Trading Partners

The order they raise is the order you receive.

You already trade with the same handful of companies every week. When one of them runs Gydon as well, link the two and their paperwork arrives as records in yours. Their order arrives as your order. Your dispatch note arrives as their expected delivery. Their invoice turns up already checked against what came off the lorry.

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In Gydon this is the Linked companies screen, under Partners.

A trading partner record in Gydon showing every message that has passed between the two companies, with arrows for which way each one went: a bill query, a stock availability update, an invoice awaiting acceptance, a goods receipt confirmation, a dispatch advice, progress updates, an order acknowledgement, an order, a quote and a catalogue. Panels beside it show the link status, when the two were paired, the customer and supplier records it maps to, and a button to send a settlement statement.

Setting it up

One code, passed by hand

One side generates a pairing code and reads it out to the other. That is the whole setup. No broker sits in the middle, there is no mapping project, and nothing is charged by the message.

The two systems then agree what each of them can handle, and the link is open. Every message between them is signed, and the signature covers the moment it was sent, so a message cannot be altered or sent again later by somebody who intercepted it.

Neither company can see into the other. There is no shared database and no common login. You each keep your own records, and a partner sees exactly what you send them and nothing else.

The Linked companies screen in Gydon listing three trading partners: a garden centre that sends work in, a powder coating subcontractor and a sawmill that work is sent to. Each row shows whether the link is active, which way work flows, how it is billed, how many messages are waiting to be accepted and when the last one passed.

A customer, a supplier and a subcontractor, all linked.

Orders

Their order arrives as your order

A customer raising an order in their Gydon puts it straight into yours. Accept it and it becomes a real order, with the products, quantities and dates they entered, and none of the transcription errors that come from keying it in a second time.

Anything that asks you to act, or to part with money, waits for somebody to accept it. Everything else is applied on arrival. An acknowledgement, a progress update or a dispatch note is news about an order you already placed, and making somebody click accept on each one would bury the handful that genuinely need a decision.

Refuse one and the reason goes back with it, so nobody is left waiting on an answer that is not coming. Every acceptance records who agreed to what, and when.

The partner inbox in Gydon: five messages waiting to be accepted, showing which company each came from, whether it is an order, an order amendment, an invoice or a settlement statement, and when it arrived.

Five messages needing a decision. The rest were applied on arrival.

Money

Their invoice, already checked

A supplier's invoice arrives as a record, not an email to forward on. Gydon already knows the price you agreed on the order and the quantity your yard booked in, so it compares the three the moment the invoice lands.

It checks against what arrived, not what was ordered. Being billed for goods still on somebody else's lorry is the commonest way money quietly leaves a purchase ledger, and an order line only ever says what you asked for.

Nothing is blocked. Businesses do settle an invoice that is two pence out, and a system that refused would be worked around inside a week. It states plainly what does not agree, and whoever approves it has to have read that first.

A partner invoice in Gydon headed 'Before you pay this'. It has been checked against the purchase order and against what was booked in, and reports two findings: billed for more than has been received, 116 received against 120 billed, and a unit price above the price agreed on the order. Below are the billed lines and totals, then a decision panel that requires the reader to confirm they have read the query before approving it, or to query it with the supplier.

Billed for 120, received 116, and a penny over the agreed price.

Subcontractors

Work you send out and get back

Send a subcontractor frames to coat or parts to machine and none of it has been sold. It is still yours, sitting in somebody else's workshop, and what you have out with them is a question with real money behind it.

Gydon records what went and what has come back, so the answer is on a screen rather than in somebody's head. It puts no value through your accounts on the way out, because whether free-issued goods leave your books is your accountant's call, not ours.

When you both invoice each other, the net position gets away from you fast. Send a statement and it lists the documents rather than a single total, so both sides can see exactly where they differ.

A settlement statement in Gydon sent to a powder coating subcontractor for last month. It lists three documents with dates and amounts: two invoices agreed by both sides and one credit note the other end does not hold, with the outstanding total and the reason the statement is under query.

Two invoices both sides agree on, and one credit note they do not hold.

Messages

What is in this part of Gydon

Both sides agree what they can handle when they link up, so nothing is ever sent to a partner who cannot read it.

Prices: Ask a supplier for a price and their quote comes back as a record you can turn straight into a purchase order.
Catalogues: They publish what they sell and what is on the shelf, so you order from real prices and real availability.
Orders: Orders, acknowledgements, changes and cancellations, with progress updates as the work moves.
Deliveries: A dispatch note before it arrives, proof of delivery when it lands, and confirmation back of what you booked in.
Returns: Ask for a return and it reaches the other end as a request somebody has to answer.
Invoices: Invoices and credit notes, checked on arrival, with queries going back down the same link instead of into a phone call.
Free issue: Material sent to a subcontractor without being sold, and booked back in when it returns.
Statements: A statement of the position between you, document by document, so both sides can agree the figure.
If they are not on Gydon: Nothing changes. Send them a purchase order as a PDF, import their price list, or use the API. This is what becomes possible when you both happen to be on it.
When their end is down: The message waits in your outbox and is retried, and the failure is on screen rather than silent. Nobody has to remember to check.

Bring the company you trade with most

On the demo we will link two Gydons in front of you, raise an order on one and watch it land on the other. It takes about a minute.

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