3PL software for startups: the first 90 days

A new 3PL has a building, a few pallet racks, maybe a signed client, and a decision to make about software. The first 90 days go better when you break them into stages with one clear job each.

This is a planning frame, not a stopwatch. Your own pace will differ, and so will any product you try. Treat the weeks as a sequence, and move on when the exit test for a stage passes, not when the calendar says so.

The example used here

A hypothetical new 3PL, call it a pick-and-pack operation, has one building and one signed client who sells household goods online. A second client is in talks. There are four people on the floor and one person in the office who also handles invoices.

Stage 1: Before any stock arrives (weeks 1 and 2)

Job: decide what the system must do on day one, and set it up with test data.

Write down in one page:

Which clients you have and what they sell.
How orders will arrive: file, store connection, or keyed in.
What you will bill for: storage, receiving, pick, pack, materials, returns.
What the client expects to see: stock, orders, invoices.

Then set up the system with your layout. Name your locations in a way the floor will understand. Add a handful of pretend SKUs and receive them, pick them, ship them.

Exit test: a person who has never seen the system can receive a pretend delivery, pick and pack an order, and find the stock changed.

Stage 2: Setting up the first client (weeks 2 to 4)

Job: get real data in and agree how the work will be done.

Collect from the client:

SKU list with names, sizes, weights and barcodes.
Packing instructions, including inserts and special cartons.
Return handling instructions.
Contact names for questions.
Their rate card as signed, written in terms your system can count.

Enter or import SKUs, then check a sample against the physical items. A wrong weight or barcode now causes a wrong shipment later.

Do a small inbound as a test: ask the client to send a short pallet first, receive it, and check the count against their notice. Fix every difference before the large delivery.

Exit test: the first pallet is received, counts match, locations are recorded, and the client can tell you what stock they should have.

Stage 3: First live orders (weeks 4 to 6)

Job: run real orders under supervision.

For the first few days, have one person check every order before it leaves. Look for:

Wrong items, or missing inserts.
Labels printed for the wrong carrier.
Stock levels that do not match what you can see on the shelf.
Tracking that did not reach the client.

Keep a simple problem list. Each problem gets a cause, a fix, and a date. If the same cause shows up three times, it is a setup issue, not bad luck.

Do a cycle count of a few locations at the end of each week. Small differences caught early are cheap.

Exit test: a week of orders ships with no wrong items, and a count of a few locations matches the system.

Stage 4: The first invoice (weeks 6 to 8)

Job: turn activity into an invoice the client accepts.

Before the period ends, run a dry billing. Take the activity from the system and price it by hand against the rate card. Compare. Anything that is not counted in the system but happened on the floor is a gap.

Hypothetical example: the contract has a relabeling charge, but nobody told the team to record labels applied. The dry run shows a charge you cannot support. You fix the recording before the real invoice rather than after.

On invoice day:

Close the period so the numbers stop moving.
Review the draft against the dry run.
Send with a short summary and the backup detail.
Record the date sent and the date paid.

Exit test: the client reads the invoice without calling you to ask what a line means.

Stage 5: Second client and a review (weeks 8 to 13)

Job: see how the system copes with a second set of rules, and look honestly at what to change.

A second client is the real test. Their rates, their packing instructions, their stock must sit beside the first client's without mixing. Check that you can see each client separately and that one client's staff cannot see the other's data.

At the end of this stage, hold a one hour review with the people who use the system. Ask:

What do you do twice because the system will not do it once?
Where do you keep notes outside the system?
What would you stop doing if you could?
What did a client ask for that we could not do?

Score each answer by how often it happens and how much it costs in time. The top two or three become your list of changes, whether that means a setting, a workaround, an add-on, or a different system down the line.

Exit test: two clients run side by side, invoices go out on a schedule, and you have a ranked change list.

Things that tend to go wrong

Putting real clients on before the pretend run works.
Skipping the dry billing run.
Setting up locations with names only one person understands.
Letting notes live in text messages and notebooks.
Treating the first invoice as an afterthought.
Choosing a system based on a feature you do not need for 90 days.

What not to worry about yet

Advanced slotting, automated wave planning, and detailed analytics. They matter later. At this stage, accuracy and a clean invoice matter more.

Next step

Print the five stage headings and the exit tests. Put a date next to each and a name. If a stage has no owner, it will slip, and the first one to slip is usually the dry billing run.