct a discovery meeting to determine your business objectives and identify areas within your business processes that can be improved with the implementation of new software. We provide an on-site demonstration, tailored to your company, of all the benefits TrulinX has to offer. We take a deep look at your processes and determine where the inefficiencies lie and provide a demonstration of how the TrulinX tools will allow you to achieve industry best practices.
• Step 2: Process Management - your installation coordinator will initiate a series of regularly scheduled phone conferences to review current operations, identify management’s critical business issues, and prepare a project agenda via project management software that will map the steps that need to be accomplished by both parties to achieve the planned go-live date. The project agenda will include tasks to be done in the conversion and implementation process by both your staff and Tribute staff. The project is a team effort and the burden lies on both parties to achieve a timely implementation. A delay in the completion of assigned tasks by the customer will result in the postponement of the originally planned live date. ERP implementation requires a buy-in from the entire staff and assigning a dedicated implementation project leader who serves as the point person on the project is imperative.
• Step 3: Data Migration - your new database is created through a combination of data conversion and data input. A TrulinX software implementation specialist will provide you with guidelines to extract the data from your legacy system and make sure it is clean and correct. Newly converted data and any additional data will be moved into TrulinX Live and Trainer databases so you can perform a thorough review and begin training. TrulinX maintains the trainer database after you go live to enable new employees to train without damaging your operating database.
• Step 4: Software Training - operational training is conducted on-site a few weeks before going live. Training will cover quotes & sales orders, shipping, purchasing and receiving, accounts receivable and accounts payable. The trainer database must be complete before this can be accomplished. This initial training period is to introduce the appropriate staff to the daily tasks they’ll be using in the new application. A point person from each branch should attend to ensure consistency in training across the organization.
• Step 5: Go Live - a TrulinX installation coordinator is on-site for the first week you go live. Having support staff at your company as new software and procedures are implemented ensures proper procedures are followed and the stress of change is kept to a minimum.
• Step 6: Follow-Up Training - optional follow-up training can be scheduled for six to twelve weeks after you have gone live to review procedures and cover any questions. This can be accomplished via phone consulting, webinars, or an on-site visit.

Tribute, Inc. is in the final stages of developing and rolling out our cloud ERP solution. In the interim, we offer a virtual hosting solution which enables your data to sit in the cloud, thus eliminating the need for an on-premise server.

Yes, Tribute, Inc. has support teams on staff that are 100% U.S. based and can be reached by phone or email. Our TrulinX support team typically closes more than 60% of support tickets within 48 hours and 75% of tickets within a week. The TrulinX support team consists of dedicated industry veterans providing insight beyond a platform. Our customers rely on us to help them develop and implement efficient solutions to their most challenging problems. Tribute's real-time ERP support services means that when you call or email, we answer. We solve your business problems and get you quickly back to what you do best—being a distributor. We know you need to talk to software specialists who not only understand how the programs work but know how your business works as well. Tribute's ERP software support includes:

• Flexible support options
• Software tips and articles
• Continued learning opportunities
• TribNet User Group
• Telephone and email support